Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

14 reviews

sophia_chakmahill's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

This was such a beautiful book and an interesting look into the misogyny of Korean society. You can peep into the struggle of backbreaking work with pay that leaves the future uncertain without connections to move up, the pressures of beauty standards where plastic surgery is common, and even the troubles of the wealthy. We watch the lives of young  women and an exploration of entangled yet deeply different lives brought together by both envy, care and solidarity in a world of harsh realities. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Ableism and Abortion

exlibris_asrc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional lighthearted reflective sad fast-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

3.0

funnily i told my fiancée “this is like a kdrama version of daisy jones and the six but for girls that are just being girls”

didn’t notice that Taylor Jenkins’ review was on the cover

enjoyed this one because it was easy to consume- not theme wise tho, but i guess Frances Cha sounds like your bestie auntie just telling you a story of slice of life girls with different personalities, jobs and pasts. 

Plot is a little bit kdrama-y for me which translates to: it’s pretty straight to the point. 

Themes: girl friendships, prostitution, cultural beauty standards, men being disgusting 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion

doodeedoda's review

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicide, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, and Abortion

vintovka's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.5

So, the thing you need to understand about IIHYF is it's painfully short. I doubt it has more than 70k words, while having five main characters and four p.o.v.'s. So. Yeah.

The book got surprising amount of events and things happening on its pages, but not a lot of character development.  Most of it is ambigiously left off screen. Did Ara realise something about the nature of parasocial relationship and consumption? Does Wonna have a chance of actually being a good mother in the future, or will her trauma ruin any of her children? Will Miho get over her friend's suicide, and what will it do to her? Will Seunjin regret going down the route of debt and prostitution? I don't know. I can only guess. Which kind of leaves me wondering what even was the point. 

I love reading about the good, the bad and the ugly of different female experiences, so I was excited for this book. It gave of vibes of kind of an antithesis to girls' fairy tales and female wish-fullfillment fantasies. It's not _not_ that, but because it's not anything at all. I got attached to the characters and their lives, but the ending left me stumped. What did the book want to say? What was the point of me reading all that?

The book's redeeming qualities are being short and having good, flowing prose, but in the end, IIHYF is a snapshot of how it sucks to be a poor south korean woman, and it doesn't have anything more than that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical content, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Abortion, and Death of parent

booksjessreads's review against another edition

This is the second time I have tried to read this book and I really struggled to keep reading. I found the lack of a plot line difficult to follow. Despite this, I have annotated the hell out of the first 120 pages that I had read because there were some really interesting themes running through but I just felt as though this book was not for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Ableism, Suicide, Violence, and Abortion

hausofbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Abortion, and Alcohol

isabell's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion

mmbc's review

dark 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

I didn’t expect to be so completely engrossed in the lives of these four girls. I enjoyed learning about Korean culture and society and the pressures put on women (and men), while deeply relating to these girls and their experience navigating young adulthood. The author elegantly weaves together 4 lives, which could have come off as predictable or trite but I found poetic. The topics in this book are heavy, the frustration at the futility of life is real, but there is enough hope and joy and friendship to make this a great read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

Minor: Abortion

spacepiratequeen's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual assault, and Abortion

vixenreader's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• 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

3.75

It has a great commentary on beauty standards and gender politics for women in South Korea. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Bullying, Death, Drug use, Abortion, and Abandonment

If surgery makes you queasy, be prepared for some stomach-turning scenes, and whorephobia is something to watch out for as well.