Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

3 reviews

jadonmorgs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Let me start this review by saying that I love and adore the Broadway musical. This book is nothing like the Broadway musical but I'm not opposed to it being more grim and less light hearted. I actually prefer the much more darker themes that's in this book, but I feel like the book did not really deliver on the character of Elphaba she just did not feel fleshed out enough. I couldn't really immerse myself in the story and it's characters even though I really wanted to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Racism, Self harm, Hate crime, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Rape, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

itry's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

0.25

Tw: murder, debauchery, sex, cheating, political intrigue, slavery, torture, pedophelia, rape. The last two being extremely prominent and occuring more than once??? Because why not i guess????
Also general depressing tone cus its a tragedy through and through

Toto i don't think we're in kansas anymore

So..... i read the book because i liked thw musical and was like hey ill like this
Welll
I didnt dislike it but i have no idea how the musical became so different from this
As a book it was interesting but the pacing felt a bit off and the time skips werent handled the best
Otherwise as a guilty pleasure, it was enjoyable
Im not gonna read the sequels though because this was depressing holy moly

Read through audiobook

Update: literally had through dissociation forgotten my dislike for the book and the,,,,,,,, y'all know what parts bothered me if y'all have read it and if y'all haven't read it, don't. Disgusting. Worse than attack on titan the mangas one horrifying scene that i try to actively block out of my head but that memory stays lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Sexism, Mental illness, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Racism, War, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Medical content, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Hate crime, Gore, Gaslighting, Genocide, Classism, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, Bullying, Animal death, Chronic illness, Child abuse, and Body shaming

Minor: Deportation and Slavery

oliviamnsnll's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

3.5

I used to really like this book, and have enjoyed the musical based on it a number of times. Unfortunately during our last read though, my wife and I realised that Maguire hates women. There is not a single woman in this story who is described in remotely sympathetic terms, and the second you get to the area of "Oz" where the African inspired peoples live, it's just full of racism. I recognise that talking animals are a thing in this world, but maybe he didn't have to make the Princess of one of the Tribes in the Vinkus a literal fat elephant. 

I used to like Elphaba, Glinda, Nessarose, and even Morrible, but now I can't help but wonder if this book didn't become "popular" in part due to the unique kind of misogyny prevalent among cis gay men.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Stalking, Toxic relationship, Racism, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia

Minor: Kidnapping, Transphobia, and Sexual assault