Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

12 reviews

_nem_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I found this book very odd. There were certain moments that had me saying "WHAT??" out loud. It all tied together so nicely. I wouldn't say it had a happy ending but it was hopeful especially right at the end. 

It definitely reminded me of Narnia when talking about Filory especially with the books but then discovering a dark side. There were lots of very odd scenes but overall it had me hooked. I would say there are a lot of points where the plot does seem to grind to a halt and it seems like the book could end there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Blood

medini_l's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Animal cruelty, and Alcohol

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Sexism, Bullying, Cursing, and Violence

zohannah's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Drug use, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Alcoholism, and Violence

haleyrayreads's review against another edition

dark lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.5

The concept of this book is great, the characters are okay, but the plot drags a bit. I appreciate not being dragged through separate books for each year of school but the transition between years could be abrupt and unclear at times. 

The story is mainly driven by character who are pretty one note and their motivations are questionable at best. Their main quest is motivated by ‘well we aren’t doing anything else right now.’ and it takes forever to get to that point. This first 2/3 if this book was so slow. However, once they’re off on their quest the story moves at a more brisk pace that’s refreshing until the main antagonist is taken care of. After that it goes on several chapters too long. It felt like every time a chapter ended I thought that was the end, then there was even more story that served no purpose than to allow readers to wallow in our narrator’s sorrow. This could have been cut in half or more and gotten the same point across. 

The concept is great and it’s a fun story with some adjustments, but the pacing, character development, and casual use of ableist and fatphobic language would make me hesitate to read this particular book again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, Blood, and Cursing

Moderate: Ableism, Gore, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Fatphobia, and Mental illness

Minor: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Infidelity, Body shaming, and Sexual content

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

glowbruise's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

books for people who check the back of old wardrobes for Narnia 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, and Body shaming

multiple uses of the r word, fatphovia directed at a specific character, women often described by their attractiveness/ particular mention of their chest

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

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

Minor: Ableism and Sexism

giulianac27's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Violence, Murder, Blood, Alcohol, Medical trauma, and Cursing

starsnotshadows's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-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

3.75

I think the author is a great writer, but some of the character's choices were frustrating and didn't make sense at times.

I watched the television series before reading the book, and that was an unfortunate mistake. I think both pieces of media are rather entertaining, but they are quite different. So I was kind of fighting my preconceived notions of this story for a bit there, but once I thought of them as separate tellings of a similar story, it got better for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gore, and Infidelity

suzanlemont's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

3.25

I enjoyed the first 2/3 more than the last third. It starts off as a charming mix of Harry Potter and Narnia fan fiction with a distinctive adult edge missing from those books. But it descends in the end into a bit of a clumsy and less-inspired moral-less Narnia rip off towards the end which made me struggle through the last 150 pages or so. It had some really beautiful and interesting nuggets of great writing and if not totally original then at least curiosity-arousing and entertaining plot devices but the character development was wildly uneven/incomplete and I had a sense the author was floundering around at various times. I couldn't make an emotional attachment to any of the characters in the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol and Death

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, and Violence