alyssatuininga 's review for:

Human Acts by Han Kang

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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 I read Kang’s The Vegetarian last year and was blown away by the beautiful writing and amazing way she handled difficult subject matter. I decided to grab this one from the library. This book follows the aftermath of the Gwangju Student Uprising and massacre in South Korea in 1980. This was not an event that I knew anything about, and I was surprised, shocked, and honestly surprised to read the details. Once again I was blown away by Kang’s beautiful writing and the amazing way she tells a story. This book was a series of short stories about the same event from different characters' perspectives. I don’t usually like this kind of setup, but here I feel like it was perfectly done. This is heartbreaking and yet at the same time there is so much beauty in the humanity here. I feel like at this point I would read anything that Kang writes.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail