Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

14 reviews

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Review of The Magicians

By: Lev Grossman

Quentin Coldwater lives a mundane existence, and his only comfort is his favorite childhood fantasy series, the Fillory books.  During his college interview he finds out that not only is magic real, but there’s a school where you can learn magic.  Living a life as a magician might be more complicated and complex than he realizes and Fillory itself is real.

This is a fantasy series that is definitely for adults with its more mature themes such as depression and using magic as an outlet.  All the students depend on magic and use as a way to cope with their problems.  As a main character Quentin is selfish and is never satisfied. He hopes magic will make him happy, but when things become easy for him, he gets bored. He is a flawed character that has main character syndrome as he thinks the world revolves on his problems.  Each character we meet has issues outside that magical world of Brakebills and magic helps them cope.  Alice doesn’t have the best relationship with her parents and doesn’t feel like you can’t live up to the burden of magic.  She doesn’t want it take over her life.  Eliot is a black sheep in his family and as a gay young man he doesn’t fit in with. Brakebills and magic becomes his solace.  Janet seems like an angry, scared, and girl that plays the bitch to survive.  Josh is someone who has magic he can’t control or understand.  Brakebills treats magic a like a science and academia, and we see Quentin’s progress, but it does allow his opinion of magic to evolve. Grossman explores how magic isn’t as a sugary, fun as we think it is. The first part is like a messier version of Hogwarts and the second part is an edgier Narnia. I like how because there are so many stories about magic schools, Grossman doesn’t spend time focusing individual school but treats it like being in college.   There is a darkness and grittiness to this world that is kind of charming in its way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Alcohol

jennlongb's review against another edition

Imagine a college-aged Harry Potter that doesn’t actually do much magic — or much of anything. There doesn’t seem to be a definable plot, goal, or conflict. Things just happen, and then the story goes on. The main character over or under sexualizes his female peers, and seems to be offended when they don’t fall for him. He even is offended that his gay (or bi) friend didn’t try to sleep with him, even though he himself is not gay, or bi. But really, nothing of note happened in the first 34%. A couple people died, but was it exciting? Were the deaths impactful? No. I probably could have forgiven some of the sexuality and language if the plot was compelling, but I was just too bored to spend more time on it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Violence

jess02448's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Infidelity, and Alcohol

tbd24's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I rather like this series, this is the second time i’ve read it and there are just really great turns of phrase in the prose. I love world building and this book embraces that times three, the magic system is cool and complicated and the characters are never just good people. Quentin is shitty and obnoxious but like what 17 yr old “gifted kid” isn’t? There’s a few questionable moments, the author loves to make women suffer viscerally a little too much in my opinion, but at least he still remembers to make them people. Overall, it’s a good read and an interesting series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Excrement, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Injury/Injury detail

lms33's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Pedophilia

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: Animal cruelty, Blood, and Alcohol

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

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: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Blood, and Alcohol

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

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

doriandelioncourt's review

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

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

lauralintunen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cursing, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug use, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Sexism