Review by melodramaticbotanist - The Vegetarian

melodramaticbotanist 's review for:

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

4.0

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I devoured this book parallel to the way in which predators prey on meat as described in the book. Yeong-hye seemed difficult to understand yet all too familiar to me. She reminded me of someone in my own life and reading through the different perspectives of the book, I could see myself in their thoughts and monologues. To live a non-conforming life in a strongly collectivist society as Korea was incredibly eye-opening. As a Westerner, it's difficult to understand why such a lifestyle change like vegetarian or veganism might be difficult but reading this book helped to paint a better picture of why this may be so. I couldn't help but want to believe in Yeong-hye's narrative so badly as I even got sucked into it, but as the story got stronger and her actions became more extreme, I began to see the intricacies of mental illness creep through.

Throughout the entire novel, there is mention of a dream from Yeong-hye and the book ends with In-hye whispering in her sister's ear of having to wake up from the dream or else an unmentionable consequence will occur. In-hye quietly confesses to herself of her past suicidal ideations but inability to carry out the act for her son recounts a dream of a white bird in tears -thus, she continues to carry the burdens of others and not let her so called dreams become a reality. The ending scene has In-hye defiantly looking at the trees as she whispers this to Yeong-Hye.

Powerful, primitive, reflective. I will think about this for a while, I can tell.

Content Warnings