Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

16 reviews

annatan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Police brutality, Violence, Rape, Murder, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Grief, Bullying, Colonisation, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective slow-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

4.5

Finally a book about the Vietnam War by a Vietnamese person. Took a while to finish this. Wanted to savor it but also, it was a lot to digest. Strongly recommend reading the op-ed and Q&A at the end too. Gives me a much greater in depth insight into the book by setting it from the author’s perspective.

PS, have a dictionary handy. There were a LOT of SAT words!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, War, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Religious bigotry

badmom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Confinement, Rape, Sexual assault, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Murder, Torture, War, Colonisation, Classism, and Racism

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Excrement, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

anarmandameg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Just gonna recycle my review from The Hanging City and say 'Weirdly Horny'

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Drug use, Murder, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Blood, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexism, Trafficking, Gore, Genocide, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Rape, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Infidelity, Racism, Religious bigotry, Torture, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Deportation, Drug abuse, Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and War

Moderate: Blood, Classism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Fatphobia, and Domestic abuse

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, War, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Abandonment, Blood, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Child death, Cursing, Grief, Rape, Violence, Gore, and Murder

kellylover86's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book was engaging. A look at the Vietnam War from the perspective of a Vietnamese soldier, a double agent working for the communists and informing on the South Vietnamese soldiers. Lots happened in this book, and it was interestingly written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Rape, Sexual content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Police brutality, Murder, Death, War, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Violence, and Colonisation

scrapeen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual violence, Rape, War, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia

randomman0880's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.5

This book occupies a very interesting part of literature in that it's an expectionally written book that handles Asian American identity and it's complexities well, exploring the historical and political contexts of the demographic without lecturing. However, occupying a niche that seemingly confronts Invisible Man and Miss Saigon, the book wields its own form of casual misogyny and unwieldy narrative that builds the main characters personality but seems unnecessarily excessive at times. The book sometimes uses its own brand of cruelty to demonstrate tragedy in contrast to the epic senseless violence that other Vietnam War stories often embrace, and I wish that this was less impactful on the story. The general treatment of several other side characters in the interest of atmospheric setting are in my opinion somewhat excessive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Grief, War, Murder, Sexual assault, and Torture

Moderate: Racism, Misogyny, and Racial slurs

deals heavily with post traumatic stress and trauma generally

veronicats's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Gore, Racism, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, War, Sexual content, Slavery, Misogyny, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Torture

welkinvault's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

This  dark, challenging Pulitzer prize winning novel explores the Vietnam war and the war's many legacies (public and personal) from the point of view of a unamed Vietnamese spy  as he writes his confession (to whom and for why is not clear until the last few very dark chapters).  The protagonist (as expected with a character experiencing the duality of being a spy, an unreliable narrator) is forever the outsider, the illegimate child of a French Catholic priest and young teen housekeeper, sent to the US (where he gets a university education and proves his prodigious intellect) and on his return becomes an aide to a General with ties to the CIA while being a mole for the communists.  

This is a sprawling book.  The fall of Saigon and the frantic wait for a plane to leave the country could have been a book on its own.  Or the gently paced section in the 80s and 90s settling into immigrant life in California with its fascinating asides into how even Vietnamese food is not quite right with Chinese ingredients, or the blinkered racism from a university professor, let alone the movie shoot section (both incredible and WTF part of the book), that could also be another novel or two.  The last section, where The Captain goes back with his closest friend (one of the few named men in the book) to help the communists and then subsequent capture and torture them - is just difficult, dark and heartbreaking.  It took me a considerable amount of time to finish the last few chapters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Bullying