Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

A Vegetariana by Han Kang

40 reviews

iseefirede's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

The first part of the book was the most interesting. He was an unreliable narrator to me, as he had obvious flaws that he was completely unaware of. 
The second part I feel had the best imagery. The artist was focused on his work and I liked how it intertwined with the story.
The third part was...strange.

Spoiler

when she was hospitalized

I mostly checked out. There was a consistent downward spiral and it devolved into almost randomness. The ending was very ambiguous.
I had a personal connection with the main character as I'm vegetarian as well. However, there was a lot more going on with the main character. Definitely an eating disorder and probably psychosis. It's not really made clear.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Mental illness, Infidelity, Eating disorder, Chronic illness, Bullying, Grief, Misogyny, and Self harm

Moderate: Medical content, Vomit, Dementia, Rape, Blood, and Domestic abuse

maddeesryan's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

seagullsaga's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Medical content, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Animal death, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Violence, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Alcohol

belladonnashrike's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

the premise is really intriguing and I loved the commentary on differing from your family/peers as well as your culture/society altogether and I felt that was very strong. the institutionalization aspect of it was even stronger.

it was very character-heavy but the characters felt very hollow, which I found odd. I saw others mention how they wished the story was also told from the perspective of yeong-hye - but I feel like telling the story from her point of view would defeat the purpose of the narrative. the entire point is that she’s an outcast, and that she’s behaving in ways that others find odd and harrowing.

I don’t like when writers switch perspective styles (it starts off in first person, then the final two chapters are in third) - I find it very distracting.

I also feel like it was too short and could’ve gone more into psychological horror

Spoiler

(i loved the parts detailing her dreams and how she seemed to be photosynthesizing… i know that i wouldn’t have found out why she was doing what she was doing, and i wasn’t too concerned with that. I just wanted to see more of the behavior that terrified her family so much, it was interesting).

  the time jump between the first two stories felt off to me - I think there should’ve been 2-3 short stories in between. 

I did like the story itself, I just had issues with the execution. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Rape

emily_lloyd's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I went into this book pretty blind and did not realize it’s more of a horror-psychological book. The book contains three narrators describing their sister/wife/SIL downfall into anorexia and schizophrenia. I get the author was trying to write about how humans cannot be innocent being but the book was uncomfortable. Booktok did me dirty with this recommendation 😅 Highly considered DNF, but the book is very short 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Self harm, Rape, Eating disorder, Vomit, Terminal illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Classism, Blood, Body horror, and Chronic illness

lybarron's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, and Infidelity

frenchvanillapowdercreamer's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Blood, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Body horror, Sexual assault, Violence, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

bashsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.75

The Vegetarian is so compelling. It uses the unusual but very appropriate lense of vegetarianism to explore a wealth of other topics, from sexual violence to self-harm to familial abuse. I will have to reread it again at some point, as I definitely did not pick up all its nuances the first time around - it may be short, but it's dense. It is told in three parts, each from a different perspective, and I haven't decided how I feel about the tri-point-of-view yet, which is just about the only thing keeping me from giving it a full 5 stars. Regardless, it is haunting, and my brain will keep wandering back to it, for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Blood, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Body horror, Child abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Sexual violence, Rape, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content

Moderate: Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Animal death, and Vomit

rtthalia's review against another edition

dark inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Chronic illness, and Self harm

wellreadsquid's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was an intense and difficult read, one I'm happy to have completed. Watching the way everyone experienced Yeong-hye suffering while Yeong-hye never once got a say in her suffering was so disheartening. I'm going to be writing a much longer review on my blog if you want my full thoughts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Vomit, and Mental illness

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Blood, Body shaming, and Ableism

There is Marital Rape in this book so read with caution.