Reviews tagging 'War'

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

28 reviews

orangegirl22's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

4.5

Hong is an amazing writer, you are taken into the worlds she creates in her essays fully. With dark and powerful themes this book leaves you ready to listen and listen until either you can’t anymore because you have to do something else or because it has ended. Hong’s writing, above all, is brutally honest. It’s clear that unless she had to (due to the wishes of friends) she was completely and utterly truthful. It is now one of my favorite autobiographical works. Yet, I wish we knew more about certain individuals, and stories.

I wanted to know more about her friend from college, her family, and her immediate post-grad experience, but I also recognize I’m being greedy. When you read something this good, that tends to happen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, Sexual violence, Murder, War, and Suicide

deetabz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Blood, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Hate crime, and War

Moderate: Colonisation, Police brutality, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, and Toxic friendship

souplover2001's review against another edition

4.0

all these minor feelings ARE majorly getting to me now.... planning on rereading soon to take some notes and annotate !!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and War

Minor: Suicide

questingnotcoasting's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

This book was definitely too clever for me but I feel like I still got a lot out of it. It's a collection of essays which I found really interesting but I also got a bit lost sometimes. Cathy Park Hong is a poet and some of her writing was a bit dense for me and some of the concepts went over my head. However I'm glad I read it and I don't think I've read another book like it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Hate crime, Murder, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

emordnilap's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

5.0

read for my us multiethnic lit class
incredibly powerful read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Racial slurs

Moderate: War, Body shaming, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Rape, and Bullying

Minor: Child death

bexi's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, Murder, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, War, Toxic friendship, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Hate crime

Minor: Eating disorder, Drug use, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, and Torture

noellelovesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.0

This book gave me so much to think about. How little I know of history and the challenges that my ancestors have faced and continue to face. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Blood, Body shaming, Cancer, Classism, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Murder, Police brutality, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, and War

laceyc1's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, War, and Xenophobia

laurendenton's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

I think that this is a difficult book for me to rate because of the fact that it is split into 7 different essays, some of which work in relation to others and some which stand completely alone. The first three essays, which spoke directly in regards to the title Minor Feelings, were extremely eye-opening and affirming to my past experiences with racism and sexism. I was able to, while reading those initial sections, come to the conclusion that the majority of my own racial experiences have been "minor feelings", meaning that they have been subtle and distorted by my own self-hating memory. I have not been pulled over or directly called the n-word, but I have had more indirect experiences that have made me, in retrospect, wonder if maybe I was overreacting the entire time. Similarly, my voicing of such events has been met with sharp dismissals that only further my personal disbelief. The following three essays for me were, to put it bluntly, unremarkable. As stand-alones, perhaps in a separate collection of essays or as their own works entirely, I would've found them to be exceptionally well-done. I was personally not able to make clear connections between these essays and the overall theme of the book and its title. Perhaps if they had been fitted in between the initial three essays, I would've been more appreciative of their content, but because I was so astonished initially, the second half of the book was rather underwhelming to me. The essay entitled "An Education", particularly, seemed out-of-place with the other essays, while "The Portrait of an Artist" was more connected to the idea of "Minor Feelings". Cathy Park Hong is, without a doubt, an incredible writer whose works I will eagerly indulge in in the future, but only half of these essays left me in utter shock at their precision and beauty. I have found this to be the case with another essay collection that I have read, and so it is hard to give a definite rating for a book that has ignited me just as much as it has left me unsatisfied. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexism, Classism, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Racism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child death, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Body shaming, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, War, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Pregnancy, Slavery, Addiction, Police brutality, Confinement, Fatphobia, Genocide, and Grief

wrackcity's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Genocide, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Suicide attempt