Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - How We Disappeared

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee

38 reviews

cerilou's review against another edition

dark emotional informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I stumbled across this book whilst looking for books based on refugees for a reading challenge.

I have never really ventured in to reading historical fiction set in Asian countries especially around World War Two, Asian historical fiction is a sub genre that I was unaware of and I am a little disappointed to admit this.

This was a very moving, intriguing, informative and inspiring read that I am glad that I stumbled upon by chance and I am certainly going to aim to add more Asian historical fiction to my TBR list.

How we disappeared follows Wang Di during the war as a ‘comfort woman’ for the Japanese soldiers during World War Two, as well as Kevin who ventures on a discovery of the truth based on this ailing grandmother.

I certainly feel that I have learnt a very small snippet of Asian history from reading this book during World War Two and it broke my heart that this sort of thing happened and the horror and sense of shame is most certainly felt for the duration of the stories. Jing Jing Lee has done these women justice through this story about what the different families went through during World War Two.

I will mention that it may cause triggers concerning rape, sexual assault, abuse

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ktrain3900's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

So beautiful and so sad, a stunning first novel about the Singaporean side of the Japanese invasion during WWII, and it's aftermath, and the suffering and loss that bridges the two. We come to know the story through a young woman, Wang Di, traveling between the past she won't speak about and the present. These two threads are interwoven with a third thread, that of Kevin, a 12 year-old boy dealing with his own difficulties with school bullies, his absentee parents, and the illness and later death of his Ah Ma. War is ugly; it leads people who may not have otherwise to do very ugly things to other people, and the scenes in the black and white house (among other scenes of war) are among the most difficult reading I've ever done, but ultimately this is an inspiring and hopeful story. Kevin makes a discovery that ultimately brings the threads together, as we get to know not only him and Wang Di, but their families, the Old One, Ah Ma, Yan Ling, Jeomsun, Huay, as they try to wring small kindnesses and hope out of daily survival.

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mashooexplores's review

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emotional informative inspiring 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

5.0

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katiedatie21's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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pauvida99's review against another edition

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emotional informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Two main characters and two main time lines. At the beginning, both stories are independent and it is interesting to read how they intertwine as the book goes on.
It talks about very serious and hard topics of the Japanese occupation of Singapore, making it a mix of informative and beautiful story.

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luxxybee97's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

tl;dr – the fact that the Japanese government still actively denies its war crimes today is honestly just…really disgusting to be honest

I don’t think most people are dense enough to need to read a harrowing account of what comfort women went through during the Second World War in order to feel sympathy for them, but in this day and age, if there’s one thing that’s dangerous to do, it’s to make assumptions about what other people think. So, if there were to be something that I would recommend to someone with either no knowledge on the subject, or a bastion of ignorance in their brain, I think that How We Disappeared would be an absolutely vital piece of their education on the subject.

I have no connection to what went on in the Asian theatre of the war, but reading How We Disappeared, even without any cultural baggage, was still a quasi-traumatic experience, so I can only imagine what it would be like as reading for someone who has suffered an ordeal like this or closely knows someone who has. What Wang Di goes through, from the disintegration of her happy pre-war life to her time spent in the brothel, is chronicled in such visceral detail that it’s almost impossible to not feel like you’re there with her in the room, experiencing the abuse that she undergoes, floating around her like a shadow in the aftermath, two souls wrenched out of their bodies by the agonies they experience. The jumps in time between past and present, letting you see how Wang Di’s enslavement still haunts her half a century late (as it understandably would), are also a very effective narrative treat, because they show the reader not just the lingering trauma, but also what is being done to resolve it, and how much there is still to be done. Jing-Jing Lee’s debut novel reaches a level of emotional connection and pathos between reader and character that a lot of other authors that I have read, in my opinion, rarely come close to in their earlier works, and it’s an incredible feat how she treats this story with the sympathy and respect it deserves, without shying away from the horrors contained within it.

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