Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

La isla de las mujeres del mar by Lisa See

37 reviews

minireader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Whilst I've given many trigger warnings to this book, it is fascinating. The horrors that Jeju suffered is not entirely untouchable. It's still happening today in other countries. Its an important read and an incredibly heart wrenching story. I can't recommend it enough!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Genocide, Death, War, Torture, Suicide, Violence, Trafficking, Rape, Police brutality, Hate crime, Gun violence, and Death of parent

inkdrinkermal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.5

I learned a lot and it was a captivating story, but it was so horrific and upsetting, and pointlessly so in many ways. I'm not sure I can say I enjoyed it, even though it was well written and educational and held my attention. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child death, Domestic abuse, Death, Death of parent, Rape, Violence, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse

There are several depcitions of rape and a child is brutally murdered on page. There is also a drowning that occurs on page.

entropyseeker's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

There's so much loss and grief in this book, but to be able to read about what happened on Jeju through the lens of haenyeo was touching, heartbreaking, and beautiful. Definitely read the tw though 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, War, Child abuse, Murder, Colonisation, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Death, Alcoholism, Police brutality, Sexual violence, and Torture

chemicallykat's review against another edition

dark emotional informative 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

3.75

This was really intense and dark and sad

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death of parent, Classism, Alcoholism, Genocide, Child abuse, Misogyny, Violence, War, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Terminal illness, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

barmatron's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Colonisation

ebba94's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Child death, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, War, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Torture

caedycon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

I would absolutely recommend this book. It's my 2nd book by Lisa See, and she's 2/2 for fantastic stories for me. I loved learning about the haenyeo, as well as life in Korea in general. Such a unique, fascinating culture. I thought it was going to be about a matriarchal society, but it was a matrifocal society - the women do all the work and earn the money, but they still don't have the power. Men own land, men get educated, men are still the heads of the family. The women are so inspiring - the fact that they have all the weight of their family's well-being on their shoulders, and yet are also still oppressed, and how they handle that - seriously badass women in this story. This is a book that was easy to talk about - a unique story, with fictional characters but a real, little-known setting that was fascinating to learn about. I loved learning about the political side of what was going on at that time as well - the Japanese occupation of Korea (and the US's involvement) Mostly, this book is sad. These characters live through some incredible horrors, and there were moments where I had a hard time continuing on through the brutality they suffered. Lisa See writes her characters with such depth - I felt what Young-sook felt when Mi-ja betrayed her, and was convinced I would never forgive her, and yet, by the end, I had. That was impressive to me, to be fully taken up in that emotional journey. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: War and Domestic abuse

alisonw's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

Just realised I never reviewed this, it’s been a few months so I can’t be as clear with the review but I highly highly recommend this book.

Firstly a TW: It deals with extremely heavy subjects of loss, war, corruption, all kinds of abuse, murder including all ages, all very graphically so please be warned if you think you can’t handle that. 

But if you’re unsure, don’t let that put you off. This book tells the true story of the people of Jeju and all they have gone through in the last century through a fictional narrative and the graphic elements are there because they happened, reading them feels similar to the sobering feeling of going to a concentration camp has, it’s horribly sad but feels like a necessity to be able to respect and remember - in my case as a European who was taught nothing about Korea’s history, it felt so important to acknowledge and learn about these events for the first time.

The author is masterful at weaving history and fiction together, none of the fictitious story line feels forced to bring in a historical event, while at the same time the story does not steal from the history, I would actually say it helps give it more blood and feel more tangible rather than cold facts on a page about somewhere far away. 

Highly highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Colonisation, Grief, Pregnancy, Torture, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Violence, War, Child death, Death, Murder, Sexual violence, Mass/school shootings, and Rape

Moderate: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Confinement, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, and Slavery

alexis_baldwin92's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Suicide, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Genocide, War, Sexual violence, Death, Colonisation, Child death, Rape, Violence, Racism, and Domestic abuse

naomi_k's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Violence, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Child death, Death, Grief, and Torture

Moderate: Pregnancy, War, Classism, Colonisation, Medical content, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Vomit, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Sexism