Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Magicians

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

27 reviews

emoryjoy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

2.0

This never happens... The show is better. That may be in large part due to the fact that in the show, you don't get Quentin's inner monologue. If this is what the average man's thoughts are like, then you can have me down as a certified man hater. He is a very sad man who needs more therapy than he would ever be willing to pursue.

I've listened to this book twice now, (it's my cousin's favorite and I really tried to like it-) and I hated it both times. I will say this though, this book accidentally kicked me out of my reading slump. It was so awful that I needed a pallet cleanser and so I checked out all of my favorite childhood series and then was able to start reading all of these other things that had been on my list. I'm updating this review about 2 years later and I have not slowed down my reading since then. So it gets an extra star for that.

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alaris's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

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

1.0

I think few people would turn down a chance to check out a favorite fictional place, even with a strong chance that it'd turn out to be wildly different than you'd imagined. But the sexist, racist and ableist streams running through this make it super tedious to read.

There are interesting moments in this, until they're done with school. The characters are just so unlikable and spoiled and immature. I understand they're all early 20s when they go to Not-Narnia and most people are making very stupid choices then, and a lot of "well how do I actually live as an adult?" missteps are understandable. But every main character seems set up to be as unlikable and un-interesting as possible - which is actually difficult to achieve. Quentin's misogynistic, everyone's arrogant and bored, it was just impossible to care about any of them after they finished with the school. (And they weren't interesting before they finished.)

The writing quality seemed super inconsistent. I'm glad the author apparently got help for his own depression after writing this, but it would be hard to find a book that makes obvious depression in characters less sympathetic than this does - which is sad, as a reader struggling with that. I'd suggest avoiding this entirely, if you also struggle.

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chibisparx's review

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I didn’t finish because I got tired of reading about the main character thinking about groping the blonde, blue-eyed women he encounters in the book. I understand he’s a late teen/early 20-something, but how many times do I have to read the same thing? It icked me out enough that I’m done.

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cadefritz's review

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adventurous slow-paced

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

1.0

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niff_the_nerd's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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danni_spanni's review

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

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tbd24's review

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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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arwenstelter's review

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adventurous medium-paced

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

2.0

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trekkifulshay's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.0

So much stuff lifted directly from Narnia. What wasn't isn't that great. I forced myself to read this. Worst book I've read this year.

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arrr's review against another edition

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Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Lots of anti Indigenous racism throughout this book. Toxic masculinity. Empty female characters written to support the lead men. It's a fine fantasy adventure story, and there's a bit of lgbt, but the colonialism runs rampant.

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