Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

68 reviews

emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I liked the info in the back about how the story wasn’t inspired by the authors family, but by an amalgam of Korean Japanese people’s stories, because there are so so so many full sections of the book that feel so very American, speaking as a person who is African American. Despite not being set in America the type of discrimination is the same.

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Absolutely breathtaking from the first page to the last. I did not know where the story was going; I did not want it to stop. 

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challenging emotional sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I was intrigued with the content of the novel as far as exploring the identity of immigrants living in another country and learning more about the history of Japan and Korea in the 20th century. Overall, the writing style was excellent and it felt like the author captured the cultural nuances well.

However,  Book 3 seemed to ramble away from the main storyline just to be able to stuff in certain modern themes that weren't relevent to the main characters and this felt very out of place (both plot-wise and historically).

BUT that being said. The novel needs to come with CONTENT WARNINGS.

The book had some very adult themes, and I had to skip parts. Almost setting it down for good. I was NOT prepared for the character-specific profanity nor the detached descriptions of sex (while not graphic seemed vulgar due to the language chosen and the coarse nature of the descriptions). For these two reasons alone, I can't recommend this one.

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

A beautiful story. I appreciate Lee's emphasis on not only the discrimination ethnic Koreans in Japan faced around WW2 but how these tensions remained present for decades and especially now. 

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adventurous emotional 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: Yes

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emotional informative inspiring medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

A heart-wrenching story about war, suffering and social injustice. I am left with some questions about certain people and how their lives (may have) ended, but that’s just like real life, isn’t it?

The research it took to create this book and incorporate so many interesting characters into the story much have been tremendous, and I’m grateful to have learnt so much about history through this work of literary fiction. I had never considered the world wars through a non-Western lens before, so this was an eye-opening reading experience.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional hopeful 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: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings