Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Płacząc w H Mart by Michelle Zauner

400 reviews

julesfrigault's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Car accident

Minor: Abortion

zreadz's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This is a beautiful story. As an only child, I found myself relating deeply to Michelle Zauner, even though my relationship with my parents differs from hers. I went into this book blind, and I’m glad I did—knowing its content beforehand might have made it too painful to read, as I imagined myself in her shoes throughout. The memoir’s first-person perspective immerses you in one of life’s scariest and most certain realities: the death of those we love and the inevitability of having to move on afterward. When we witness this in others, we often distance ourselves to stay sane, avoiding the overwhelming grief of another. This book doesn’t allow for that distance, offering profound insight into the process of grieving someone who raised you, shaped you, and is a part of you. I also appreciated the exploration of Korean culture and being taken on a journey through grief, food, and, above all, everlasting love.

I recommend this book to both those who have lost loved ones and those who haven’t yet. I’d even recommend it to those who have witnessed or struggled to understand someone else’s grief, grappling with what it truly means and how it sits within you. It’s a tough and tragic read, but reducing it to just those two words would be an injustice. I loved reading about identity, coming of age, and the matriarchal dynamics that influence mother-daughter relationships. Like Zauner, I’m not religious, but like Nami, I’d like to believe our loved ones are happy somewhere, and that our ancestors help us navigate the enormous emotions of grief, love, sadness, anger, and joy that life brings. Our memories, our tastes our worldviews are gifts imparted on us by the ones we love.

Thank you Chongmi, Halmeoni, and Eunmi.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Death of parent

didionhead's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

imscrem's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

It’s difficult for me to understand how to feel about this book. It’s very sad, and it’s very good. I have yet to experience loss in the way that the author did, but I can only hope that writing this book helped her cope with it.

Some of what the author said about being half Korean/half American resonated with me, although I’m half American half Czech. I often feel lost in my heritage language and culture  as well, dismayed when people switch to English to explain things to me, and often expecting  others to tell me that I am “enough” to fit in.

It was also nice to recognize the names of Korean foods I’ve learned to cook, and understand a lot of the Korean phrases used throughout the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Car accident, Abortion, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity, Rape, and Excrement

jess_polishedcomma's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Excrement

komiification's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

I need to stop listening to the most gut-wrenching audiobooks of daughters talking about their relationships with their mothers when I’m at work because I am literally on the edge of tears all the time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, Medical content, Car accident, and Abortion

Minor: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

meredith_williams_'s review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Crying in H Mart is a memoir that absolutely deserves all the hype it has received over the years. In its exploration of love, loss, family, culture and identity, it is both deeply personal and widely relatable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

wanderlust_romance's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

Food as a connection vehicle to culture and memory is one of my very favorite concepts. And Crying in H Mart explores this with nuance throughout the narrative. Standing in an overly bright grocery aisle surrounded by endless packages of ramyun; assaulted by the scents of banchan in the refrigerated section; struggling to recall her mother's preferred brand of soy or fish sauce among a sea of choices. As Zauner vividly recounts the heart breaking and gut wrenching realities of caring for their terminally ill mother until her death, they provide care through their mother's favored Korean foods. Prior to their mother's illness and the fraught relationship during their teenage and early adult years, Zauner employs food to dive into memories of eating, care, extended family, and travel. If you are also interested in the complexities of "mother wounds," Crying in H Mart reflects on this with multi-faceted emotions. It's complicated and messy and hurtful and loving all at once.

Crying in H Mart also reflects thoughtfully on identity, as Zauner grapples with grief and their Korean-ness as a biracial person. Contemplating broad questions such as: Am I Korean enough? How do I connect with my Korean culture and relatives when the critical person who used to guide me through it is gone? How can I voice these reflections to my surviving parent? Will they even understand? Unmoored in a sea of grief, Zauner turns to cooking Korean dishes as a form of therapy/coping mechanism. Diligently following the recipes and instructions of YouTube star Maangchi, Zauner finds comfort in making the dishes and banchan her mother favored. (I loved this as a fellow Maangchi fan who watches her channel and cooks from her cookbooks <3)

The writing is vivid and lyrical, but at times difficult to follow on audio as it veered into stream of consciousness territory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Vomit, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Minor: Body shaming

ezplonk's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

crying not just in h-mart but wherever i happened to be while reading

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity, Car accident, and Abortion

celticthistle's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Beautiful story about Korean/American woman relationship with mother.  Language barriers & navigating adult work/ life balance 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent