Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

184 reviews

thatsssorachael's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs

Moderate: Rape and Death of parent

Minor: Miscarriage and Child death

sofireads8's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Suicide, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Infertility, Abortion, and Miscarriage

sunflowerwork's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Abandonment, War, Alcohol, Suicide, Child death, Colonisation, Racism, Abortion, Death of parent, Sexual content, Sexism, Hate crime, Grief, Miscarriage, Car accident, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Classism, Death, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, and Addiction

nostalgicbaby's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Suicide, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

Minor: Addiction and Miscarriage

applesodaperson's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.75

This book was unimaginably amazing. It is just such an epic and large scale and compelling book. It just shows how far the medium of literature can truly go. This is like 4 books all in one, which shows how talented this author is.
My favorite thing about this book was how every character felt so distinct and individual. This is impressive because there are so many characters. But they all have their own struggles and personalities. And I pretty much never had a hard time remembering who was who. In fact, this book was so fun to read because the writing style was so well done that the words just went straight into my head and I could see the events happening like a movie. And this aided in me becoming so incredibly attached to the characters. Like I was so invested and was so heartbroken when bad things happened to them. Of course Sunja was my favorite and she was really the biggest main character. I loved her so much and loved how hard working she was. I also think that her complicated relationship with Hansu was very complex and compelling. Her sense of pride and her need for help and money were always in conflict. 
This book was almost perfect, but there was something that I didn't like.

I feel like the reasons behind Noa's suicide were not really explained which made it feel very unexpected and like it came out of nowhere.

But overall this book was amazing and I loved getting to learn more about Asian history and culture. I also feel like I could read this book every year for the rest of my life, and different things and characters and stories and themes would stand out to me every time I read it.
Read from the Provo library.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Child death, Death, Suicide, and War

hyperashley'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: Terminal illness, Miscarriage, War, Suicide, Child death, Racism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, and Sexual assault

lgcpreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Sexism, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Abortion, Child death, Physical abuse, Racism, Bullying, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, and Violence

snipinfool's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense 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

5.0

Pachinko told the story of four generations of a Korean family. The story began in 1910 near Busan, where a family ran a boarding house. Life was very hard as the Japanese had recently annexed Korea. The Japanese moved to Korea to take over the better paying jobs and changing the economy. The teenaged daughter had a relationship with an older man she met while shopping at the market. Sunja soon realized she was pregnant and told the father of her child, Hansu. She found out he was already married and had a wife and children in Japan. He wanted to care for her as his Korean wife, but Sunja did not want to be his mistress and cut off contact. She had shamed her family with the pregnancy and was likely to remain unmarried.. When an ill traveler came to stay at the boarding house, the family met Baek Isak. He was on his way to be a new pastor at a church in Osaka. Sunja and her mother, Yangjin, nursed Isak back to health. Isak was interested in marrying Sunja. He knew of her pregnancy, but he wanted a wife and wanted to give the baby his name. They married before leaving for Japan.

Life in Japan was just as difficult as it was in Korea. Few jobs were open to them as many did not want to hire Koreans. Most of the Koreans lived in the most poorest parts of towns and held the lowest paying jobs. The Yakuza or gangsters offered jobs that paid well and were often taken as a last resort to support a family. Sunja and Isak moved in with Isak's older brother and his wife. They continued to have difficulty making ends meet as both of men's jobs paid little. Sunja came into contact with her child's biological father who had moved back to Japan. He was a powerful man and wanted to be a part of his child's life. Over the years, Hansu moved in and out of the family's life as they struggled to make a life in Japan.

So much of this book was heartbreaking. The author, Min Jin Lee, interviewed many Koreans who lived through this time for her novel. Stories similar to this one were told over and over. The Koreans often felt as though they had no country. They were second class citizens in both Korea and Japan. The women in this story were the strength of the family. The men were the ones who went out of the house to work most of the time, but the women were the ones who were often tasked with making the money stretch and some found a way to add to the family's purse by raising pigs (indoors) or selling food or handmade goods in portable carts in addition to running the household. I loved all of the female characters. While I did not always agree with their choices, I knew they did what they had to do given the culture and the times. This family saga will stay with me for a long time. It was an excellent story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Chronic illness, Classism, Racism, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Sexual content, and War

Minor: Abortion and Miscarriage

juliasharkins's review against another edition

dark inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Suicide, Infidelity, Infertility, Sexual content, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Miscarriage

mikaylaslibrary's review against another edition

3.25

Unfortunately, this just fell flat for me. 

The writing style is gorgeous, and I loved the first part of the novel.  It just went downhill from there. 

I think that there were too many characters and not enough time to finish the novel.  I loved Sunja, Yumi and Isak, but the rest of the characters all felt very similar. 

The story is absorbing, and I did read it quite quickly, but I felt it should've been either longer, or two shorter books.  The beginning and ending were very sweet, and tied the whole story together which I loved. 

I think that this is a really interesting novel, and will definitely be someone's favourite.  However, it just didn't work for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Abortion, Cursing, Violence, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Suicide, Racism, Police brutality, and Classism