Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

45 reviews

michelle_bernice92's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Sexism, and Body shaming

Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide

slaywithsteph's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful relaxing sad slow-paced

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

3.75

I would live my life so much better than you if I had your face.

Following the lives of four Korean women, this book is a slice-of-life without much plot. There’s little character growth but ample character exploration.

As a non-Korean, I cannot say if the author successfully details the obsessive — and sometimes surgery-heavy — world of Korean beauty standards, but it feels realistic to me.

However, what really brought it down for me was the book felt unbalanced in that I’m not sure why Wonna’s story existed in this. It’s not that she wasn’t interesting; it’s that she felt out of place with the other characters. Though, I do love the concept of a girl down the hall being included, it just felt like her entire storyline was so jarringly different, it felt like she was piece-mealed into the book. Maybe a fourth POV could have tied her in better? But I digress. 

I went in with zero expectations, and so I was startled by several moments throughout the book. It took me until the final chapters to even realize this was likely a slice-of-life book, so I spent a lot of time wondering where the plot was going to come in.

Overall, I think Cha succeeded in what she wanted to do with the three main characters, and I very much appreciated how relaxing this was to read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Dysphoria, Misogyny, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Classism, Body shaming, and Miscarriage

Korean beauty standards, beauty standards

prism_'s review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Classism, Alcohol, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

Minor: Infidelity and Infertility

rileydobereading's review

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Infidelity, and Grief

aubigney's review

dark sad slow-paced

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

1.0

I found this book extremely depressing to the point that I couldn’t finish it. I got to the sex worker’s affair and simply stopped reading. It was like everything good in life had been taken away from me. She was also extremely drunk and blacking out when the affair started, which makes me think the author is normalising sexual assault and passing it off as simply an affair instead of someone taking advantage of a sex worker who is much younger. I don’t know why someone would write a book like this except that they themselves were extremely miserable and going through it. The prose was not good so it wasn’t worth finishing. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, and Infidelity

ansm10's review

dark emotional reflective 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

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Violence, and Infidelity

leannanecdote's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Drug use, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Grief, Sexism, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Cursing, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, and Abandonment

ashley_turch's review

dark reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

Literally could not put this down. I was captivated the entire time. I LOVE a multiple POV and this did it so well. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Abandonment, Classism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Sexism, Infidelity, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Cursing, Infertility, Death of parent, and Violence

toriwatson's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Miscarriage, Violence, and Infidelity

kellyofcali's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed this novel, which used a group of a few young women to paint a picture of existing as a young woman in modern-day Korea...a world of inequality, plastic surgery, but also moments to hope and strength. I quickly became invested in the characters' lives, and my main gripe was that the ending fell a bit flat, leaving it more of a vignette than a full narrative. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Classism, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Medical content, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Body shaming, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Miscarriage