Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Actos humanos by Álvaro Colomer, Mar Abad, Han Kang

97 reviews

nelly_b's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, and Injury/Injury detail

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

harrowing. human acts reveals the horrors and brutality casually waged by the military on gwangju's populace. its nonsentimental and matter-of-fact tone compounds the barbarity, and the impact of the crimes and murders committed by those in power felt even decades later is disheartening. the fact that this book is based on historical facts is truly also disturbing. however, the writing and prose werent anything out of the ordinary; idk if this is just a style adopted by many korean writers, but i find it quite non-affecting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Police brutality

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide

kaylamanzanares's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-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? No

5.0

"Testimony. Meaning. Memory. For the future."

Through various characters, different perspectives, and vivid imagery, Han Kang shares with us individual stories, which eventually created a collective experience, as we revisit a very horrible and violent chapter in South Korea's history, the Gwangju Uprising.

In the Introduction, Deborah Smith wrote, "The past, like the bodies of the dead, hasn’t stayed buried. Repressed trauma erupts in the form of memory." In connection with this, there's been a mention of "memory struggle" in one of the MBC documentaries that I have watched. It was stated by Song Doo-hyul that, "Some people want to save their memories and heal, but other people choose to forget and want to be forgotten, trying to avoid the truth. We call it the ‘memory struggle.’ People need to put in effort to save their memory, rather than simply storing it. That effort can be a fight with yourself in a sense, or a fight with a force that encourages oblivion.” 

Despite the book being categorized as a work of fiction, the stories and experiences which make up this book are testimonies that what happened in May 18 to 27 of 1980 are tragic, painful, and very much real. The numbers of lives lost, the sacrifices made during those days and succeeding years after, and the trauma people have carried afterwards are not just for any statistics or passing history lessons but they have meaning, names, and stories that deserve to be known and remembered. 

I had a hard time reading this book in all honesty, not because of the writing structure or any of those technicalities since Han Kang's visceral writing is so sublime. At first, it was because I really lacked understanding behind the context of Gwangju Uprising which made it hard for me to connect with book. But after watching films and documentaries, my reason eventually became that it is emotionally heavy since it was painful and heartbreaking to read stories of violence, torture, and trauma. Despite the heavy themes surrounding this book, I really believe that it is a MUST READ as this book truly is a "reminder of the human acts of which we are all capable, the brutal and the tender, the base and the sublime."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

moiralyle's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lowercase_em's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

sunny_not's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

erd's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is incredibly tragic, especially since it is based on a lot of true events from the Gwanju Uprising. The mix of narration (different people, different point of view format) was really engaging and steered the story in a very unique way. A very important read, but proceed with caution. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Alcohol

veneziak's review against another edition

dark emotional

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

katiemcgregor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

4.0

To call Human Acts heart wrenching would be a misnomer. This book shook me to the very core of my soul. Kang does a magnificent job of introducing her readers to a historical event, they very likely haven't heard before, not through a dull recount of names and dates, but through the grief and destruction left in it's wake. The stories of those who live are just as tragic as of those who die and the whole book feels eerily close to non-fiction.

My main misgiving with Human Acts is the switches in perspectives. I found the second person perspective so jarring that, ironically, it was difficult to put myself in the shoes of the characters whose stories were told from this point of view. Along with the fact that I read a translation, the book is simply stilted in some places where it likely isn't in the original transcript.

I wouldn't say these issues prevent Human Acts from being effective in it's mission. Kang asks questions about humanity that are impossible to answer, but still left me steadily weeping through every section; not the intense type of crying that leaves you dehydrated, but the silent tears that can't be stopped because it feels like there's no other way to grapple with the unimaginable cruelties of this world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

callica's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief