Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

70 reviews

bloodmaarked's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

if pachinko is something you’ve been wanting to read for a while, please bump it up your tbr list! or if you’ve heard the hype and are not sure whether to buy into it, take the plunge and give this a read. i highly doubt you’ll be disappointed. i was so unexpectedly impressed with pachinko, an ambitious story that tells the story of four generations of a korean family that emigrates to japan. this is undoubtedly one of my top books of 2024.

✧ full review on my tumblr ✧

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Infertility, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

tanahoff's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is a thought-provoking story that follows the experiences of one Korean family throughout multiple generations in the 20th century. We start off with the life of Hoonie and his wife Yangjin, who live in a small fishing village in Korea with their daughter, Sunja. Following Hoonie's death, Sunja and her mother Yangjin take over the family business, working day and night to provide for themselves and keep their family business afloat. When Sunja becomes pregnant during her teenage years by a wealthy man, she must make a challenging decision. Sunja marries a Christian minister, Isak, and the two migrate to Japan. From here, we walk with Sunja and Isak, eventually following the lives of their children and grandchildren. 

Pachinko gives readers much needed insight regarding the panorama of east Asia in the 1900s and the challenges that Koreans faced during that time. Through Pachinko, we learn about the displacement of Koreans and the challenges and xenophobia they faced in Japan. We see the impact of this displacement play out across marriages, careers, education, war, imprisonment, and more. Pachinko is an important story to educate readers about the Korean experience.  

I picked up Pachinko after seeing it on the New York Time's Top 100 books of the 21st century, and after reading, I can say it's place on the list is well justified. Pachinko comes in at one of my only five-star reviews of the year.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-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? Yes

4.25

The best works of fiction are the ones that transcend your own reality. This multi-generational saga shines a light on a specific and untold slice of human experience during one of the most often recounted periods of recent history. 

While the beats of civilian suffering during WWII are a well-trodden artistic theme, the specific marginalisation that ethnic Koreans experienced living in colonial Japan during this period are less well explored in western literature. Min Jin Lee's story takes familiar beats from war fiction and gives them a new and distinctive perspective.

While there are moments of gorgeous prose in this book, I was impressed by what a light touch the omniscient narrator's voice has throughout the book. The writing is clear and unadorned, leaving space for the characters' specific voices to shine through.

My biggest complaint about this book is that it wasn't long enough! It covers a huge swath of time in less than 500 pages, which means that each chapter is like glimpsing a vignette from the life journeys of its characters through the flash of a moving train window. I would have liked it if we had been allowed to get off and stretch our legs at each station. Instead I felt propelled through the narrative and away from the characters at each stage of their lives before I was ready.

Having said that, this book covers a huge swathe of characters, time periods and perspectives. It does not let its ambition detract from being an engrossing and entertaining read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Deportation

Minor: Rape and Trafficking

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.5

One part I can see the praise another part I can see the criticism (especially calling it trauma porn).
If you dont know about the Japanese occupation in various countries, this could be eye opening/informative while including characters that you either love or hate.
Personally as someone who has family affected by the Japanese occupation, I already knew a lot of the negatives of Japan during that time and thought some parts/descriptions were gratuitious. 
There were also a lot of characters to keep track of and some parts of many of their stories felt too rushed because there were so many. I felt that we didn't get enough time with one tragedy before immediately moving on to another (which I understand that in life, especially during war and immediately after, tragedies can come right after another without giving the sufferers enough time to even process it but as a reader, it would've been nice to sit with certain things longer than a brief 2 sentences and a brief few sentences afterwards at the end. So I would've preferred cutting down on characters and expanding on certain tragedies and how the characters cope/lived with it).
Read content warnings because there is a lot.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Dementia, Abortion, and Deportation

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, and Suicide

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, Police brutality, and Abortion

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

I definitely understand why this was a National Book Award finalist; it's a totally sweeping experience of generations and history. I learned much more about the experience of Korean people in Japan than I had ever learned in school. It's important to know how severe and also where my knowledge gaps are. I did see some criticism online about anachronistic like foods and things and confusion about the style of Japanese bits that are were included in dialogue, and I look forward to reading more about that. This is one of those books where a family tree would be really helpful, but it would also be a spoiler, so I definitely understand not including it. But whew, there were a lot of characters in here. The book felt really long, but it was, and the ending seemed a bit abrupt. But I'm not sure that there's a good way to end such a saga that has moved through decades.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Rape, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

Minor: Confinement, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

domivatangelo's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? No

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Abortion, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

bites_of_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Yes, I truly love well-crafted historical fiction that spans generations and this one did not disappoint. 

The characters are complex and multidimensional, the prose is beautiful and careful in how it describes each event and each decision made by the characters. The historical context is given without it being overwhelming or dry and it makes it all feel urgent. 

I breezed through this book and I'll definitely pick up other works by Min Jin Lee. Highly recommend! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

siomhaw's review against another edition

emotional informative sad slow-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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Terminal illness, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail