sunflower_soph's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Suicide and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Police brutality, and Eating disorder
panicpoet's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Suicide
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, and Sexual content
serendipity421's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Animal death, Death of parent, and Gun violence
m4rtt4's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
a couple of songs by YOONA to listen to while reading this book: 'When The Wind Blows' & 'To You'
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Sexual assault, Violence, Child death, Eating disorder, Medical content, and Terminal illness
linlinlin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Eating disorder, Gun violence, Murder, Suicide, Death of parent, Death, Sexual assault, and Mental illness
This book deals with some heavy themes and issues but I felt that they were adequately contextualised. It's a beautiful book and it makes you feel it allvilde_a's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, and War
Minor: Suicide
brennalr's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Self harm, Death of parent, Suicide, Eating disorder, and Grief
Moderate: Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Body shaming
Spoiler
A main character's hand burns are referenced frequently and her hands are always described as scarred, even when it might not be relevant or necessarily needed.sentientketchup's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.0
Though the pain this book caused me was not enough to make me cry, it did cause me to pause and reflect. I wonder how I would handle this kind of grief.
Spoiler
How could one go on after losing a parent, a childhood friend, a best friend, and a lover? Would I be as stunted and delusional as Jung Yoon? Would I lock myself up because I couldn't face the truth? Would I still love Dahn despite what he did? Yes, most probably.Jung Yoon felt like a real person. I could feel her pain through the pages. Watching her wander through the world made her feel like she existed. There probably is a Jung Yoon out there in this world. And if they truly exist, I wonder where they stand now.
PS, Emily deserves the world
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, and Suicide
Moderate: Police brutality
ankitarmy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Grief, Death, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide
brogan7's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
In spite of this, I did care about the characters and I wanted to follow the story, except that it keeps moving in such tight circles, (the chronology is endlessly mixed up)--instead of enchanting I found this narrative structure dizzying and eventually boring.
I think the author had a lot to say...that the Korea she is writing about is a broken Korea....and that means that its people are broken, too.
I couldn't tell sometimes if the story she is telling is wishful thinking...you know books have those moments in them where it's more fantasy than reality? And it felt like that, only perhaps because of certain cultural and literary conventions, the fantasies weren't familiar to me? (The descriptions of the landscape and snow-laden trees, the
Spoiler
tragic/ impossible/unconsummated <\spoiler> love story, even the way she writes about the cat, as though it's a mannequin of a cat and not a real cat? The way you might write about a cat if you'd never had one, or write about a child if you'd only ever had a doll.)I found these elements confusing and not all that pleasant, but I think that may be culture clash, and so I find them kind of interesting even if they didn't feel good.
And then there were details I loved so well, like the story of St Christopher, and this line right near the very end:
"Whenever I find myself in one of those moments where the past seems to be repeating itself in the present, I stop thinking of time as moving in a straight line." (p.307)
The narrative certainly doesn't move time forward in a straight line. The sad part is, it does move inexorably towards a kind of melancholy nostalgia in which the past is romanticized but never really was that great, and in which the present is full of grief and disappointment.
I've heard it's hard to like a book when you don't like the protagonist, but it's also hard to like a book when the setting is so emotionally ruinous.
Graphic: Death and Suicide
Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Eating disorder
Minor: Death of parent