Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

100 reviews

ellornaslibrary's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

I had been looking at this graphic novel for awhile. The cover was always just so captivating it always drew my eye when popping up in recommendations, but I couldn’t get ahold of it at my library. Then I managed to get ahold of it this much just in time for a very important readathon - it is called Asian Readathon and is ran by Cindy (withcindy on YouTube); definitely check it out - and I’m so happy I was reminded of this book in time cause it is so, so good. Even made me cry a bit.

The art is stunning, and the way the stories of the mother and son are told through a mixture of their real world experience combined with the messages of fairytales is brilliant. I especially loved the information given by the author, Trung Le Nguyen, after the acknowledgements on his inspiration for both this important story he was telling as well as the comparison of graphic novels to a hybrid language.

I will give a warning though that as this is also a story about an LGQBTIA+ kid struggling with his identity in the 90s that there is a brief reference to the horrible, tragic murder of Matthew Shephard which was a big topic in the media at that time in regards to hate crimes and definitely relevant to the fears of coming out. There is also in regards to the immigration part of the story as far as mentions of loss of a parent & re-education(there might be some others I missed). I wanted anyone going into this graphic novel to be as informed as possible in case they aren’t able to handle it or need preparation to be able to do so.

Even so, I still think this is a beautiful story worth reading and highly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Outing, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, and Colonisation

I wasn’t sure if there were content warning tags appropriate for the mention of re-education and having to flee your country the way that is depicted. If so, please let me know so I might add them to my review.

nikspandya's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted fast-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

5.0

Truly an absolute masterpiece. The way Trung put together fairy tales and Vietnamese culture and tied those elements to a story about the journeys of a young, gay teen not knowing how to express himself to his grieving mother...and the way she made sure to communicate her love and support to him despite her own limitations...I'm in awe. No actually I'm in tears because by the end of this book I couldn't hold back. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Religious bigotry and Death of parent

wireblight's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

5.0

A really lovely graphic novel revolving around a mother and son's relationship and their connection through fairytales

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Religious bigotry, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Homophobia, and Murder

Minor: Cannibalism

queenharold's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted sad fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: War, Homophobia, Animal death, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

novella42's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Cannibalism

Minor: Religious bigotry

mattyb's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Violence, Murder, and Gore

Minor: Cannibalism and Death of parent

maple_dove's review against another edition

emotional hopeful relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

I have to say--this is one of the most relaxing books I've read in a while (it's YA, no less!). Yet, somehow, it manages to beautifully discuss things like immigration, war (briefly), cultural barriers, homophobia, etc.

The art is beautiful and eye-catching. I loved the character designs too! The ending is fantastic and wraps up the whole book so well.

No matter what, I know I can't do this book justice, so I'm just going to encourage you to read it.

Favorite Quote:

"<My Vietnamese is weakening, every day. I'm changing.
My past and present selves speak two different languages.
It feels like I died on that boat. And I'm still stuck in the middle of the ocean.
Far away from my mother . . .
. . . and far away from my son.
I'm afraid Tiến doesn't think he can tell me things.
I'm sure he can feel it. I know I do.
And I wish it wasn't that way.

Did my mother feel that way? Did she feel like this all those years I was away?>"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Child abuse

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Gore, Homophobia, and War

Minor: Physical abuse, Violence, Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Death, and Grief

Child marriage (Minor)

vagorsol's review against another edition

emotional hopeful fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Child abuse and Cannibalism

eloise__'s review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad

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

4.5

so good cried so much though

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Child abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, War, Racism, Death, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Cannibalism

lidia7's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, War, Hate crime, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, and Outing