A review by aformeracceleratedreader
Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

A historical fiction set on the history of modern day Korea's inception. The characters go through the time of Japanese imperialism, through WW2, through the Korean War, and into the 60s. There were a lot of characters which can be confusing as more characters and their perspectives kept getting added as we moved through time with them. There were also a ton of slow parts and the characters got so frustrating that I kind of stopped caring and wanted to dnf it. I finished but a lot of the characters didn't get the treatment or end I would've preferred. Some I thought deserved better, some deserved worse but that is life especially during times of active war.
I did enjoy the focus on the cruelty of Japanese imperialism because it seems a lot of people "in the west" don't know about it. My own motherland was also a victim of the imperialism and colonization so what was described I had already previous knowledge of. 
PLEASE LOOK AT CONTENT WARNINGS as this is a historical fiction based on things that truly did happen. Nothing was in too much graphic detail but there are heavy topics within that you should be aware of.
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