Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Waiting by Ha Jin

12 reviews

thatweirdbookgirlie's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

The story of waiting to be with the one you think you love and what that does to you and the people around you. This gives an interesting look at life in China from 1963-1983. It takes seemingly average bits and pieces of this time and gives an impactful story.
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yyes's review

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

3.25

I don’t mean this as a spoiler but in my opinion this is not a love story and the characters are not well developed.
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veka's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The story’s Setup was very interesting and I got hooked in the first half reading the descriptions of China in that era. However, there was no progression in the story, truly felt like 18 years, reading mundane life.  
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honkinggoose's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bookshopvampire's review against another edition

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

2.0

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msuarezthai's review against another edition

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

2.5

I was intrigued by the setting of China in the 60s, where we follow the next 18 years of the main character's life and complicated romance with his girlfriend, Manna, along with his family, as he is married to Shuyu and has a daughter with her, named Hua. I enjoyed half of the book, which was making out to be a slow, yet thoughtful period piece. After the horrificly described scene
where Manna is raped by a higher up
, which seems to be introduced for no good reason, forgotten, and brought up again only when the story is at a standstill and I guess, something must happen, I felt the story took a turn. And a turn for the worse. The characters only became more and more unbearable towards the end, and we see it only takes Lin all of 18 years to see he fucked up all the good in his life, as it seems the only genuine emotion he feels is fatherly love for Hua. In the end, he is yet another emotionally underdeveloped man, self pitying at its finest. Would not recommend. 
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bokmoth's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? No

4.5

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montina72's review against another edition

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

4.0

  • This book was written in 1999 and set in the 1960s onward, many of the ideas are outdated however it’s set in a different time, in a different culture in which there are strict rules and ideas to follow, a big thing to keep in mind while reading the book. 
  • it’s very interesting to read about the cultural customs and think about how different they are to those of the west (though I am not sure about how accurate they are as I have not done research into them which would be a good thing to do). 
  • To read about the emotional struggle of wanting to be with someone you love vs being married to someone out of obligation is very interesting, you can feel the characters struggles and understand his reasons I think. It’s not all black and white, right and wrong, which is portrayed very well. 
  • Not a part of the plot but all men are absolute scumbags. 
  • The books shows the sad truth about how rape is viewed, even in todays society, it may be better but the core ideas around it are still there and you can see first hand in the book how that feels and looks. 
  • They loved each other with a certain degree of passion in the beginning but I think the years of complications, his marriage, the opinions of those around them and other events made that their feelings change from love to maybe a feeling of commitment? They were wishing to be together for so long, thought that’s what they wanted but once they got it, it wasn’t as good as they thought it would be. This relationship was weighed down by years and years of more negativity than positivity and in the end I think they married out of feeling of obligation to the love they once had rather than a love that was still genuine. 
  • Near the end of the book we stop getting Manna’s pov, except where it showed her uncertainty and jealousy, we don’t see her thoughts on the progression of the marriage or the birth of their children or her thoughts on her condition, it’s all shown through Lin’s pov. Perhaps it’s done as a representation of how Lin had started to questions the relationship and withdraw his feelings from Manna, as he’s starting to emotionally distance himself there becomes less need to know what she thinks now? Some thing like that. 
  • The ending of the book was perfect I think. It ends with a man who’s regretting the choices he’s made, once again bound by duty to marriage and a child whilst looking at what he could have had, a life of peace over love, a sort of a loop had been made from the beginning where we saw a man who wasn’t happy with his marriage and was looking at a life with love over peace he could have with Manna, or at least that’s my take away. 
  • It’s important to remember that there are things that are lost in translation. There were some scenes and words and sentiments there were lost on me due to them holding a cultural significance or having been lost in translation. Nonetheless, this a great book and has a lot of emotions that are conveyed amazingly. 

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lleullawgyffes's review against another edition

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  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

it was fine, mostly, although I could have done without the graphic rape scene.

good writing, but didn't make that much of an impression on me honestly.
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clna_2's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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