Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

114 reviews

lydiamcleod's review

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

4.5


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traciereads's review

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

2.75


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lilnormbean's review

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dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0


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sashasghost's review against another edition

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

4.0

this book is brutal. the POV characters, especially in part 1 and 2, are vile, but are well written. well written scumbags. i highly recommended reading triggers.
rape is brought up suddenly at around 30 pages in, but it makes sense from the POV. he doesn't really view it as a vile act, just "meeting his needs".
rape is also explored through part 2 with both Yeong-hye and In-hye. you see rape from the rapists perspective so it's very cold, not truly acknowledging the pain they've inflicted.

mental illness is prevalent. it's an accurate depiction of the pain, so it's rather brutal, especially in part 3. you only get glimpses into Yeong-hye's perspective and only in part 1. it's very isolating.
it's by no means an enjoyable read in most people's common meaning of 'an enjoyable book'. for me, there's appreciation in the carefully painful choices Kang made. framing the perspectives through the unloving husband, the obsessive brother-in-law, and the struggling sister. they're different perspectives of cowardice, different types of cowardice.
In-hye's perspective i personally found more brutal for it's exploration of familial abuse. the guilt, the constant what if's, the growing up too soon.
it's a very well written, painful little book.

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horrorclassics's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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arieslofi's review

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dark reflective sad fast-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

4.75


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dawntin's review against another edition

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

4.0

What a dark and devastating book! I read this for a class, and was told it would go well with the ecofeminist analysis of literature. It did, though definitely not in the way I thought things would go. The plot was a bit hard to get through at times because of how violent it was: full of family/marriage issues, mental illnesses, and trauma. The narrator changing with each section of the book was interesting. I did not like
the main character’s husband or her sister’s husband’s perspectives
at all, but the drama that unfolded was like a wreck I couldn’t stop looking at. The narrator was never who I wanted to hear from (Yeong-hye gets her small snippets in the form of dreams, but nothing else). I guess that’s a part of the book’s main point. 

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benthewriter's review against another edition

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5.0


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itsnat's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

the vegetarian was difficult and uncomfortable to read. i found myself wincing and cringing a lot while reading this book. the sexual assault as well as the vivid descriptions of yeong-hye's dreams felt very intense and there were multiple times when i was sort of just holding my breath trying to get through those sections as quickly as possible. it was interesting to get to know yeong-hye and in-hye a bit better in the last third of the book after reading the first two parts of the story that are from the perspectives of their husbands. ultimately i was just left feeling incredibly sad for both of the sisters and angry about how they had been treated by their family.

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seekerxr's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

3.0

This was...certainly a book!

This was a difficult read. You definitely need to pay attention to the CW's and maybe even do more research on them before deciding to pick this up, because i went out of my way to look for them and I still got shocked by a few things. There were certain scenes in this book that made my stomach twist and they didn't have anything to do with the expected gore you'd think of just from the plot summary.

Overall though, this book didn't quite meet my expectations. I think my main problem is that this book was not in the main character's (Yeong-hye) perspective pretty much at all, except for a few little snippets. We get pretty much the entire story from outside perspectives; her husband, her brother-in-law, her sister. I feel like it took a lot of the oomph out of the story.

It would've been a much more compelling book if we saw it from Yeong-hye's point of view, so we can witness the descent of mental state firsthand. Watching from the outside just made every change seem bizarre, which was probably the point of making that decision about the POVs, but it only made the story confusing in my opinion. It made it all less enjoyable because I just wasn't sure what was going on for half the book.

One thing I did like, though, was the part in her sisters (In-hye) point of view. I think the author captured the frustration and grief of having a loved one struggling with mental illness really well. It was heartbreaking to watch In-hye just watch her sister get worse and not being able to do anything about it.

The ending, to keep it non-spoilery, was very unsatisfying in my opinion.

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