Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

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

6 reviews

lateromantic's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

2.5

This book is absolutely not what I was expecting. I don't know the show, only some of the songs from it, and I was not expecting it to be about racism and sedition. I am guessing they will have to change a LOT for the film, but that the undercurrent of racism will still be there... potentially more awkwardly if looking at the cast list is anything to go by (in a world where dwarfs are fully realised characters, you cast a dwarf as... an Animal? not the sexually appealing munchkin?? I get that Peter Dinklage is too old for that part but, like, he is not the only dwarf in the world...) For a 90s book that specifically references the UK as inspiration to give a sympathetic voice to an explicit terrorist freedom fighter is bold, and there's a pretty clear reference to AIDS in one character too, which was pretty brave. I'm assuming the musical questions morality significantly less, and focusses a lot less on worldbuilding.

I feel ill-placed to rate this book, as I don't tend to read this sort of fantasy with invented names and mapped-out worlds, but what I can say is that I was interested in the characters but not the situations they found themselves in - Maguire has created mature people and then made the relationships between them shallow and unbelievable. There is also far too much emphasis on children and the value of conception for my liking. Idk, a strange book, lovely philosophical moments and some fantastic quotes, but much too long and filled with odd choices that perhaps date back to the original LFB texts... and then at the end it just rattles along too quickly, with Elphaba turning mad in, like, 2 pages. I honestly don't know if I'd recommend it or not, and I don't know if I enjoyed it or not. Is one of the other books about Nessarose? I'm curious about how Maguire concieves her.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Hate crime, Racism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Colonisation

jadonmorgs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.0

Let me start this review by saying that I love and adore the Broadway musical. This book is nothing like the Broadway musical but I'm not opposed to it being more grim and less light hearted. I actually prefer the much more darker themes that's in this book, but I feel like the book did not really deliver on the character of Elphaba she just did not feel fleshed out enough. I couldn't really immerse myself in the story and it's characters even though I really wanted to.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and War

purplehulk713's review against another edition

I got bored. The musical is just better—much more entertaining and engaging, and not nearly as dense. There are just so many details that seem unnecessary like everyone’s perspectives that make the book feel eternal (why do we need know Boq’s perspective?). Maybe if Maguire had chosen to tell it from one perspective like the musical does, it would have just been easier to understand and enjoyable to read. I felt like it’s something I needed to read because I like the musical and thought I should read the source material. I just thought it would be interesting to see how they differed, but then I realized I can look that up and spend much less time on Maguire’s dense prose.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape

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

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

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 against another edition

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

---

Content Warnings

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

Minor: Slavery and Deportation

shaunaxx's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.0

The beginning and start of the middle was the most dry and boring thing I’ve ever read the only redeeming thing about it is the later middle. The ending was rushed and character development was all over the place. 
None of this is mentioning that it was NOTHING like the musical which is the sole reason I bought it in the first place but I decided to separate the two as different stories all together around 40% of the way through...it would have been a 1 star otherwise...
The writing was very telling not showing and all the questions of religion and morality and of the soul got old within the first 4 pages let alone the other 500....
Overall wouldn’t recommend or at least would recommend WITH THE KNOWLEDGE ITS NOTHING LIKE THE MUSICAL

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, and Religious bigotry

/