Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Court Dancer by Kyung-sook Shin

7 reviews

magnolia_berry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Miscarriage, Murder, Suicide, Death, Abandonment, and Racism

Moderate: Colonisation

rieviolet's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad 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? No

4.0

All in all, I liked this book much more than I thought. I especially liked the discussion on such themes as orientalism, colonisation and cultural appropriation. There were also a lot of characters that really stood out and that I became quite fond of. The ending was quite a lot to take in, I wasn't really expecting anything else (given the time period and the setting), but still it was quite a lot to digest (Victor, you really were a piece of garbage till the end).

I liked the historical segments (I'm always interested in learing more about Korean history) but sometimes they felt a bit too much disconnected, not very well intergrated into the story. But, above all, there were a lot of general comments/reflections just placed in the middle of the narration that stood out a bit too much to me, they kind of disrupted the narrative flow. 

Also, I'd have done without some of the more gruesome details, for example do I really need to know about Korean execution practices?

I quite appreciated the author's note at the end in which she shared the intentions and emotions throughout her writing process. I think that it helped me to contextualize the novel and expand its meaning and scope. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Colonisation, Murder, Violence, Grief, Suicide, Cultural appropriation, War, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Torture, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Genocide, and Sexism

Minor: Cannibalism, Ableism, Death of parent, Vomit, Infertility, Infidelity, Child death, Miscarriage, and Suicide attempt

kcelena's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Racism, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, War, and Religious bigotry

lenaricharz's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Suicide

Moderate: Colonisation, Xenophobia, Violence, Racism, and Miscarriage

kaneebli's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Sexual content and Cultural appropriation

suula's review

adventurous emotional informative sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Suicide

Minor: Miscarriage and Racism

internationalreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Murder, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, and Xenophobia