Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

30 reviews

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

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fatphobia, Sexism, Sexual content, and Medical content

Minor: Ableism and Sexism

lauralintunen's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cursing, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug use, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Sexism

bubothereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

2.75

I love the show. So I wanted to love the book, and I did for the first “Book.” I wish books 2-4 were in another novel—the reading just felt so different. I also went from finding a character lovable to insufferable. I only gave it so high a score because I loved Book 1 so much. The rest was gory and didn’t hold my attention as much. The show, dare I say it, was better?
Especially anything Fillorian. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Gore

Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia

TW: he uses the word autistic as an adjective, “like he rocked back and forth autistically,” and the r word a bit, insultingly, so—both very ew. However, it was written in 2009 and he’s apologized for it , plus realized how gross it was. Still want to warn people tho because they are upsetting to read.

manubookland's review

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

I wanted to like this book but it wasn’t for me. I saw the tv serie and I absolutely loved it, so I was sooo excited to read the books (because usually they’re better then the serie or the movie right?), but I found this book too slow for me. The real action it’s just a scene of two pages at almost the end of the book! The Beast, the main villain, appears just two time and that’s it?! What? Where are the battles?! 
I wanted more action and less Q thinking about Alice’s perfect breasts! 
Maybe one day I’ll continue the other two books, but for now I’ll stop to this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Vomit, and Murder

Minor: Grief

katreadswaytoomuch's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Cannibalism

Minor: Pedophilia

Racial slurs, man writes woman

bristynlee's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Mental illness

hanxiety's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

Updated re-read review: 4/5

25 year-old me liked this book much better than 19 year-old me. 

3.5/5

So I definitely have mixed feelings about this book. I was recommended it by a friend who LOVES it, and we like similar things, so I thought, why not? When I finally decided to start reading it, it took me about 3 months to read 150-some pages before I practically DNF'ed. Then last month, I decided to start it over and found it far more engaging. However, this book is still sort of boring. Lev Grossman's way of writing is so depressing and wordy that it takes a while to get into. Even once I got into the book again, it still took me a long time just to read a few pages.

If you're looking for high action fantasy, this is not a book I would recommend. There's a lot of world-building, and while the world is actually really interesting, it kind of gets in the way of plot. The book is also a little disjointed in that probably the first half is devoted to Brakebills and then the rest happens in a couple different locations. The time span of the book is around 6 years which is kind of a lot for one novel.

I also wouldn't go into this book looking for "college Harry Potter mixed with Narnia", which is sort of what my understanding of the book was. It really isn't much like HP at all, except that it also involves a wizarding school, though Brakebills is far more cold and unwelcoming than Hogwarts. Fillory does shared some similarities with Narnia, but it's more nightmarish. Basically The Magicians takes the innocence and happiness of childhood fantasy-lands and makes them grotesque. 

Despite all the complaints above, I actually did enjoy the book. It isn't a favorite by any means, but it was still enjoyable. I would say the last quarter or so of the book is the most interesting, though there were other moments when I was really engaged as well. I think the best part was the characters. They were interesting and well-developed. Quentin is an unlikable, yet likable protagonist, who does things that you will hate but yet somehow make him more relatable and human. More than anything, this is his story. It's more character-driven than plot-driven and I think I was thrown off by that at first. 

So yes, I would recommend this, but know what you're getting into first.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction and Alcoholism

Minor: Pedophilia

azebrareads's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and Grief