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peachani's review
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm
Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Sexism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Police brutality, and Rape
melanie_reads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This book is a slow burn of epic proportions about the destructive power of grudges and how the truth is sometimes harder to bare than the lies we tell ourselves. J.M. Lee tackles two of humanity's most enduring questions, can you ever really know someone (even those closest to you) and is anything every what it seems? Bonus points for some highly astute takes on the art world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism and Rape
stewartj0421's review
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Books with unloveable characters are always tough. Despite the fact that some stories don’t and shouldn’t have “good guys,” it is undoubtedly tough to captivate readers with characters that are irredeemable. JM Lee has done a pretty good job of captivating my interest in spite of writing a book filled with broken, selfish people.
I was surprised at the ending, although in retrospect it was all laid out in the open for us to pick up on if we readers were truly paying attention. I felt little sympathy for Haeri despite her reasoning for her actions, and Suin was my least favorite character at all.
I rated this read 3.5 stars because, despite its tough exterior with deeply flawed characters, and a slow-to-form plotline, I found myself constantly rolling this book over in my head, hungry for the next moment I could pick it up again. Well done to JM Lee.
I was surprised at the ending, although in retrospect it was all laid out in the open for us to pick up on if we readers were truly paying attention. I felt little sympathy for Haeri despite her reasoning for her actions, and Suin was my least favorite character at all.
I rated this read 3.5 stars because, despite its tough exterior with deeply flawed characters, and a slow-to-form plotline, I found myself constantly rolling this book over in my head, hungry for the next moment I could pick it up again. Well done to JM Lee.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm
Moderate: Rape, Murder, and Death of parent
bookishdaydreams's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Self harm
Moderate: Death, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Alcoholism
abbyycadabbyy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
3.0
I liked this book. Because of the way this book is written, I am going to break my review into three sections. I feel like I’m the different sections my opinion on the story started to change.
The Beginning: At first I liked Hanjo. I felt pity for him when his wife left. He explained how “perfect” his life had been and I had a hard time understanding why his wife would leave him and write the book. Then we started to learn aboutJisoo’s disappearance/death . I felt like something wasn’t right but as a reader the only person you have to trust is Hanjo and his story. I started to see cracks in his story. Then (it almost to me seemed out of nowhere) Hanjo’s father was arrested and charged with Jisoo’s murder . I was almost sure that wasn’t true though, he had no reason. I started to believe that it was one of the boys. My suspicions fell on Suin and I thought he was guilty most of the book .
The Middle: We started to get Haeri’s perspective of what had happened and I started to fall in love with her character and grow disgusted with Hanjo. You could even say I started hating Hanjo, a character I had been rooting for in the beginning of the book I started to hate! Haeri made me love her sister even more. As Haeri talked about her experiences I felt a lump in my throat. I wanted to jump in the book and save her. When Haeri started talking about why shemarried Hanjo and how she wanted to get revenge on him I was rooting for her all the way.
The End: I had already made up my mind that I hated Hanjo the things that he had done made him unforgivable. I thoughtSuins romantically feeling for Jisoo and Haeri’s mom was weird . I really liked the ending. When Hanjo burned all of his paintings to take himself out before his wife’s book could I felt it was very poetic. The authors never specifies if Jisoo had committed suicidal you are left to interpret that.
I though the beginning was slow and that is the only reason this book isn’t a 4/5 for me.
The Beginning: At first I liked Hanjo. I felt pity for him when his wife left. He explained how “perfect” his life had been and I had a hard time understanding why his wife would leave him and write the book. Then we started to learn about
The Middle: We started to get Haeri’s perspective of what had happened and I started to fall in love with her character and grow disgusted with Hanjo. You could even say I started hating Hanjo, a character I had been rooting for in the beginning of the book I started to hate! Haeri made me love her sister even more. As Haeri talked about her experiences I felt a lump in my throat. I wanted to jump in the book and save her. When Haeri started talking about why she
The End: I had already made up my mind that I hated Hanjo the things that he had done made him unforgivable. I thought
I though the beginning was slow and that is the only reason this book isn’t a 4/5 for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Self harm
Moderate: Rape and Murder
Minor: Suicide
finyb's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I really enjoyed this book. Good if you want a slow paced reflective character driven book thats sad. The characters are overall dislikable so not for you if you need to like the characters.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm and Rape
joemkl's review
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I enjoyed this but it was one of those where basically everything happened right at the end, which would be fine if there were a resolution, but it's left vague.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm
Moderate: Rape
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