Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

63 reviews

mxkanteven's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.75

I think this is the first time I’m saying this, but the adaption was better than the book.

The book is capturing and takes you on a journey across generations thorough the lives of Koreans but in occupied Korea and across the diaspora and their journey with Japanese colonialism.

It can be triggering for sure, but it is bracing and unflinching about the realities of colonized people and the social, legal and class hurdles they face. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Colonisation, War, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Religious bigotry and Trafficking

galoshes's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-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? Yes

This book spans the lifetime of one character but follows the stories of a huge cast who each experiences WWII-era Korea and Japan differently. The perspectives are grounding in the reality of the average person's life.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Classism, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Racism

jessiereads98's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad 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? Yes

4.25

This promised a sweeping epic of a multigenerational Korean family living in Japan and it delivered. Min Jin Lee’s writing is simplistic and effective. She’s created complex characters and gets the reader invested in their story.  It’s truly impressive how the author manages such a large cast of characters and managed to flesh them all out into realistic people with differing morals existing in the same setting. This is a historical novel and Min Jin Lee has written it with realism for the time. She is also attempting to tackle themes of beauty and desire. That being said and understood, I didn’t enjoy the way female and disabled characters were described and treated in some ways in this novel. I don’t think it actually grappled with the beauty standards, sexism, and ableism of the time period so much as just said “this is how it was” in an objective way. I did still enjoy the novel overall, there were just some character treatments and descriptions I did not enjoy reading. The pacing of the last approx. 100 pages also came off as disjointed compared to the rest of the book which made it more difficult to be invested in the story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Racism, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Confinement, Violence, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, War, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Sexual violence

Minor: Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, Homophobia, Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Genocide, Rape, Child death, Deportation, Cursing, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Drug use, Gore, Medical content, Murder, Terminal illness, and Torture

jelenwalker's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Sexual content, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Hate crime, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Bullying, War, Terminal illness, and Alcoholism

Minor: Alcohol, Torture, Miscarriage, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Bullying

blanketenjoyer's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Racism, Sexual content, Miscarriage, and Trafficking

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-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? Yes

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Ableism, Addiction, Death of parent, Grief, Misogyny, Racism, Bullying, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Sexism

jamiejanae_6's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Classism, Infidelity, Racism, Sexism, Trafficking, Violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Grief, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, War, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Death, and Terminal illness

Minor: Deportation and Homophobia

clalaure's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia and Racism

Moderate: Violence and Colonisation

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual violence, War, Suicide, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Death

amandalawrance's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Picked it up to read as I had had it for years and never opened it. I was instantly hooked and could not put it down. I found it so interesting and it taught me a lot about Korean and Japanese history, which I was very unfamiliar with. It left me wanting more. I felt like I knew this family and I just wanted to hear about all their experiences.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Death, and Racism

Moderate: Suicide and War

Minor: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Adult/minor relationship, and Death of parent

lucyob's review against another edition

3.75

I have sorta mixed feelings about this. I did think it was well-written and found it interesting from a history perspective, but I had a hard time staying with it and feeling invested in certain parts of the story. I think a lot of this was because of the inter-generational format, as I got more invested in and wanted more from characters like Sunja as opposed to Mozasu or Soloman, but I do understand that the book was structured like that to get across points about how small decisions impact many and the experience of immigrants of many generations. I also found that some plot-twists or elements were a bit predictable, but that didn't take away from my experience too much. Despite the negativity in this review, I do think that this is worth reading a very solid book, just one that I didn't 100% click with.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Incest, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Suicide