Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Grass

Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

31 reviews

corky12's review

Go to review page

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

2.5

Content Warnings

shelf_devoted's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

One of the most heaviest graphic novels I've ever read. A story on a topic I never knew about and really should be more widely known. This is about "comfort women" Korean women that were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII. These women were forced into prostitution & then treated horrendously afterwards.

Content Warnings

flop's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

4.5

"Cuando termine este frío tan duro, llegará del Sur la carta de siempre. Una carta llena de luz con noticias de primavera. Frágiles ramas que tiemblan en las postrimerías del largo invierno. Dentro albergan la energía de una vida nueva que pronto brotará y abrirá grietas en la corteza."

Aferrarse a la esperanza de una humanidad más humana parece a momentos fútil, pero es tan necesario. Aun cuando no seamos capaces de reconocerlo, tenemos una deuda con quienes han vivido el lado más oscuro, seguir creyendo, seguir recordando, seguir luchando.

Content Warnings

_askthebookbug's review

Go to review page

dark emotional sad fast-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

poemsandponds's review

Go to review page

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This book was devastating. Not sure how else to describe it beyond that. The story of this woman is overall well told and heartbreaking. It pulls no punches in telling the horrors that “comfort women” aka girls sold into sex slavery, endured during the Japanese occupation of Korea. It was hard to read. And yet I couldn’t look away. I found myself wanting to know her story. The truth is I came away knowing much more than I had going in about the occupation and that it was so much worse than I had thought. The brutality is unbearable to witness, and yet people lived it. As a whole, I think it shows that no matter what side of the world, what period on time, the atrocities of war, colonization, and oppression bring out the darkest sides of human nature. I came away feeling amazed that people survive these things and continue on. It brought out a sense of compassion that said, you really don’t know what other people have been through, so carry that thought in mind whenever you meet someone.

Side topic: To comment on the author inserting needle fin the narrative, I wasn’t a fan. It just took me out of the story. I like the idea of flashing backwards and forwards in time in stories like these, however, I think those flashbacks should be solely focused on the teller of the story, not the journalist wiring it down. The journalist was too detached for it to have a real impact on the delivery of the story, but somehow her thought, feelings, and etc, were part of it? I like hearing the author’s pov when they have a very personal connection to the story, such as Thi Biu in the Best We Could Do. She’s telling her parent’s refugee story and giving parts of her life, thoughts, feelings, but you care because she’s their daughter. I didn’t care about a random journalist’s thoughts, and the thoughts given weren’t even insightful or emotionally impactful. They could’ve been removed with no harm to the book. It would have been a lot more interesting if the author would have made a section in the back of the book dedicated just to their research process and how they developed the book. If they talked about the emotions that came up whole writing and interviewing, why they wrote this book, etc it would have been so much more interesting. I guess I learned that I don’t like researchers inserting themselves in the memoir narrative when they don’t have much to say.

Content Warnings