Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

77 reviews

belletex's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

Very grim historical events from a personal pov. Goes from slow to very intense. I wish it had a happier ending because it leaves you feeling sad. Great book on the hole but not something I enjoyed reading or would pick up again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

cloudpine's review against another edition

adventurous informative inspiring sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and War

skyebird16's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Rape and Colonisation

Minor: Animal death and Alcohol

franzicalzelunghe's review against another edition

emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Sexual assault, Grief, Colonisation, and War

epruta's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Violence, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Grief, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism, Suicide, and Alcohol

lady_grey_with_honey's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring 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

5.0

Lisa See does an amazing job of writing about relationships that span a lifetime and what it's like to live through traumatic events that impact someone's life forever. The way she wrote about the haenyeo culture and everything these women lived through from childhood to old age made me feel like I was right there - atmospheric, visceral, and emotional. Incredible story and incredible writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Rape and War

pbuzzard's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Blood, Abortion, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and War

brogan7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative fast-paced

4.0

I loved the beginning of this book.  I didn't understand how brutal the story it had to tell would become, and I can't say I was quite ready for it.
Also, I couldn't quite relate to the perfect friendship/turned so completely to trauma of a level so deep...I couldn't relate to either of them by then, Mi-ja and her seeming instantaneous change of heart, Young-Sook and her complete unwillingness to listen or interact with her, even if she felt betrayed. 

She had to know that Mi-ja didn't cause the massacre, and that no matter Mi-ja's failure to act, it wasn't all her fault.  And on the other side, what friend asks you to choose one of your children to save? What was that?

The book explicitly and implicitly favoured a "forgiveness" pathway that felt more like passivity than forgiveness.  The ending really pushed toward a particular interpretation, which felt imposed by non-survivors (the author? Or the cultural stereotype of the passive Asian woman?). The character of Young-Sook felt like she wanted to shatter those expectations, and for the better, but she wasn't allowed her free reign.

. Originally, when Mi-ja comes to the ceremony with Shaman Kim, what happened there was wide open for interpretation.  I thought that Shaman Kim was chastising Mi-ja by reminding her of the trauma of the day of the massacre.  She was saying the family members forgave, but they were speaking to Young-sook: they were easing her pain.  To Mi-ja, outside of it all, it seemed to me that they were showing her separateness from the massacre: she was there but not there, she walked away and washed her hands of it, they had nothing to say to her and they were showing their connection to the community, but not to her.  Mi-ja, who could not accept forgiveness anyway, would not have felt herself absolved of guilt by this.  She would have trebled in guilt, for thinking she didn't deserve their forgiveness.
When Shaman Kim reinterprets this at the end of the book, she chastises Young-Sook, she pushes her to forgive Mi-ja, and by extension their Korean attackers, but that is not what was necessarily meant by the family's statements or by Shaman Kim's words to a community member.  I thought Shaman Kim was originally enjoining Young-Sook to forgive herself, as a survivor.  This was much more interesting to me than anything about Mi-ja at that point... Mi-ja's husband could not help them, even if he wanted to, that kind of heroics is for Hollywood...he had chosen his side and Jun-Bu wasn't on it, even had they been friends, which they weren't.  Massacres don't tend well to exceptions, it's unlikely he could have saved his wife, at that point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, and Colonisation

TW: mass killings

hannahfaith25's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Colonisation

zoegg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.75

my goodness this story. i actually dropped this book previously because i really struggled with the pacing and the lack of connection i felt to the characters in the first third of the book, but i am SO GLAD i decided to give it another chance.

this story so beautifully depicts the ebbing of trauma not just on an individual level, but across a whole community. i was so heartbroken for jeju as a whole, and for young-sook and mi-ja — it felt like there was always too much time (for more hurt) and never enough (to learn to overcome it). watching young-sook grow from a teenager to eventually be a grandma was spectacular, and i felt so connected to her at the end that i could not believe that her story ended with this book. 

if the pacing was a bit better, this would be an easy 4 (if not 4.5), but i am still so so glad to have finished this and highly recommend others give it a try :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Death of parent, and Colonisation