Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

15 reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

lifeonasofa's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring tense slow-paced

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

4.5

The Magic Fish 🐟 Review

Real life isn’t a fairy tale. In fairy tales, the prince falls in love with the princess. But Tien had a different story to tell. His parents are refugees struggling to learn English, and he doesn’t know how to come out to them in Vietnamese. If he doesn’t even have the right words, how can he ever known if his parents will accept him? 💕

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.5 Stars 

STUNNING STORY! I was mesmerised by the way fairy tales were used in this book to move the story forward. The illustrations were SO beautiful and colours used, so simple and clever! With language being a barrier for Tien, this graphic novel captured the story perfectly. 🎨

The relationships were everything in this story. Tien and his mother, his parents, his friendships and his family across the pond. They were so heartwarmingly powerful and necessary when both Tien and his mother felt lost in this world. 🥰

Heads up, this is a really emotional read, check triggers. Some of the illustrations during fairy tale retellings are a little gory. But the representation in this book *chefs kiss* I can hear all the queer hearts singing around the world. 🌈

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Animal cruelty, Violence, Homophobia, Murder, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Outing, and Suicide

temporarilyhuman's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Outing, Child death, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, and Grief