Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

8 reviews

dezzella's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.0

I was excited to read this, as I've heard a lot about the musical and the concept seemed cool. Who wouldn't want to follow the wicked witch's life? I wanted to like this book, and was encouraged by the good reviews/what I heard from others over the years. 

That led to me feeling very disappointed, there were a lot of things that you wouldn't expect going in, and a lot of dark stuff (warnings to those who are curious, child marriage, sexual situations mentioned involving children, lots of urination [so often it was weird], consumption of other sentient beings, misogyny/sexism, lots of mentions of cheating/affairs/unfaithful partners, ableism regarding Alfeba's sister).

I also didn't particularly like how it as written, besides many moment where I went 'um what???' the political plot wasn't very interesting to me and this was a struggle for me to finish.  For those curious, the musical is supposed to be better so you may want to do that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Ableism, and Infidelity

Moderate: Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Classism, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Excrement, and Emotional abuse

verinvaldez's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Extremely different to the musical Wicked! the tone of this is much darker with murder and unnecessary sexual content. Far too many time skips, at least 4 major time skips spanning years of Elphaba's life. The plot of the Wizard of Oz makes an appearance, but the portrayal of Dorothy here doesn't quite fit this darker story. I think the Shiz portion is when the book is at its best both character wise and regarding the political, religious and moral themes. Elphaba is a very fascinating main character but she is incredibly unlikeable outside of her passion about her beliefs about Animal rights. 

If you are interested in this book because of the musical be very aware that this is extremely different,  it isn't just darker, Fiyero is a side character, Glinda is a minor character, Boq has a larger role and shares only his crush on Glinda with his musical counterpart and Elphaba is no magical prodigy.

If you want a book that explores the mentality of the Wicked Witch of the West, this is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Murder, Pregnancy, Child death, Police brutality, Sexism, Body shaming, Classism, Grief, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Miscarriage, Racism, Suicide, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

rosalind's review

adventurous lighthearted medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Animal death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Infidelity, Animal death, and Body shaming

georginainvisablestring22's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, Sexism, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

Moderate: Violence, War, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual content, Body shaming, Pregnancy, and Infidelity

molliepop's review against another edition

Plot was too disjointed to justify spending a further 200+ pages on, no real character motives after a really strong first act. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Death of parent, Animal death, and Blood

gayghostprince's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, War, Xenophobia, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Colonisation, Dementia, Drug use, Alcohol, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

I never finished this book when I was younger but I was immediately struck by how vile all the adults in this book are upon rereading it. there are no assault scenes, but people do mention r*pe. the descriptions and implications about specific groups in this people are racist and stereotypical, but not often aggressively malicious. a LOT of the treatment of children in this book is upsetting. content warning for family baggage and child neglect. in addition, late in the book a child is pretty relentlessly bullied by his peers. I added a minor homophobia warning because the way people describe the two obviously gay characters is often homophobic. just coincidentally describing them as simpering or whatever. the equivalent of calling a gay man a fairy, you know? the sex scenes in this book are not detailed or graphic but they are also not well written. take that as you will.

itry's review

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

0.25

Tw: murder, debauchery, sex, cheating, political intrigue, slavery, torture, pedophelia, rape. The last two being extremely prominent and occuring more than once??? Because why not i guess????
Also general depressing tone cus its a tragedy through and through

Toto i don't think we're in kansas anymore

So..... i read the book because i liked thw musical and was like hey ill like this
Welll
I didnt dislike it but i have no idea how the musical became so different from this
As a book it was interesting but the pacing felt a bit off and the time skips werent handled the best
Otherwise as a guilty pleasure, it was enjoyable
Im not gonna read the sequels though because this was depressing holy moly

Read through audiobook

Update: literally had through dissociation forgotten my dislike for the book and the,,,,,,,, y'all know what parts bothered me if y'all have read it and if y'all haven't read it, don't. Disgusting. Worse than attack on titan the mangas one horrifying scene that i try to actively block out of my head but that memory stays lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Sexism, Mental illness, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Racism, War, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Medical content, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Hate crime, Gore, Gaslighting, Genocide, Classism, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, Bullying, Animal death, Chronic illness, Child abuse, and Body shaming

Minor: Deportation and Slavery

jourdanicus's review against another edition

challenging dark funny slow-paced

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

5.0

Unique, with imperfectly likeable characters. The writing style took some time for me to get into, but this book really grew on me, and I'm glad to have read it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, and Xenophobia

Minor: Sexual content