Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

5 reviews

aexileigh's review

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Sexism, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Sexual content, War, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Alcohol, Cancer, Chronic illness, and Classism

stvalentine's review

adventurous 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Death, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Suicide, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Violence, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Colonisation, Confinement, and Cursing

jessiereads98's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative 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

4.25

This promised a sweeping epic of a multigenerational Korean family living in Japan and it delivered. Min Jin Lee’s writing is simplistic and effective. She’s created complex characters and gets the reader invested in their story.  It’s truly impressive how the author manages such a large cast of characters and managed to flesh them all out into realistic people with differing morals existing in the same setting. This is a historical novel and Min Jin Lee has written it with realism for the time. She is also attempting to tackle themes of beauty and desire. That being said and understood, I didn’t enjoy the way female and disabled characters were described and treated in some ways in this novel. I don’t think it actually grappled with the beauty standards, sexism, and ableism of the time period so much as just said “this is how it was” in an objective way. I did still enjoy the novel overall, there were just some character treatments and descriptions I did not enjoy reading. The pacing of the last approx. 100 pages also came off as disjointed compared to the rest of the book which made it more difficult to be invested in the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Racism, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Confinement, Violence, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, War, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Sexual violence

Minor: Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, Homophobia, Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Genocide, Rape, Child death, Deportation, Cursing, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Drug use, Gore, Medical content, Murder, Terminal illness, and Torture

yuki__'s review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Gore, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, War, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

ntvenessa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

A gem. This is a tale about poverty, suffering, colonialism, identity, salvation, endurance, family. Min Jin Lee's background as a historian shines through and Pachinko is exemplary of great historical fiction. It is factually consistent and you will learn much of Japan's colonisation of Korea, a topic not so in regular discourse. It is also emotional, generous, and sensitive to these historical facts. The characters are distinct and each have personalities which make sense for their context. It is intergenerational. The story is just so well crafted. This makes sense given how much time and dedication Lee spent workshopping drafts. I am normally averse to thick novels, but Pachinko has me unafraid -- it is exactly as long as the story needs to be, and moreover, it is easy to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Ableism, Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Suicide, and Car accident

Minor: Child death and Homophobia