Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

27 reviews

wishbea's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Extremely different to the musical Wicked! the tone of this is much darker with murder and unnecessary sexual content. Far too many time skips, at least 4 major time skips spanning years of Elphaba's life. The plot of the Wizard of Oz makes an appearance, but the portrayal of Dorothy here doesn't quite fit this darker story. I think the Shiz portion is when the book is at its best both character wise and regarding the political, religious and moral themes. Elphaba is a very fascinating main character but she is incredibly unlikeable outside of her passion about her beliefs about Animal rights. 

If you are interested in this book because of the musical be very aware that this is extremely different,  it isn't just darker, Fiyero is a side character, Glinda is a minor character, Boq has a larger role and shares only his crush on Glinda with his musical counterpart and Elphaba is no magical prodigy.

If you want a book that explores the mentality of the Wicked Witch of the West, this is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Murder, Pregnancy, Child death, Police brutality, Sexism, Body shaming, Classism, Grief, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Miscarriage, Racism, Suicide, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

swrrlgrrl's review against another edition

challenging mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Please do not come to this novel expecting the same story as the Broadway musical. This is wildly different, darker, and more complex than the show. (I love the show. Just be prepared for a very different story here, or you will be sorely disappointed.)

heart_strong500's review against another edition

I was 40% though and so much time was being spent on things I didn't care about. I looked at other reviews which I rarely do before or while I'm reading and they all said it's very different from the musical. So even if my favorite parts of the musical would have happened I didn't know with how much detail they were or weren't going to be covered. And then the three-way sexual assult(everyone's under magic or something so I see it as sexual assult) with the tiger (which animals are just another race and I knew that before reading) happened and I was done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Racism, Death, Classism, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Gore, Death of parent, and Blood

lilawsahar's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I can’t say if I liked it or not… it had interesting questions about politics, religion, and general existence. I liked the story enough to keep going but I was always as confused as the narrator. I didn’t get the purpose of the grimoire, why is Yackle after WWW, what is the significance of the wizard being WWW’s father, what’s the purpose of the other world, and why was the time dragon telling WWW’s tale? Was time to repeat itself for the Kubala witch, WWW, then Dorothy? I am so confused. 

I liked the dark humor throughout the book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Colonisation, Classism, Animal death, Murder, and Death

rosalind's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Animal death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Infidelity, Animal death, and Body shaming

mrsmower's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Racism, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Murder, Genocide, Infidelity, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Addiction, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

perryz's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Grief, and Animal death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Police brutality, and Torture

Minor: Rape

summerb's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Classism, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Murder, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, War, Kidnapping, and Medical content

georginainvisablestring22's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, Sexism, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

Moderate: Violence, War, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual content, Body shaming, Pregnancy, and Infidelity

susannaobrien's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Pretty disappointed in this, but I may have been expecting it to be closer to the musical which I love. Fantasy fans may enjoy this more, but I found the meandering plot and many small characters hard to keep track of and quite tedious at times. The commentary on religious fanaticism and the way societal expectations can become self-fulfilling prophecies was interesting, but often overworked and written in dense, and at times impenetrable language. I also found Maguire's writing of Nessarosa's disability incredibly ableist, and sex and female desire pretty dated and unnecessarily vulgar. Glad I read as it satisfies a curiosity but ultimately it dragged for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Child death, and Ableism

Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, and Animal death

Minor: Religious bigotry, Slavery, Grief, and Adult/minor relationship