Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

58 reviews

pastelkerstin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Grief, Blood, and Violence

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

conversion therapy

indeedithappens's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Classism, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

belle2008's review against another edition

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, and Outing

Moderate: War and Violence

ninahuynh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

Such a nostalgic book. Growing up, I had watched and heard renditions of  Tấm Cám . This is definitely a different version from what I have heard and watched before in my childhood, but has that same element of gore in the end that Disney would not approve of. I found it warm how Helen changed the ending of The Little Mermaid to segue into showing Tiến how she supports and loves him. I love the áo dài  in Tấm Cám. Represent!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Animal death

Minor: Religious bigotry

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

panic_at_the_bookshelf's review against another edition

emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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 and Murder

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.

Spoiler

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)

abookwormspov's review against another edition

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.

Spoiler

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.