Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

13 reviews

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

---

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

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

1.0

i am really trying to think if there's anything i got out of this book, and i'm coming up blank.
i can't even say it was interesting because i was often bored. it was undeniably disturbing, but that alone doesn't make for a good read. it often read like, "they did this. then they did this. this is what they did." the writing fell so flat that i didn't highlight a single passage. and maybe it went over my head but i couldn't extract any meaning from it, either. after reading others' reviews, none of the mentioned themes held any weight for me, except for patriarchy. just an unpleasant, unenlightening slog. it earned one star because the first part of the three was my favorite, and at least i can say i have a favorite, even though i wouldn't say it was good.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Gore, Abandonment, and Body shaming

Minor: Ableism, Dementia, Alcohol, and Cursing

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Misogyny, Sexism, Animal death, Medical trauma, Self harm, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Forced institutionalization, and Medical content

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Alcoholism, Dementia, and Mass/school shootings

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.

---

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

megselyane's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Rape, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Animal death, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Eating disorder

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual content, Infidelity, Abandonment, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

Minor: Child abuse, Vomit, Dementia, and Body shaming

jamesdavid's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Blood, Medical trauma, Rape, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Dementia, Eating disorder, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Ableism, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

aelunny's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Um wow. I was definitely misled by a book reviewer to this book and it took me completely by surprise.

Very, very well written and this was an excellent translation. It's truly one of those novels thats also a work of art. That being said, the content of this book is most accurately described as disturbing. I have so so so many thoughts and I feel like I need to write an essay about this book, but the number one theme that I keep coming back to to is the objectification of women. Our protagonist (Yeong-hye) is viewed by a different person in each of the three parts and is reduced to a role in each of them. I also think a lot of people are saying her actions in the book are to enact agency on her life, but I think that by viewing it this way we are also objectifying her as a character in a book. The fact we never see the story told from Yeong-hye's perspective and our narrators never have a real conversation trying to understand what is going on in her head, makes me believe we cannot presume what her motivations are.

Please read all content warnings, as a lot of the depictions are really graphic.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Body horror, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Rape, Blood, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Abandonment and Dementia

samarakroeger's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I don’t know how to feel about this book. Brain food, for sure

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

feranmi's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

Part I known as The Vegetarian was excellent, was terrifying and disturbing and the same time but WTF was Part II. The change was jolting and very unpleasant.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Blood, Self harm, Rape, Animal cruelty, Dementia, Vomit, Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, and Body shaming

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Misogyny, and Sexual violence

Minor: Gaslighting, Gun violence, Abandonment, Bullying, Confinement, Eating disorder, and Infidelity

ichthusangel's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

When I was a few pages into the book, I read some guys say that they could relate to this book because they’re vegan— 

 WHAT???????

The title although isn’t misleading, The Vegetarian is a lot less about vegetarianism and rather about South Korean society, conformity (or the lack of), artistic lust, a person’s primal nature, schizophrenia, abusive and overbearing families, sexual abuse, trauma and metaphors.

A person first exists, and then do they create their essence. The protagonist, The Vegetarian, Yeong hye works constantly to lose her essence and merely exist. Exist in her most primal stage, where all thoughts, opinions and fears would evade her, and her existence would be like a tree’s.

Divided into three parts (primarily published as three novellas), The Vegetarian, Mongolian Mark and Flaming Trees.

• The first part is written in Yeonghye’s husband, Mr. Cheong’s POV who married her because it was easy, not requiring much energy to keep their relationship is outraged when he finds his wife starts throwing away all the meat and is informed she threw away eggs and is giving up on milk as well. 

The reasoning behind it, is that she has a dream, a violent one, which she takes as a sign to renounce meat. 

“Try to push past but the meat, there’s no end to the meat, and no exit. Blood in my mouth, blood-soaked clothes sucked onto my skin.”

“But the fear. My clothes still wet with blood. Hide, hide behind the trees. Crouch down, don’t let anybody see. My bloody hands. My bloody mouth. In that barn, what had I done? Pushed that red raw mass into my mouth, felt it squish against my gums, the roof of my mouth, slick with crimson blood.”

Koreans predominantly follow a non vegetarian diet. Almost every dish is a preparation of meat, or requires eggs etc., in such a society, becoming a vegetarian isn’t considered normal. She becomes a burden in gatherings, especially as she refuses to wear bra, follow pleasantries, bringing her husband immense shame while she stays unperturbed. Her parents are, similarly, disturbed with her giving up meat (and it takes an ugly turn which although, would be expected by anyone who lives in a similar society, still shocks). 

The first novella shows Yeonghye as a non conformist as she goes through vivid, bloody dreams (which continue despite her turning to vegetarianism) and body dysphoria (she views her hands, tongue, foot and gaze etc. as weapons, everything except for her round breasts, however, she doesn’t just become a vegetarian but turns into an insomniac and doesn’t eat well, making her extremely thin, thus even her breasts keep shrinking, edges sharpening as she plunges deeper into renouncing her physicality) while she is abused by her father and raped by her husband. 

TW// Gore, abuse, anorexia, forceful feeding, suicide attempt, suicide ideation and animal cruelty.

“A bird, which had been crushed in her grip, tumbled to the bench. It was a small white-eye bird, with feathers missing here and there.” 

It is a metaphor at the end of the first part that echoes in the third part. This novella is very Kafkaesque, reminded me a lot of The Metamorphosis. 

• The second novella, Mongolian Mark is from third POV, focusing on the protagonist’s brother in law and the protagonist herself. A video artist, Inhye’s husband craves understanding as he plunges into an artists’s block, desperately searching for people who have similar vision as he has. 

The first novella mentions of Mr.Cheong being attracted to Inhye (his sister in law) and while this makes no more appearance as Mr.Cheong himself is no longer a part of the book, having divorced Yeonghye, the sentiment makes a reappearance as Inhye’s husband develops a sexual hunger for Yeonghye after Inhye mentions that she still has her Mongolian mark, a discoloured patch of skin that heals after babies grow older but somehow hasn’t in Yeonghye. A part that dives deeper into artistic sensuality, individualism, mental and physical infidelity, it ends with Yeonghye in psychiartic care (once again) and Inhye’s husband in jail. 

Yeonghye, who’d lost her sense of body and thus sensuality, for the first time shows lust— not for a human body but for flowers. This part is a deeper look into her primal being, as we come to the realisation that she isn’t depressed, or disconnected to the world, rather her energy is concentrated onto some other function because of which she has no energy to offer to the conforming world. 

TW// Rape, infidelity, pedophilic lust, animalistic behaviour and dub con pornography. 

• The third novella, Flaming Trees, also written in third POV, focuses on Yeonghye and Inhye as Yeonghye spends her days in psychiatric care while we’re introduced to Inhye’s trauma and insecurities in form of what ifs.

The most mystical, deeply thoughtful, emotionally reflective novella, this part explores different perspectives and Inhye almost descending to her own world like her sister who’s now diagnosed as schizophrenic, but we also find how Inhye feels like she was never a part of the world, never having lived.

“The feeling that she had never really lived in this world caught her by surprise. It was a fact. She had never lived. Even as a child, as far back as she could remember, she had done nothing but endure. She had believed in her own inherent goodness, her humanity, and lived accordingly, never causing anyone harm. Her devotion to doing things the right way had been unflagging, all her success had depended on it, and she would have gone on like that indefinitely. She didn’t understand why, but faced with those decaying buildings and straggling grasses, she was nothing but a child who had never lived.”

The metaphor of the bird reappears here, which seems to utilise a black-white theme as well, quite like the black swan and white swan from the very famous ballet, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Everybody dreams but not everyone gives into them. We realise Inhye, despite the fact is the only one who cares for her sister, doesn’t want her stuff to remind her of Yeonghye since her sister’s existence symbolised a renunciation Inhye had almost done but couldn’t continue further (primarily because she was responsible for her child) but which Yeonghye had gone through. It focuses on what is, in contemporary times, dubbed as eldest daughter trauma.

“Why, is it such a bad thing to die?”

This part reminded me of Girl in White Cotton (Burnt Sugar) by Avni Doshi which is a book I absolutely loved.

TW// anorexia, suicide ideation, psychiatric care, schizophrenia, insomnia and past abuse.

[This book has affected me like no other has in any recent time. Would definitely read again, together with The Metamorphosis and Girl in White Cotton.]

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Dysphoria, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Violence, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, and Terminal illness