Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Grass

Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

acchristopher14's review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

5.0

This graphic novel touches on a very dark spot in Korean history - the abduction and enslavement of comfort women. I really appreciated how this novel also gave voice to the women after WW2 ended and how this period in history has been ignored by the Japanese government.

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marley_reads_'s review

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dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

3.75

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rieviolet's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.0

I'm in the early stages of exploring the world of graphic novels, so I'm still familiarizing myself with the genre and its peculiarities.
I can say that I quite liked the author's drawing style and her choice of a black and white colouring.

The graphic novel recounts the life story of a Korean woman, Lee Okseon, but it stands for the suffering that many other people went through at that time of colonisation and war. The narration doesn't shy away from the brutal details and the horror of the experiences of "comfort women".
There is still a hopeful note in the ending, with the arrival of spring once again and the possibility of renewal.

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sleepylit's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

I knew I was in for an emotional ride when I started this, but Grass truly blew me away. The illustrations work so well to depict deeper meaning, so the book is truly art on several levels. The story is gutting and truly shows the horrors so many women had to endure. But Kim does a great job of making the content digestible for sensitive readers.

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shelf_devoted's review against another edition

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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.

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isaile's review

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dark informative sad tense medium-paced

4.25

It's very vile and disturbing how women were treated during this time. It would be great if there was a warning about such topics discussed in the book (mainly r*pe). Other than that, it described very well what the comfort women went through.

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poemsandponds's review

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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.

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