Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

200 reviews

alexiasp's review

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dark tense 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

2.0

What did I just read? I am disturbed.
This is marketed as a "feminist" novel (I guess?), but it seems to be more about Yeong-Hye's mental illness? 

Yeah I am confused. Also, this has literally every trigger warning.

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bxnny's review

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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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sarahcothron's review against another edition

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

4.0


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heycloehere'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? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75


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melissarhiannonevans's review

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

3.5


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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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whatsophreadnext_'s review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-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

1.5


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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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homebodynate's review

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

5.0


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anenome's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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


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