Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

43 reviews

nekomata's review

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? It's complicated

4.0

7.71 avg score

This book was challenging to read. Lots of heavy themes and darker tones.
The main theme for me was autonomy; is it truly ours or do we have to make decisions still thinking of how it'll affect those around us? 

The physical and bodily violence is not as horrendous as the violence that goes on within our mind. Most of which are self-inflicted, which is that much sadder to admit out loud.

Watching Yeong-hye's descend into madness through the eyes of those around her was fascinating, liberating, yet heartbreaking all at the same time. The last part told from her older sister's POV, In-hye, was the most difficult to read. Overall, this was an amazing experience, but it's not a book for everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, and Sexual assault

bxnny's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Rape, Dementia, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Medical content, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

awaybeyondblue's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Rape, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Self harm, Chronic illness, Medical content, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Sexual assault, Blood, and Physical abuse

iseefirede's review

dark emotional sad

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

3.5

The first part of the book was the most interesting. He was an unreliable narrator to me, as he had obvious flaws that he was completely unaware of. 
The second part I feel had the best imagery. The artist was focused on his work and I liked how it intertwined with the story.
The third part was...strange.

when she was hospitalized

I mostly checked out. There was a consistent downward spiral and it devolved into almost randomness. The ending was very ambiguous.
I had a personal connection with the main character as I'm vegetarian as well. However, there was a lot more going on with the main character. Definitely an eating disorder and probably psychosis. It's not really made clear.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Mental illness, Infidelity, Eating disorder, Chronic illness, Bullying, Grief, Misogyny, and Self harm

Moderate: Medical content, Vomit, Dementia, Rape, Blood, and Domestic abuse

maddeesryan's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

seagullsaga's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Medical content, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Animal death, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Violence, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Alcohol

belladonnashrike's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

the premise is really intriguing and I loved the commentary on differing from your family/peers as well as your culture/society altogether and I felt that was very strong. the institutionalization aspect of it was even stronger.

it was very character-heavy but the characters felt very hollow, which I found odd. I saw others mention how they wished the story was also told from the perspective of yeong-hye - but I feel like telling the story from her point of view would defeat the purpose of the narrative. the entire point is that she’s an outcast, and that she’s behaving in ways that others find odd and harrowing.

I don’t like when writers switch perspective styles (it starts off in first person, then the final two chapters are in third) - I find it very distracting.

I also feel like it was too short and could’ve gone more into psychological horror

(i loved the parts detailing her dreams and how she seemed to be photosynthesizing… i know that i wouldn’t have found out why she was doing what she was doing, and i wasn’t too concerned with that. I just wanted to see more of the behavior that terrified her family so much, it was interesting).

  the time jump between the first two stories felt off to me - I think there should’ve been 2-3 short stories in between. 

I did like the story itself, I just had issues with the execution. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Rape

emily_lloyd's review

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I went into this book pretty blind and did not realize it’s more of a horror-psychological book. The book contains three narrators describing their sister/wife/SIL downfall into anorexia and schizophrenia. I get the author was trying to write about how humans cannot be innocent being but the book was uncomfortable. Booktok did me dirty with this recommendation 😅 Highly considered DNF, but the book is very short 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Self harm, Rape, Eating disorder, Vomit, Terminal illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Classism, Blood, Body horror, and Chronic illness

lybarron's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, and Infidelity

frenchvanillapowdercreamer's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Blood, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Body horror, Sexual assault, Violence, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship