Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Magicians

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

27 reviews

laurenleigh's review against another edition

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

2.5

Ugh I didn’t enjoy this. I love me a magical school trope, but this was missing all the fun. The story zips through 5 whole years of school in just the first of four parts. And yet the pacing felt slow? It seemed like three separate novels that were pared way down and smashed together. The last part finally got magical and interesting, but I was over this novel as a whole by then. I almost never DNF, but I almost did a few times with this one. Mainly because of sooo many sexist, ableist, and fatphobic microaggressions. It often felt like a Harry Potter/Narnia rip off, from the perspective of a whiny, horny, privileged white guy.

Content Warnings

nataliii's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

(third read👉🏼) This has weirdly become a comfort book for me? 🤷🏻‍♀️😆 It sure has its moments and removed from my initial expectations was a more successful read for me. 3.5⭐️ rounded down for the still-obnoxious and not cute sexism.

- - - - - - - - -

(first read 👇🏼)
I'd give this a 2.75 if possible .. This book was so insanely difficult for me to stay interested in, and I love "these" types of books. The only character I found myself caring about at all was Alice, and only the last 100 pages or so really seemed worth reading. That being said, I'll probably still read the next one once it goes on sale in the Kindle store. /shrug

Content Warnings

lauralintunen's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

katreadswaytoomuch's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I was really excited to read this because I love the SyFy series, but I was sadly disappointed.

This book is full of misogyny, racism, and ableism. AND IT WAS PUBLISHED IN 2009. It suffers horribly from man-writes-woman.

I also found the MC more unlikeable than he was in the SyFy series. I can’t figure out if that was by design and genius or if it was how the author thinks and distasteful.

I’m so glad SyFy got a hold of this. They really improved the story overall. Don’t bother with the book. Just watch the show.

I still gave it 50/100 because I do like the concept. The characters are meant to be flawed; I love that, but I couldn’t stand the descriptions of female, POC, and plus-sized characters. The plot was really all over the place too.

Content Warnings

auteaandtales's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

Content Warnings

archaicgambit's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging sad slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

IF YOU LOVE THE SYFY SERIES AND ARE DISAPPOINTED IN HOW IT ENDED, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT read this book.

-Quentin is a huge misogynist in book 1. His character is completely straight. His relationship with Eliot is a friendship that’s kind of homoerotic If u squint, rather than a full blown relationship where they raised a son together. He continually bullies Penny for exhibiting autistic traits. His behavior improves slightly in book 2, where the exploration of his depression is also written better, but the character is still not the kind-but struggling person Show fans loved & mourned.

-everyone is white, whereas the show is racially diverse. Kady, Marina, and other fan-favourite female characters essentially do not exist.

-Janet (Margo) gets maybe 5 seconds of screen time where she seduces Q, and Alice belittles her friendship with Eliot, claiming she must want him sexually for them to be that close.

-Alice is the only decently written female character in book one. But the bar is on the floor.

She turns into a dragon during the fight with the beast though,

so that's fun.

That said, there IS still some good prose and trolling of JKR. There are a lot of moments where I felt like lev was enjoying how he structured it as a writer even though I didn't enjoy it as a reader, I could like, sort of respect it?

Also the commentary on Narnia that forms the basis for the show is pretty solid. The base elements of what makes the show great are there, they just seriously needed to be fixed (and they were for the most part!)

The new The Magicians comics are being written by a trans woman, so I'm glad it seemed like Lev's learned to respect women since then.

Content Warnings

azebrareads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

More...