Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

60 reviews

brogan7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative fast-paced

4.0

I loved the beginning of this book.  I didn't understand how brutal the story it had to tell would become, and I can't say I was quite ready for it.
Also, I couldn't quite relate to the perfect friendship/turned so completely to trauma of a level so deep...I couldn't relate to either of them by then, Mi-ja and her seeming instantaneous change of heart, Young-Sook and her complete unwillingness to listen or interact with her, even if she felt betrayed. 

She had to know that Mi-ja didn't cause the massacre, and that no matter Mi-ja's failure to act, it wasn't all her fault.  And on the other side, what friend asks you to choose one of your children to save? What was that?

The book explicitly and implicitly favoured a "forgiveness" pathway that felt more like passivity than forgiveness.  The ending really pushed toward a particular interpretation, which felt imposed by non-survivors (the author? Or the cultural stereotype of the passive Asian woman?). The character of Young-Sook felt like she wanted to shatter those expectations, and for the better, but she wasn't allowed her free reign.

. Originally, when Mi-ja comes to the ceremony with Shaman Kim, what happened there was wide open for interpretation.  I thought that Shaman Kim was chastising Mi-ja by reminding her of the trauma of the day of the massacre.  She was saying the family members forgave, but they were speaking to Young-sook: they were easing her pain.  To Mi-ja, outside of it all, it seemed to me that they were showing her separateness from the massacre: she was there but not there, she walked away and washed her hands of it, they had nothing to say to her and they were showing their connection to the community, but not to her.  Mi-ja, who could not accept forgiveness anyway, would not have felt herself absolved of guilt by this.  She would have trebled in guilt, for thinking she didn't deserve their forgiveness.
When Shaman Kim reinterprets this at the end of the book, she chastises Young-Sook, she pushes her to forgive Mi-ja, and by extension their Korean attackers, but that is not what was necessarily meant by the family's statements or by Shaman Kim's words to a community member.  I thought Shaman Kim was originally enjoining Young-Sook to forgive herself, as a survivor.  This was much more interesting to me than anything about Mi-ja at that point... Mi-ja's husband could not help them, even if he wanted to, that kind of heroics is for Hollywood...he had chosen his side and Jun-Bu wasn't on it, even had they been friends, which they weren't.  Massacres don't tend well to exceptions, it's unlikely he could have saved his wife, at that point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Colonisation, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexual violence

TW: mass killings

hannahfaith25's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, War, Grief, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Rape, Colonisation, and Child abuse

zoegg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.75

my goodness this story. i actually dropped this book previously because i really struggled with the pacing and the lack of connection i felt to the characters in the first third of the book, but i am SO GLAD i decided to give it another chance.

this story so beautifully depicts the ebbing of trauma not just on an individual level, but across a whole community. i was so heartbroken for jeju as a whole, and for young-sook and mi-ja — it felt like there was always too much time (for more hurt) and never enough (to learn to overcome it). watching young-sook grow from a teenager to eventually be a grandma was spectacular, and i felt so connected to her at the end that i could not believe that her story ended with this book. 

if the pacing was a bit better, this would be an easy 4 (if not 4.5), but i am still so so glad to have finished this and highly recommend others give it a try :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Death, Grief, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

smstevens's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Pregnancy, War, Grief, Child death, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

entropyseeker's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

There's so much loss and grief in this book, but to be able to read about what happened on Jeju through the lens of haenyeo was touching, heartbreaking, and beautiful. Definitely read the tw though 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, War, Child abuse, Murder, Colonisation, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Death, Alcoholism, Police brutality, Sexual violence, and Torture

caitlinriach's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Colonisation, Rape, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Emotional abuse

chemicallykat's review against another edition

dark emotional informative medium-paced

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

3.75

This was really intense and dark and sad

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death of parent, Classism, Alcoholism, Genocide, Child abuse, Misogyny, Violence, War, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Terminal illness, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

barmatron's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Colonisation

alisonw's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

4.5

Just realised I never reviewed this, it’s been a few months so I can’t be as clear with the review but I highly highly recommend this book.

Firstly a TW: It deals with extremely heavy subjects of loss, war, corruption, all kinds of abuse, murder including all ages, all very graphically so please be warned if you think you can’t handle that. 

But if you’re unsure, don’t let that put you off. This book tells the true story of the people of Jeju and all they have gone through in the last century through a fictional narrative and the graphic elements are there because they happened, reading them feels similar to the sobering feeling of going to a concentration camp has, it’s horribly sad but feels like a necessity to be able to respect and remember - in my case as a European who was taught nothing about Korea’s history, it felt so important to acknowledge and learn about these events for the first time.

The author is masterful at weaving history and fiction together, none of the fictitious story line feels forced to bring in a historical event, while at the same time the story does not steal from the history, I would actually say it helps give it more blood and feel more tangible rather than cold facts on a page about somewhere far away. 

Highly highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Colonisation, Grief, Pregnancy, Torture, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Violence, War, Child death, Death, Murder, Sexual violence, Mass/school shootings, and Rape

Moderate: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Confinement, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, and Slavery

alexis_baldwin92's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Suicide, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Genocide, War, Sexual violence, Death, Colonisation, Child death, Rape, Violence, Racism, and Domestic abuse