mysticlucy's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality and Torture
Minor: Sexual assault
rhollister's review
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Police brutality, and Sexual assault
toonyballoony's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Police brutality and Torture
Minor: Sexual assault
prunusnucipersica's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Death
Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence
The minor stuff is alluded to in text but not explicitly spelled out. Major content warnings noted given that this is about student protests during a totalitarian regime in South Korea in the 1980s.sallytiffany's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.0
I liked the concept a lot. And the characters were well done. But it moved really slowly and I was constantly confused.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, and Torture
Minor: Sexual assault
awkquirk's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.75
SPOILER REVIEW!!!!!
Beautiful premise and look into South Korea's political history that I would have never learned on my own, however, the pace of this book left me reeling from one event to the next without any downtime. I feel like the main romance subplot should be substituted with more informational pages as, in the end, it's not particularly relevant.
Content Warnings
Minor: Torture, Child abuse, Grief, Rape, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Confinement, Misogyny, Police brutality, Physical abuse, and Violence
atrkula's review
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.5
Docking because it is marketed as completely true but is only based on a true story
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Police brutality
Moderate: Torture, Blood, and Sexual assault
Minor: Rape
rynstagram's review
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
4.0
I liked this book a lot! It makes you see how important literature is and can be during times of extreme censorship. The art fits perfectly with the story, too.
The thing I like most about this book is that there’s two sides to everything; nothing is black and white. No one is just good or just bad. Every decision has a nuanced consequence. Not everyone who tells a true story shows the humanity in the side they’re fighting against, and I admire that a lot.
The thing I like most about this book is that there’s two sides to everything; nothing is black and white. No one is just good or just bad. Every decision has a nuanced consequence. Not everyone who tells a true story shows the humanity in the side they’re fighting against, and I admire that a lot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Police brutality
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
aandromeda's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
"So you gotta wonder. Do they ban books because they see danger in their authors, or because they see themselves in their villains?"
This was the first book to make me tear up with joy upon finishing it. This is something for anyone who is even remotely interested in it, the history, the themes within, and college students during times of political unrest.
This was the first book to make me tear up with joy upon finishing it. This is something for anyone who is even remotely interested in it, the history, the themes within, and college students during times of political unrest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Police brutality, and Torture
Minor: Rape and Sexual assault
morebedsidebooks's review
informative
reflective
3.0
Banned Book Club has a title that is best to understand in a looser sense. The college students in it, drawn together by various interests in literature the government tries to keep from them and radicalized by experience, do belong to a book club. However, it's not so much about people subversively reading/discussing/sharing banned literature. Instead more an amalgamated true story of pro-democracy activism during South Korea's Fifth Republic.
Moments delving into the books referenced are few and more often only glimpsed. This personally is disappointing when the heavy promotion I encountered over the last year, highlighting literature and reading in the comic, led me to believe this book was something a bit different than what it is. Many of the titles that come up are important texts of all kinds that have not only originated or been restricted in South Korea. In the cases of reaching readers far from their home, receptions can be similar and unique. Therefore, I’d have liked (and expected) more than roughly less than a 1/8th of this comic’s 198-page-count to be about the connections to the books. Discussions and reflections from these students with the texts and the value of literature and reading itself. The largest example of that in fact comes during a class at the college over Shakespeare, whose works are still allowed. The “relentless rebellion of reading” got a bit lost in this story.
On a more positive point Korean artist Ko Hyung-Ju brings the narrative by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada to life, from a steak dish at the restaurant of Hyun Sook’s father to the atmosphere of demonstrations, using tones, shadows and line often conveying emotion. A reader feels the page.
And just as near the beginning with a staging of a performance that subtlety criticizes those in authority from centuries past, the end which takes readers to 2016 during protests for the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye reinforces progress is not exactly linear. Or the work really done after some things change as struggles continue. This is a comic that is most interesting in its perspective on a part of history, important and likely inspiring in its own way for these turbulent times.
Moments delving into the books referenced are few and more often only glimpsed. This personally is disappointing when the heavy promotion I encountered over the last year, highlighting literature and reading in the comic, led me to believe this book was something a bit different than what it is. Many of the titles that come up are important texts of all kinds that have not only originated or been restricted in South Korea. In the cases of reaching readers far from their home, receptions can be similar and unique. Therefore, I’d have liked (and expected) more than roughly less than a 1/8th of this comic’s 198-page-count to be about the connections to the books. Discussions and reflections from these students with the texts and the value of literature and reading itself. The largest example of that in fact comes during a class at the college over Shakespeare, whose works are still allowed. The “relentless rebellion of reading” got a bit lost in this story.
On a more positive point Korean artist Ko Hyung-Ju brings the narrative by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada to life, from a steak dish at the restaurant of Hyun Sook’s father to the atmosphere of demonstrations, using tones, shadows and line often conveying emotion. A reader feels the page.
And just as near the beginning with a staging of a performance that subtlety criticizes those in authority from centuries past, the end which takes readers to 2016 during protests for the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye reinforces progress is not exactly linear. Or the work really done after some things change as struggles continue. This is a comic that is most interesting in its perspective on a part of history, important and likely inspiring in its own way for these turbulent times.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Police brutality and Violence
Minor: Sexual assault