Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

11 reviews

laurajenkins's review

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I kept hoping something would happen. Nothing but gratuitous sex. No plot.

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whisper88's review against another edition

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

2.0


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aexileigh's review

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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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kalmia31's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5


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jessiereads98's review against another edition

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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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amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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

5.0


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bandysbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-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

This is a multi-generational story about a family. It starts in Korea, but moves to Japan and we see what the family goes through as they try to figure out their survival. 

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allisonshewfelt's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Pachinko follows four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family as they live life in Korea and Japan. A terrible choice is made by one of our main characters that affects the generations till the end of the book.

I adored the rich detail and characterization as well as the multiple povs. I appreciate that Lee didn't just focus on the stories of the main characters but also included the side characters. A lot of side characters even got their own chapters. The writing was of course gorgeous and addicting to read.

As someone who doesn't pay attention in history class, this book taught me more than any textbook would and kept my attention. Unlike textbooks where they just relay the facts, books like these focus on the characters and really help you understand and emphasize the historical situation. Many things shocked me. For example inflation and the high value of money as well as how Koreans were treated by the Japanese. Koreans could get imprisoned so easily for the smallest reasons and that really bothered me.

I did not expect to cry but what was I thinking? Of course I would if the story spans 4 generations someone ought to die.

I loved most of the characters so much and it was crazy how fast they grew up. I felt like I was a part of their family. The character deaths were so hard to go through because of this.

The opening line "History has failed us, but no matter" really showcases what this book will contain: the struggle of characters to keep going despite the prejudice. The covers for the paperback and hardcover both are great representations of the book too. I appreciate how the title also ties in with the book. Pachinko is a Japanese pinball game that relies on luck. There will be some winners and a lot of losers but you'll keep playing because you have hope that you'll be the lucky one.

This book deserves nothing less than 5 stars considering how much time and research was put into it. Like Lee took 30 years to write this! I'm so happy it got adapted. I already know the show is gonna be a masterpiece and I will be reading anything Lee writes.

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laure_d's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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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rohzie'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? Yes

4.25


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