Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Beasts of a Little Land

I enjoyed this book but it didn't enthrall me. The historical setting of the Korean Independence Movement was unique and a large part of why I picked up this book, as I really enjoy historical fiction novels from all cultures and time period. The story, with its many side characters, was a little hard to keep track of at times but it still captured my attention through to the end.

The lives of Jade and Jungho were interesting and the friendship they had through the years was a deep bond. This is the Korean concept of inyeon - ties that bind people throughout their lives, with the strongest being husband/wife and parent/child. Although most marriages in this book are purely for the purpose of making children and going with the idea that one has to make a "good" marriage, which may be due to the culture and time period. Some of the parents seemed to love their children at least, but a lot of the romantic relationships in this story are superficial.
I think my favorite character was Luna though, and I wish she got more page time. I would definitely read a book that was just about her life story.

The format and writing style of this story reminds me a little bit of Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

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oh_neens's review

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dark emotional informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

3.75

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rieviolet's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-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

The historical context was the most interesting aspect of the novel for me.
I did not feel particularly connected to the characters and that made it difficult to be really invested in their storylines (even more so their romantic plots). I actually liked the portrayal of some of the side characters (Luna and Lee Myung-bo for example) much more than the two main ones.

The writing style wasn't bad but it never particularly struck me. The constantly switching POV was a bit frustrating, especially because we got a lot of scenes from characters that I did not care one bit about as a narrator and many other more interesting perspectives were barely explored.

Overall, I was never really completely absorbed in the narration. The ending was quite bleak but I guess it is quite realistic in showing how the more opportunistic people are the ones that will get ahead in life and never get their comeuppance.

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tomoonarmy's review

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adventurous dark informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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aformeracceleratedreader's review

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

A historical fiction set on the history of modern day Korea's inception. The characters go through the time of Japanese imperialism, through WW2, through the Korean War, and into the 60s. There were a lot of characters which can be confusing as more characters and their perspectives kept getting added as we moved through time with them. There were also a ton of slow parts and the characters got so frustrating that I kind of stopped caring and wanted to dnf it. I finished but a lot of the characters didn't get the treatment or end I would've preferred. Some I thought deserved better, some deserved worse but that is life especially during times of active war.
I did enjoy the focus on the cruelty of Japanese imperialism because it seems a lot of people "in the west" don't know about it. My own motherland was also a victim of the imperialism and colonization so what was described I had already previous knowledge of.
PLEASE LOOK AT CONTENT WARNINGS as this is a historical fiction based on things that truly did happen. Nothing was in too much graphic detail but there are heavy topics within that you should be aware of.

Content Warnings