Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

53 reviews

ainadei's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. It's hard to sum up what to say. There were times I felt sadness, but couldn't even cry because that was just life. This is truly a story about the world and family, and it has been a while since something has shook me like this.

"Go-saeng, a woman's lot is to suffer."

Oddly enough, though this is repeated in the book, there isn't much said about the determination and sheer willpower Sunja had carried within her, her entire life. I truly felt everything; the times I allowed myself to be vulnerable to this book, I found myself shedding a few tears.

A beautiful but harrowing experience.

If you want non-complex characters, a happy ending describing more than survival, or a lighthearted read, stay 50 yards from this one.

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andyourstruly's review

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dark emotional informative reflective
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

If you liked East of Eden, you will like this book a lot.  It has great symbolism, and the way the perspective bounces around feels very classic and manages to avoid overexplaining or getting distracted from the story the author intends to tell.  There are a number of really excellent and well-developed characters living through remarkable times, and the author does a marvellous job expressing the ideas and attitudes behind historical behaviors and ideals and the shift that has occurred over time.  Really well-researched, well-paced, and well-written.

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magnolia_berry's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.75


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mstall_'s review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

5.0

If I could give this book 100000/10 stars, I would. 

By page five I knew this was going to be my favorite five star read of the year. Pachinko is a sweeping story of a Korean family in Japan that spans four generations -- from 1900 to 1989. Sunja, the main character of the book is a young girl when she finds herself pregnant and unmarried. What follows is an incredible story of love, resilience, family, and heartbreak. I think this story was also really connective for me because of my time spent in Japan. It was easy for me to draw up my own memories there. I can still hear the pachiko parlors as I walked up the side street to the train station in Yokosuka. 

Min Jin Lee did a phenomenal job writing a story that was painful and sad at times without making you feel complete obliteration (I'm looking at you A Little Life). While parts of the book are gut wrenching (August 1945) the theme of resiliency rings true. Despite colonization, political strife, racism,
suicide
and more, this family clings to one another and fosters a closeness that cannot be pierced. 

This book made me cry, twice actually. Five stars.


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my_weird_bookish_heart's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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san_dra's review

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emotional sad 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

4.5


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karwc's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75


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readingsponsoredbybts's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative reflective sad tense medium-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


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tinari's review

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

4.25

A really fascinating novel that follows an extended family for a long time. It’s not a light, fluffy story, but also not misanthropic despite all the challenges the characters face. It doesn’t have a super intense plot but I found myself drawn into it and needing to know how it ended for the characters. Yet, there is not really much of clear ending - just as life, it just goes on. 

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sakisreads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

I wanted to LOVE this book so so much, but unfortunately it didn’t quite hit the mark for me 🥲

Although the trauma for Koreans living in Japan is evident, and what many of the characters went through was undeniably terrible, there were a lot of words for not much being said. I felt like I would be getting excited about one character’s journey then we’d go back to the same old pattern their parent felt about something going on in their life (e.g. I got more intrigued when Mozasu’s character was being shown to us, but we’d often go back to Sunja’s feelings towards Hansu time and time again). I felt myself having to put the book down quite often because I felt a bit bored 🙈

I’ll include the content warnings below because there are quite a few needed.

All in all I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars. I thought some of the imagery and the love portrayed between Sunja and Isak, or even Sunja and Kyunghee, were stunning 🥰 But I felt that the storylines dragged on for so long and it could get tricky to keep up.
Thank you ✨

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