Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

101 reviews

anna_dunn's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is absolutely heart wrenching. But also beautiful. It covers some very heavy material and I learned so much about jeju and the haenyeo. I love the sisterhood and matriarchal values. I would absolutely recommend this book, but just make sure you’re in the right headspace before getting into it because it is incredibly sad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Torture

imogenrose97's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

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

3.75

Technically this is a beautifully researched, informative and interesting book. Emotionally and prose wise I struggled to find a light which would help me get through it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape

kibbles15's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Vomit, and War

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Medical content

astonecdp's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Beautifully written historical fiction. I learned so much about the time, place and people (especially women) of Jeju, Korea.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Genocide, Torture, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Sexual violence and Suicidal thoughts

thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective slow-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Genocide, Rape, Vomit, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

Minor: Medical content and Alcohol

queenpebbles's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Pregnancy and War

thebookienook's review against another edition

emotional informative

5.0

“Fall down eight times, stand up nine. For me, this saying is less about the dead paving the way for future generations than it is for the women of Jeju. We suffer and suffer and suffer, but we also keep getting up. We keep living. You would not be here if you weren't brave. Now you need to be braver still.”

I went into The Island of Sea Women pretty blind. I knew that it was about women who worked in a diving collective and that is it. I learned more about Korean culture and the Haenyo, the women diving collective, through the lens of this story. Lisa See does a beautiful job interweaving pieces of the past with the present day. Many times when there are shifts like this in fiction, especially when reading audiobooks it can be confusing to follow. It felt seamless to me. The audiobook was really well done, but I did find myself having to stop once or twice because of the heavy subject matter.

This is not a light-hearted, uplifting story. It’s one of survival and perseverance, the will to overcome any obstacle despite how atrocious it may be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

camillemelaleuca's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.5

heartbreaking

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Grief

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and War

rieviolet's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I started this book with very high expectations and maybe that wasn't a good idea because it just added to my disappointment. 

The sections with historical, social and cultural informations were very interesting (at least for me) but I don't think that they were very well integrated into the narration and I can see how someone might find them a bit too much didactic and dry.

The historical events that are the basis for this story were brutal and certainly they cannot be brushed aside, but I still think that an author can approach the portraying of violence in a way that does not feel gratuitous (as it did for me in this case). I don't think that such a violence was well transposed on the page, at times it just felt like a list of atrocities, just for shock value. 

In general, I just didn't get along much with the writing style, I found it eithera bit plain or a bit too much overdone, without much subtlety in terms of both narration and characterization. 

Speaking of characters, I have to say that I struggled to connect with them, even when it came to the main character, Youngsook, there were very few moments when I felt really engrossed in her story and her feelings. I think that the characters' emotions were not so well portrayed, they were either too much melodramatic for my taste or kept hidden or just vaguely hinted at, so that I struggled as a reader to actually understand their depth and to be interested in the unfolding of the various relationships.

I wasn't so keen on the big final reveal, the events of the last chapters
just felt like too much for me, too over dramatic, too out of nowhere, just too much. The ending itself was also very abrupt. 

I really liked the setting and the historical/cultural background but the story, the characters and the writing style quite dampened my enjoyment of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, and Cancer

biblioghoul's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy