Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

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

13 reviews

poetry_birb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.25

It was so much weirder than the musical. I picked this up thinking it was going to be your standard villain origin story and instead I get Wizard of Oz smutty fanfiction. I suppose I should’ve expected that- but still- for this to have been turned into such a popular and well known musical blows my mind with how raunchy the source material is. It was a fine book but… would not read it again. I liked the racial allegory through the Animals and Elpheba’s defiance and perseverance, but man some of that stuff at the beginning was not needed at all. Definitely don’t recommend if you’re under 15. It was kind of wild.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

honeybeewitched87's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring tense 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

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Rape

hedyharper's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mandi_lea's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

booknerd_therapist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Sexual content, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Cursing and Fatphobia

dezzella's review

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: Ableism, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Sexism

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

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.

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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

wishbea'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, Death, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

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

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

mikilah's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.0

I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time and I regret it. It was perverse and strange. Long and grueling. I enjoyed a few sections but so much more just felt like I was grinding it out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Pregnancy

summerb's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, Grief, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail