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Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicide
Graphic: Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
Minor: Alcoholism, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
(Review contains spoilers)
I went into the book vaguely knowing what it was about. I thought it would be dark, disturbing and stressful. And it was in some parts. But it was also a reflective experience. It ended abruptly without any resolution but the ending suits a book like this.
It's not just about preference of food or choice or autonomy. This is an act of revolt against a system and society that controls your life, your choices, your existence itself. Yeong Hye's story would not be the same if she was a man who was giving up meat.
It's not just the isolation or peer pressure one faces when they have a different dietary preference. It's a culmination of all the systemic discrimination and violence one faces for being born as their gender. It's a deeply gendered story.
How a woman's choices are taken away from her, how a woman is moulded from childhood to fit a role which is in relation to a man, she is not allowed to be a person but a character - a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, how violence towards women in family is so normalised, how even the misfits, the misunderstood and the sensitive men ( her brother in law- the sensitive artist) would take advantage of a woman. And it's not only yeong hye who is exposed to this injustices. We see in the last chapter how even her own sister's life is full of hardships. She herself feels trapped and even suicidal at one point and she understands her sister and empathizes with her.
It's heartbreaking and disturbing and familiar.
Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Suicide
I enjoyed the final section of the book the most and I wish it went more into the sisterly relationship.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Violence, Vomit
Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt
What I really enjoyed with this book is that even though Yeonghye is the main character the story is (purposefully) not told through her own eyes at all. It’s through observations by the people around her and through their own biases about her you understand her as a woman in bits and pieces and never truly as a whole. This fracturing of her “self” starts the alienation process and it continues to unravel right to the very end. All of her choices she makes are tainted by these perceptions of and the narrative continues to both validate and vilify Yeonghye’s existence and choices. There is so much in this book to pull apart and chew on. The passive way she acts in the beginning with the vegetarianism to the aggressive way she becomes at the end to prevent herself from being fed, even through a tube.
“It’s your body, you can treat it as you please. The only area where you’re free to do just as you like.”
I have so much more to say about this book but I really did enjoy myself. I mean this in a 100% positive way but I could definitely have seen this book being on my World Literature or Feminist Literature reading lists for my college courses back in the day. Amazing read.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault
Moderate: Self harm