Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

60 reviews

rieviolet's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

The book is divided into three parts: the first one I liked well enough, the second one was so-so, the third one, well, I just kept thinking "What is going on here? What the heck am I reading about?".

There were just too many characters, especially given that the book already covers a very long period of time and many generations of a family. I really think that some characters were just unnecessary additions and we could have done without their perspectives, so that more space could be given to the main ones. All the jumping between so many different points of view just made it hard to become invested. 

Moreover, very big and even traumatic events are just briefly explored or worse just mentioned in passing. This character died, this one entered a relationship , and so-and-so did that, well good for them, am I supposed to care? There is no groundwork, how can a reader get attached to these people and their stories when you as an author have given them so little? Well there was time to go on and on about George Elliot's novels but no time to delve into a main character' emotions, I guess. 
I was just not a fan of how the author portrayed the characters, if there isn't a good handling of their depictions then the story just turns into an over-the-top soap opera.  

I found interesting the setting and the overall theme (exploring the lives of Korean people and their descendants living in Japan) but I was not that impressed with the execution itself.

For its length, the book is quite easy to get through, the chapters are not too long, the pace is quite fast and the narrative style is readable enough. Still, the writing style is nothing much to talk about, overall it's a bit too much dry and matter-of-fact for my taste. 

All in all, the premise sounded good but the book was a disappointment for me and the three-star rating is basically only for the first section, the rest I'm wilfully choosing to ignore.         

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Suicide, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Infertility, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Antisemitism, Car accident, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

sarwils's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad fast-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

5.0

Amazing, amazing, amazing. I’m so sad it’s over. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

chaoticnostalgia's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Homophobia, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Abortion, Abandonment, and Deportation

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

scifi_rat's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective 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

4.75

Plot: 4.5 ★
Prose: 4.5 ★
Pace: 4 ★
Concept/Execution: 4.5 ★/5 ★
Characters: 5 ★
Worldbuilding: 5 ★
Ending: 4 ★

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

jessiereads98's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad 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

4.25

This promised a sweeping epic of a multigenerational Korean family living in Japan and it delivered. Min Jin Lee’s writing is simplistic and effective. She’s created complex characters and gets the reader invested in their story.  It’s truly impressive how the author manages such a large cast of characters and managed to flesh them all out into realistic people with differing morals existing in the same setting. This is a historical novel and Min Jin Lee has written it with realism for the time. She is also attempting to tackle themes of beauty and desire. That being said and understood, I didn’t enjoy the way female and disabled characters were described and treated in some ways in this novel. I don’t think it actually grappled with the beauty standards, sexism, and ableism of the time period so much as just said “this is how it was” in an objective way. I did still enjoy the novel overall, there were just some character treatments and descriptions I did not enjoy reading. The pacing of the last approx. 100 pages also came off as disjointed compared to the rest of the book which made it more difficult to be invested in the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Infertility, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Rape, Terminal illness, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Abortion, Murder, Alcohol, and Deportation

jelenwalker's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Miscarriage, Torture, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

daphnewoods's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

This book definitely delves deep into some really tough subjects, but it’s written with such tenderness and grace and wisdom that it didn’t leave me in a place of darkness; but rather expanded my heart even wider. It’s an absolute treasure and should be required reading. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

lauravreads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-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

4.75

Pachinko follows a family through 4 generations. Starting in 1901 with Hoonie and ending in 1989 with Hooneis great grand son Solomon 

Honestly, I feel that this might be my favorite type of novel. I love watching a family through generations. I love how it starts as historical fiction and it kind of works its way to more contemporary fiction. I also enjoy reading about the family dynamic and the relationships within a family and how they evolve through time and age. 

This book was such a good read. I enjoyed it so much. I learned so much about Korea and how the Great Depression and World War II affected so many people and particularly the Koreans, who lived in Japan throughout that time. I loved watching the advocacy for civil rights in Japan as the years continued. Each family member has such a profound and interesting story. I loved how easily the book transitioned from each member, and even though we might focus on one member, we can easily go back to another without deterring from the narration.

What was overall great read was a bit of a slow book and it took me about two weeks to read  Which is okay, but sometimes I wish things kind of picked up a little faster.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

dumaurier's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.5

cried a single dramatic tear when this epic ended. sunja and kyunghee are in my heart forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Sexual content, Police brutality, and Pregnancy

Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Medical content, and Abortion