Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

16 reviews

morgnicole's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Fucked up and depressing. Loved it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Grief

rainylavender's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.25

When reading the Magicians, I thought I would be the target audience of this book as someone who loves fantasy and has depression. A good chunk of my criticism comes from me not being the target audience of this book. You know how at the end of certain kids movies and stories about magic, the kid loses the ability to see/experience magic at the end when they grow up? I've always hated that. I thought that magic is something that adults should get to experience too and you shouldn't grow out of that whimsy and fun. This book is like the adult version of that.

Quentin gets everything he wants and still he can't enjoy it. I get that's what depression is, trust me, I do. But I thought maybe he'd overcome it instead of following that theme the entire book. The book seems to end with him having decided magic is bad, but then in the last second Janet, Eliot, and Julia all show up to whisk him back to Fillory, so what was the point of everything? I'm sure this is just the preamble to a moral told by the other two books, but this book beat the horse so hard I don't have any desire to keep reading. The twists of them being manipulated by the Beast and killing all the good people while working for the bad people felt contrived to me, just done for shock value to really lay in that this is a "dark" and "not like other fantasies" fantasy but I also saw it coming a mile away because of how overdone that trope is. I also get that the point of Alice is that Quentin isn't supposed to realize how good he has it till she gone but I can't stand the way he treats her the entire book and her turning into a niffin at the end just felt like a cheap way to give Quentin character development that should've happened ages ago. And I can't stand Quentin. I can't stand his attitude, his faulty logic, and his sexism. I get that these are all traits to feed the moral and plot but it goes on for so long with very minimal change to the point where I'm just exhausted.

This book left me tired. The worst part is, I expected to love it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and War

Minor: Pedophilia

latsin's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

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

rc_boxnut's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia

arwenstelter's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

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

jmeier's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I would give this book a five if it weren't for the mild to moderate ableism, racism, and overall attitude of white privileged. The characters are all white. The setting is all white. The narrator and protagonist us multiple disability slurs and is deeply judgemental of neurodiverse coded characters. I love the story, but it reads like something from the 80s at points, not 2009.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Biphobia, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

doriandelioncourt's review against another edition

The writing is bad and reminds me of a fan fiction with metaphors that are far too forced. Grossman wins the crown for men-writing-women with his unnecessary sexist and even racist descriptions of the character. The gay character is made fun of for his sexuality and slut-shamed (there are rape jokes made on their behalf). The story drags because of the POV. Quentin is a whiny nice-guy protagonist who feels like an author self-insert. None of the characters are likeable, which wouldn't be a problem if their flaws were a focus of the story. All in all this book is a big cringe fest and I would not recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol