Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Magic Fish. Le storie del pesce magico by Trung Le Nguyen

103 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

frantic_vampire's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

This was a lovely, heartwarming read. The mix of fairytales and immigrant family life and coming out in a time when it wasn’t always excepted, were so brilliantly swirled together. The visuals were stunning and the story flowed so beautifully from one fairytale to another. It was so cool to see all of these stories that are so familiar to me through a different lens and different cultural interpretations. I loved this so much and it’s getting five stars from me!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Animal death, and Cannibalism

sunflowerwork's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Outing, Blood, and Grief

tinyjude's review against another edition

dark emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

A really beautiful book that focuses on the relationship between a mother and her son, language barriers, feeling isolated and not truly belonging to one place due to forceful migration and colonisation; and how they are able to understand and support each other through fairy tails such as Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. It was beautiful and fascinating to see the different depictions of the same tale depending on the cultural context. The colour palette was used with such creativity, helping the reader identify the past (yellow), the present (red) and the stories within the main story (blue) with complexity and beautiful details. I found myself instantly attached to the characters and the story. It was beautifully crafted and it couldn't come to me in a most precious and sad time to help me too.

The tale she narrates to her child at the end couldn't have been better. I was sobbing and wrecked. So touching.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Homophobia, Outing, Animal death, and Child death

Moderate: Grief, Genocide, Colonisation, Xenophobia, and War

Minor: Blood and Gore

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

alyxinthestars'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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Homophobia, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Hate crime

ktdakotareads's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Bullying, Homophobia, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Outing, and Grief

thenovelmaura'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? It's complicated

5.0

This book has my whole heart! The story of a Vietnamese boy struggling to come out to this family while being beautifully intertwined with relevant fairy tales is 100% my cup of tea. And the gorgeous illustrations take this book to a whole new level, with its detailed line art and use of color. Yellow =  Tiến's parents' life in Vietnam, pink = Tiến in the present day, blue = a fairy tale being told by someone in the present day. Yes, the ending made me cry (which almost distracted me from the thoughtful author's note). If you're only going to read one graphic novel this year, pick this one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Homophobia

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Blood

Minor: Cannibalism

ritaconstantino's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia

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