Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

15 reviews

jg34's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring slow-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? No

3.25

Many emotions. Learned a lot about Korea-Japanese relations. Didn’t love all the random time jumps and character shifts. For a few chapters one character would be all that is talked about then they aren’t mentioned for 100s of pages!!
Still a good story and made me cry ugly tears

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Death, Racial slurs, War, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Sexual content, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Abortion, Cancer, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Car accident, and Confinement

cyberhavok's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Racism, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, and War

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Confinement

Minor: Suicide

squidknees's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Violence, Stalking, Sexual violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Racism, Body shaming, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Misogyny, Xenophobia, War, Terminal illness, Antisemitism, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Suicide, Slavery, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Abortion, Ableism, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Deportation, Trafficking, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, and Racial slurs

stvalentine's review

adventurous emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Death, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Suicide, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Violence, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Colonisation, Confinement, and Cursing

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Murder, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Cancer, Colonisation, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Confinement, Classism, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Racism, War, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Car accident, Body shaming, Bullying, Abandonment, Rape, Infidelity, Infertility, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Blood, Alcoholism, and Abortion

jessiereads98's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.25

This promised a sweeping epic of a multigenerational Korean family living in Japan and it delivered. Min Jin Lee’s writing is simplistic and effective. She’s created complex characters and gets the reader invested in their story.  It’s truly impressive how the author manages such a large cast of characters and managed to flesh them all out into realistic people with differing morals existing in the same setting. This is a historical novel and Min Jin Lee has written it with realism for the time. She is also attempting to tackle themes of beauty and desire. That being said and understood, I didn’t enjoy the way female and disabled characters were described and treated in some ways in this novel. I don’t think it actually grappled with the beauty standards, sexism, and ableism of the time period so much as just said “this is how it was” in an objective way. I did still enjoy the novel overall, there were just some character treatments and descriptions I did not enjoy reading. The pacing of the last approx. 100 pages also came off as disjointed compared to the rest of the book which made it more difficult to be invested in the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Racism, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Confinement, Violence, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, War, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Sexual violence

Minor: Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, Homophobia, Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Genocide, Rape, Child death, Deportation, Cursing, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Drug use, Gore, Medical content, Murder, Terminal illness, and Torture

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Bullying, Sexism, Confinement, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Pregnancy, Blood, Religious bigotry, War, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Xenophobia, and Death of parent

fairyribs's review

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

4.5- my god this book was amazing. Knocked off 0.5 because the ending was a bit…meh. But the themes, history and the ramifications of cultural genocide were heartbreaking but very necessary to read about.

I went into this book expecting it to be a history of the Japanese colonial rule but instead I got an intimate portrait of a family and it’s fight for survival during and after colonialism. I never knew that people like the Zainichi existed and to see how many of them came to be was quite illuminating, along with the discrimination many Korean-Japanese people face today.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Mental illness, Police brutality, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Ableism, Body horror, Cancer, Cultural appropriation, Confinement, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, War, Abandonment, Child death, and Colonisation

bandysbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

This is a multi-generational story about a family. It starts in Korea, but moves to Japan and we see what the family goes through as they try to figure out their survival. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Sexism, Classism, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Racism, War, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, and Xenophobia

alisonannk's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Bullying, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, War, Death, Dysphoria, and Sexism

Moderate: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Child death, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Infertility

Minor: Alcohol, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Gun violence, and Murder