Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

125 reviews

sha's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Pregnancy, Abandonment, War, and Classism

drkng31's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug use, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Classism

sas_lk's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This was the type of novel I had to digest slowly, and take the time to enjoy every chapter. I really liked the first two thirds, they felt like 4.5-5 stars at parts. 
The last third is unfortunately what lost me a little, and it is also why I am giving it 4 stars instead of something higher. At the end it started feeling a little disjointed, like the author lost track of the story a little bit. We were following the POVs of way more characters all of a sudden and quite a few felt pointless - atleast the depth that the author went into. And then it felt like the author added a couple traumatic things to keep the book sad and shocking without delving into these traumatic events. It felt like at the end she was speeding through her writing instead of taking her time with the events and happenings like she did in the first 2 thirds - this made me lose touch with the characters, and I almost felt like I stopped knowing them; like they were different characters than the ones I had been following throughout the whole book.
Overall, a great book, and I would definitely recommend it, I just wish the author had sat with the last third a little longer and not tried to do too much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

ryan4092's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Abortion, and War

moonmoonsun's review

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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

andyourstruly's review

dark emotional informative reflective

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

If you liked East of Eden, you will like this book a lot.  It has great symbolism, and the way the perspective bounces around feels very classic and manages to avoid overexplaining or getting distracted from the story the author intends to tell.  There are a number of really excellent and well-developed characters living through remarkable times, and the author does a marvellous job expressing the ideas and attitudes behind historical behaviors and ideals and the shift that has occurred over time.  Really well-researched, well-paced, and well-written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Child death, Torture, Police brutality, Trafficking, Alcohol, War, and Deportation

sofireads8's review against another edition

emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, and Abortion

jazzsonnet's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Infidelity, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Abortion

mstall_'s review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

5.0

If I could give this book 100000/10 stars, I would. 

By page five I knew this was going to be my favorite five star read of the year. Pachinko is a sweeping story of a Korean family in Japan that spans four generations -- from 1900 to 1989. Sunja, the main character of the book is a young girl when she finds herself pregnant and unmarried. What follows is an incredible story of love, resilience, family, and heartbreak. I think this story was also really connective for me because of my time spent in Japan. It was easy for me to draw up my own memories there. I can still hear the pachiko parlors as I walked up the side street to the train station in Yokosuka. 

Min Jin Lee did a phenomenal job writing a story that was painful and sad at times without making you feel complete obliteration (I'm looking at you A Little Life). While parts of the book are gut wrenching (August 1945) the theme of resiliency rings true. Despite colonization, political strife, racism,

suicide

and more, this family clings to one another and fosters a closeness that cannot be pierced. 

This book made me cry, twice actually. Five stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia and Grief

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Pregnancy, and War

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Infertility, and Car accident

miishmiish's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

So difficult to rate. I think I agree with so many of the 3&2 star reviews— the narrative in the third section of the book is quite unfocused and threads that introduce characters are never tied up. Haruki's wife's vignette, for example, was interesting, but didn't add anything to the story, and she was never included after that chapter. I had to wonder what was the point of her story, if only to further a trope of overly sexualized Japanese girls? 

Solomon's story was overshadowed a bit by the melodrama that was Hana's saga, and I found her character over the top. 

I also didn't care much for the audiobook narrator, who couldn't pronounce Korean nor Japanese words correctly. 

Why pick a narrator that cannot speak the two languages that are central to the story? It was hard to listen to at times. 

That being said, this book is so illuminating in terms of showing how Koreans were (and still are in many ways) discriminated against in Japan, and the effects that Japanese imperialism and colonialism had on generations of Koreans. Despite knowing a good amount of Japanese history, I didn't know much about Japan's colonization of Korea and even less about the Zainichi (ethnic Koreans born in Japan) and their lineages. it's an incredibly important part of history and too often overlooked, like so many stories of colonialism and imperialism. For that reason alone, I think it's deserving of 5 stars - that Min Jin Lee was able to weave the tapestry of four generations of a fictional family in a very real history is extremely impressive. 

I just had to knock a star off for the disconnected ending and loose threads.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and War