Reviews

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee

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vickiezw's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

4.5

anatolian_doner's review

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challenging emotional 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

4.0

the theme the book deals with (religion, class, race, identity, generational differences, love) are interesting to me, and I like that it feels like a slice of life. I wondered what happened to Casey afterwards.

annekops1903's review against another edition

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2.0

1.5 stars

madi828's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

emisbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

i could not put this book down. with central themes of ethnicity and culture clashes, religion, family, and love, free food for millionaries is an impeccable read.

having written my favourite book of all time, pachinko, i can always trust min jin lee to write a cracking story. it shares some of the same central themes as pachinko, but ultimately i don't find the two books comparable.

this book taught me lots about modern korean culture, which was very insightful as an outsider looking in. as this is a min jin lee book, there is a whole cast of characters whose lives deeply intertwine. i found all of these characters to be very authentic to the point i could picture them in my head as though they were real and each character was fleshed out and developed despite how many there are. casey is a fantastic protagonist who is incredibly fascinating to read about because she isn't perfect.

this book handles it's subject matters of very well and the ending brings justice to a central plot point of book 3 that will break your heart.

tldr: read if you love big books with lots of interesting characters, gossip, the themes mentioned above, and books centering protagonists who dont have it figured out yet. dont read if you dont like books with lots of characters.

i have no complaints about this book. min jin lee you've done it again.

if you want to know how many recurring characters there are, i counted 22 on the character sheet i kept in the book.