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_fallinglight_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A distressing, clinically detached look into the life of a college graduate, professional, middle class Korean stay at home mom and how patriarchal and misogynistic Korean gender norms eat away at her mental health starting from infancy to motherhood despite the few gender and societal changes throughout the years, and there's no end to it to other women bc cis men refuse to listen and learn. Very eye opening and sad and no matter how you identity or where you're from you can relate to the anguish felt by Jiyoung when she's bullied by her boy classmate and her pain is dismissed bc according to the teacher “the boy likes her that's why he's mean” to when she's a teenager and creepily followed home by another student. That part really made my stomach clench bc I've been through that myself and it's one of the most terrifying experiences. Honestly at points while you read this book you feel like screaming.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment
clementinedays_'s review against another edition
challenging
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? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Abortion, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Sexism
Moderate: Alcohol, Medical content, and Mental illness
Minor: Miscarriage, Death, and Vomit
deadeye's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Mental illness
Moderate: Racism and Alcohol
tprsjr's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Stalking
Minor: Medical content
toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-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
4.0
Goodreads describes this book as "The runaway bestseller that helped launch Korea's new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman's psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny." I cannot think of a better description. This book is short, but it packs a punch. It had me angry from beginning to end. There are heavy themes of misogyny throughout the whole book as our main character, Jiyoung, simply cannot catch a break. The narrative of her life, while brief, illustrates perfectly how living under an oppressive patriarchy in Korean culture has messed with this woman's mental health and development. Though this book is specifically about a typical woman from modern day South Korea, I think there are things that happen within it that most women from various cultures can relate to, which horrifies me. I don't feel like I'm super qualified to review a book this important. I'm just a girl who likes books, but I really liked this book and what it had to say about feminism, motherhood, and being an average woman in general. The only thing I think I would change would be that I would've liked it to be longer and to have gone deeper into the psychological aspect of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Alcohol, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Infertility
Minor: Abortion, Blood, Death, Miscarriage, and Excrement
lain_darko's review against another edition
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Abortion, Alcohol, and Medical content
Minor: Death
sinnabeanz's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Sexism
Moderate: Abortion, Bullying, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Suicide attempt
merle98's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-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? It's complicated
4.75
An important book about gender inequality, that is sadly still relevant everywhere in the world. Reading half like a memoir, half like a social sciences paper (as if the author had to back her writing up with statistics and facts from scientific articles in case people would not believe her descriptions of gender discrimination), this book points out how gender inequality continues to permeate modern society and is ingrained into the minds of even those who mean well. The main character was really passive most of the time which I guess in this case is a symptom of oppression but I felt like she could've shown a little more agency, but the mom had a great character arc.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abortion, Bullying, Child death, Gaslighting, Medical content, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Stalking
lish_e's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
5.0
It’s sad that this book is so relatable. Also, it’s weird to rate this book, as the topics and stories are so real.
The author uses statistics with citations to proof her point and to show, that the story of Kim Jiyoung isn’t uncommon. A lot of the experiences the main character has aren’t specific to South Korea and happen to a lot of women around the world. When I talked about this book, sadly a lot of women could relate and experienced something similar.
A hard-hitting book that I highly recommend.
The author uses statistics with citations to proof her point and to show, that the story of Kim Jiyoung isn’t uncommon. A lot of the experiences the main character has aren’t specific to South Korea and happen to a lot of women around the world. When I talked about this book, sadly a lot of women could relate and experienced something similar.
A hard-hitting book that I highly recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Stalking, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Abortion, Medical content, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Bullying
Minor: Miscarriage, Vomit, and Suicide attempt
writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, trans. Jamie Chang
🌟🌟🌟🌟✨
-
A speedy but extremely impactful read that has been all over booksta lately!
-
🗓 The plot: Kim Jiyoung is acting strangely. She unerringly parrots the voices of women she’s known, and to understand her case, we are taken back through her life in the shadow of patriarchy in South Korea. Her childhood of relegation below the boys in her life; her teenage years tormented by male sexuality; her young adulthood and career curtailed by prejudice and expectations of motherhood; and finally her marriage and family.
-
This is a novel preoccupied with institutionalised sexism and the ways in which this affects society; at one point in the novel, Jiyoung wonders which produces the other: do the systems we live under dictate our values, or is it the other way around?
-
The main sensation I felt throughout this book was one of rising anger. Cho draws a clear picture of how injustice accumulates to radically limit one woman’s life. Jiyoung is put forward as a Korean everywoman; her story feels real and ordinary, and it’s this ordinariness that increasingly rankles, especially in the heart-hammering moments when Jiyoung comes under potent physical threat. A flasher stations himself outside her school; she is followed home on the bus by a boy she doesn’t know. In these moments I felt viscerally afraid for Jiyoung, and though she manages to escape these dangers, that fear - hers, and any woman’s who’s felt endangered because of their gender - casts a shadow across the whole novel. For me this illustrated the knife-edge women traverse under patriarchy, balancing respectability with ambition and dwindling optimism against the ever-present threat of punishment. The novel doesn’t draw any conclusions about which direction sexism travels in, but is a powerful illustration of how it saturates society.
-
📕 Read it if you’re a fan of feminist writing and want to learn more about South Korea - the novel cites a lot of real research and data.
-
🚫 Avoid it if you’re maxed out on feminist rage right now, or if you have a real aversion to non fiction, as although this is a novel, it has a very matter-of-fact style.
🌟🌟🌟🌟✨
-
A speedy but extremely impactful read that has been all over booksta lately!
-
🗓 The plot: Kim Jiyoung is acting strangely. She unerringly parrots the voices of women she’s known, and to understand her case, we are taken back through her life in the shadow of patriarchy in South Korea. Her childhood of relegation below the boys in her life; her teenage years tormented by male sexuality; her young adulthood and career curtailed by prejudice and expectations of motherhood; and finally her marriage and family.
-
This is a novel preoccupied with institutionalised sexism and the ways in which this affects society; at one point in the novel, Jiyoung wonders which produces the other: do the systems we live under dictate our values, or is it the other way around?
-
The main sensation I felt throughout this book was one of rising anger. Cho draws a clear picture of how injustice accumulates to radically limit one woman’s life. Jiyoung is put forward as a Korean everywoman; her story feels real and ordinary, and it’s this ordinariness that increasingly rankles, especially in the heart-hammering moments when Jiyoung comes under potent physical threat. A flasher stations himself outside her school; she is followed home on the bus by a boy she doesn’t know. In these moments I felt viscerally afraid for Jiyoung, and though she manages to escape these dangers, that fear - hers, and any woman’s who’s felt endangered because of their gender - casts a shadow across the whole novel. For me this illustrated the knife-edge women traverse under patriarchy, balancing respectability with ambition and dwindling optimism against the ever-present threat of punishment. The novel doesn’t draw any conclusions about which direction sexism travels in, but is a powerful illustration of how it saturates society.
-
📕 Read it if you’re a fan of feminist writing and want to learn more about South Korea - the novel cites a lot of real research and data.
-
🚫 Avoid it if you’re maxed out on feminist rage right now, or if you have a real aversion to non fiction, as although this is a novel, it has a very matter-of-fact style.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny
Moderate: Mental illness and Medical content
Minor: Stalking