Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Human Acts by Han Kang

40 reviews

emmaoswald's review

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gun violence, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, and War

kafe_kona's review

emotional reflective sad 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? N/A

4.75

I definitely recommend doing some background reading on the Gwangju Uprising before reading this to get a better sense of the plot and why things (the violence) happen the way they are in the book. There is a section in the beginning that briefly describes the uprising though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

seasidess's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

sisa_moyo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

A moving and wonderful story on the Gwangju uprising. It's focus instead on the humans on, the death and the bodies, and the psychological impact on those of Gwangju instead of the action and the tanks and the resistance is moving.
though slow at times, it was still by the end an undeniable 5 stars.

There philosophical questions of death and what happens to us when we die, what is a soul, where does it come from where does it go, of forgiveness of self of humanity of other humans.

and how this one young boy, this one life affected these people to the ends of their life into death, is heartbreaking and soulcrushing, how in these fragile, mundane these they remember this boy who wanted to find his friend

The exploration into the trauma of the generations thereafter from Gwangju and the delicate way that Han Kang with her lyrical prose crafts their stories, how a people recover when their own government kills them, makes them less than human. It reminds of the translators' note in the book 'One Left' paraphased: is it possible for an entire nation to experience PTSD.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Genocide, Gun violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Torture, and Violence

jaelabi's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Self harm, and Sexual assault

bibliocharylodis's review

dark emotional informative reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Torture, Death, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Gun violence, Confinement, and Alcohol

doseogwan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.75

Die deutsche Übersetzung ist gelungen. 
Ein Buch, das mir unter die Haut ging und dessen Bilder mir in unterschiedlichen Situationen immer wieder in den Sinn kommen. Ein Roman über ein Massaker, keine einfache Kost, aber mit Bravour geschrieben. Speziell die unkonventionelle Erzählperspektive im ersten Teil des Buches lässt alles näher und unmittelbarer erscheinen. 
Ein Massaker vor mittlerweile über 40 Jahren, das lange keine Aufarbeitung erfahren hat und Menschen, die mit diesen schrecklichen Erfahrungen alleine gelassen wurden; dazu gebracht wurden, darüber zu schweigen. Ein wichtiges Buch, ein hartes Buch zu lesen, trotzdem einfühlsam und zart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Cancer, Confinement, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

ceedy's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Medical trauma

valpuri's review against another edition

dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Torture, Police brutality, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Confinement, Child death, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicide, Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual violence

Minor: Infertility, Terminal illness, and Cancer

katherinevarga's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is not the most comforting book to be reading when white supremacists are storming the Capital at the behest of a would-be fascist authoritarian.... but it was too good (and too short) not to finish, so I powered through.

I loved the structure of the book - the first section is "The Boy, 1980" and each subsequent section focuses on another person haunted by the boy's death, leading up to "The Writer, 2013". The writing made me think about death, guilt, and the trauma of sharing stories in new ways. I had to skim past some of the violence and torture - although some of the calmer scenes (like a theatre director finding out he can't do his play, or the mom thinking she's seen her dead son) made my eyes tear up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Mass/school shootings, Hate crime, Grief, Death, and Confinement