Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

20 reviews

mieshka's review

Didn't think this would be my first (quasi)review on this site, but I guess this one disappointment is louder than the many beautiful moments I had with other books.

I DNF'd this many years ago because the main character annoyed me. Then, I watched the TV adaptation and enjoyed it. As part of that experience, I realized that most of my complaints about Quentin were actually intentional character flaws that were the whole point of the story.

So I decided to give it another shot. I went in with the intent to interpret every ick in the narration as belonging to the main character, but so much feels like it's been summarized that it's hard to think of it as anything but a prose problem. The narration is somehow both pretentious and dull, and all the characters feel absolutely flat. 

I was planning to finish this book and just not continue the series, but then I realized I was dreading my regular reading time and decided to call it instead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment

danni_spanni's review

Fatphobia. 
Such a shame. 
Thousands of books I want to read that don't include it so fuck it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Sexism

distractible's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Infidelity, and Violence

Minor: Fatphobia, Mental illness, and Sexual content

tbd24's review

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I rather like this series, this is the second time i’ve read it and there are just really great turns of phrase in the prose. I love world building and this book embraces that times three, the magic system is cool and complicated and the characters are never just good people. Quentin is shitty and obnoxious but like what 17 yr old “gifted kid” isn’t? There’s a few questionable moments, the author loves to make women suffer viscerally a little too much in my opinion, but at least he still remembers to make them people. Overall, it’s a good read and an interesting series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Excrement, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Injury/Injury detail

writererinm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Minor: Ableism and Fatphobia

pbeeandj's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia and Grief

Minor: Ableism

meg_thebrave's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Parts of this book are strange, parts are not fun, but overall? I had a great time listening to this first installment. The audiobook is really good; the narrator is sarcastic and doesn’t take much too seriously, which fits the tone. Quentin is kind of insufferable, but I ended up rooting for him and especially his friends. I’m excited to read the next one; I think it’ll be stronger. I really enjoyed the pacing of the book, and the different places the story went. I also appreciated the way the author didn’t shy away from gory descriptions and intense emotions when necessary. Overall, it’s a lot of fun.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Death, Fatphobia, and Cannibalism

Minor: Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Sexism

haleyrayreads's review against another edition

dark lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.5

The concept of this book is great, the characters are okay, but the plot drags a bit. I appreciate not being dragged through separate books for each year of school but the transition between years could be abrupt and unclear at times. 

The story is mainly driven by character who are pretty one note and their motivations are questionable at best. Their main quest is motivated by ‘well we aren’t doing anything else right now.’ and it takes forever to get to that point. This first 2/3 if this book was so slow. However, once they’re off on their quest the story moves at a more brisk pace that’s refreshing until the main antagonist is taken care of. After that it goes on several chapters too long. It felt like every time a chapter ended I thought that was the end, then there was even more story that served no purpose than to allow readers to wallow in our narrator’s sorrow. This could have been cut in half or more and gotten the same point across. 

The concept is great and it’s a fun story with some adjustments, but the pacing, character development, and casual use of ableist and fatphobic language would make me hesitate to read this particular book again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Violence

Minor: Body shaming, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Toxic friendship

bitofadisgrace's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Ok this book is definitely a product of its time (frequent use of the "r-word", jokes at the fat character's expense), but I still had fun. I watched and adored the show, which fixed a lot of the issues I have with the books, so I might be overly generous with the rating. 

The book was very long and feels somewhat unfocused in the first 3/4, but imo it ended up being worth it for the plot twist near the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Mental illness

Moderate: Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Grief

Minor: Pedophilia

ambient's review

reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

enjoyable for the most part but definitely slow, the first part reads “slice of life but depressed” with the way nothing happens and just follows studying in Brakebills and discovering magic and such, the action starts off very late in the book, the character development was probably the best part imo in the way sometimes Quentin felt like he was getting worse ? and then he got better and then worse again, not a linear bad-to-good, wished we got more from other characters and not just Q though

the writing’s straightforward and blunt with prose here n there, n there was more than one reference to harry pot which made it feel kinda too try-hard to be “the adult harry potter” (the marketing term itself makes me cringe a little) but it stopped before it became way too much

my worst critique was at times the writing felt stereotypically “man writing women”, had some pretty questionable at best remarks sometimes, but ultimately nice read that moved at a turtle’s pace, the end’s kind of a cliffhanger but will i be picking up the sequel ? ehh

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism and Sexual content

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racism, and Cannibalism