Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

17 reviews

tinkeringcheck's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

Beautiful and surprisingly layered intergenerational story woven between fairy tales and a real family, but I personally should've minded the content warnings. All of the fairy tales have a more Grimm than Disney edge (and the author's note in the end about their influences was fascinating), but one in particular went pretty dark with animal death, cannibalism, abuse, and murder. Still, the art and story are gorgeously done even if it didn't end up being for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Animal death, Homophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Outing, Violence, Death of parent, and Religious bigotry

Minor: War

hickorynut's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This was an exquisitely illustrated story of a modern family telling stories that combined elements of Vietnamese folklore with the stories of Cinderella and the Little Mermaid. Tien's mother Helen is a Vietnamese immigrant who uses reading out loud to help her converse with her son growing up in America with English as his primary language. The stories of both Cinderella and the Little Mermaid reflect the journeys of each modern family member and the family's immigration story.

The mythological elements were stunning and had a twisted darkness to them. At times I did wish there was a little more depth and emotional processing by all the characters, modern and mythological. But overall the stories were beautifully woven and a lovely read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

sapphic_alpaca's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Violence, Child death, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Outing, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent

rafacolog's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Blood, Gore, Animal cruelty, War, Homophobia, Grief, and Murder

mbrogs2024's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

shelvesofivy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

Don't mind me, just literally crying over everything about this book 🥺
The art had me from page 1, and if possible, it just got even more beautiful. I loved the use of color to help move between the fairytale, the modern, and the flashbacks. And of course, the overarching story has me crying, but it's in a cathartic way ♡
I can't recommend this enough, regardless of what you usually read ♡ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Hate crime, Cannibalism, and Child abuse

rickireadss's review against another edition

4.0

this was a cute little graphic novel! i will say the narrative was a little difficult to follow at first because i wasn’t sure who was speaking nor where it was going, but overall i enjoyed it. 

⚠️: homophobia, grief, death, death of parent, religious bigotry, blood, cannibalism, animal cruelty

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Homophobia

Moderate: Cannibalism, Blood, Violence, Death, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

abookwormspov's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Blood, Cancer, Homophobia, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Outing, Physical abuse, Bullying, Medical content, Body horror, Gaslighting, Grief, Chronic illness, Murder, Death of parent, Colonisation, Death, and Terminal illness

tilo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Beautiful story - both visuals and narrative. I loved the way the fairy tales were woven into the story and I appreciated the afterword of the author explaining the choices made to the tales.
I found it fascinating how the story dealt with the issue of coming out. It was underlining the story and certainly was a driving force, but it showed a refreshing complexity around it. Although the author says that "language" was intended to be the focus, I felt there were many other intriguing and arguably more present key aspects such as grief that I was compelled to see play out in this heart-warming story.
The story of the mother was not "overshadowed" by the coming-out story of the son but had enough spotlight to show how guilt, diaspora, and feelings of displacement all make up an intriguing story of migration. I valued that a lot in this story as it gave a clear perspective on the parent's end without needing the (in my opiniom) overplayed and somewhat problematic trope of the parent who "just needs time" to figure out how to deal with the news of having a gay child. The mother's story, therefore, was captivating and to me, is the best part of the narrative.

The ending was perfect, showing a simple yet powerful way of showing acceptance to your kid despite having a lack of words or means to verbalize it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Domestic abuse

Due to the nature of fairy tales, this book has a bit of gore and some images could potentially be a bit too graphic for younger readers.

lunarxcross's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, Blood, Cannibalism, and Death of parent