Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

70 reviews

honipoems's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

this was such a interesting book about the relationship between Korea & Japan. It was about a time of the history I never heard about before (or just some part). The colonization, the war, the poverty… very intriguing.

It’s also interesting to take a look at the women situation. Always the first victims of these kinds of period. « Women have to suffer »

I also like the end of the book, when we have the confrontation of old mind spirit against the one from usa which is more like ours today. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, War, Rape, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Racism, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, and Sexism

madeline_schmidt20's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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: Xenophobia, Terminal illness, War, Sexism, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Trafficking and Torture

Minor: Sexual content

madzie's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Lee hits the ground running in this family saga; unfortunately, her pace peters out. The beginning of this book has it all. The characters are well-developed and interesting as they struggle with colonization, war, and relationships. Lee quickly and wonderfully establishes themes and creates excellent ideas to begin moving her plot along.  She has a wonderful writing style throughout, which feels classic and epic. Her use of omniscient narration works very well for her story and characters. Every moment and insight into the characters feels like a very natural and intimate dialogue the reader is privy to.

Unfortunately, about two-thirds through the book, the characters, plot, and themes fall apart. Lee moves too fast through time, not allowing time to develop the later generation of her characters or the themes she has set up. Instead of exploring the point she is trying to make about life and the world, Lee falls into the trap of focusing on spurts of drama that make the reader feel empty due to lack of time for character building. She relies on tropes that occasionally go directly against her themes and certainly never adds anything to them. 

Lee writes about a very intriguing and important part of history that is rarely told and starts off wonderfully with vivid characters and ideas. However, the novel's structure could have benefited more by building more on her later characters to round out her themes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Sexism, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Pedophilia, Racism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Car accident, Sexual content, Suicide, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

Minor: Infertility, Drug use, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Addiction

tinari's review

informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

A really fascinating novel that follows an extended family for a long time. It’s not a light, fluffy story, but also not misanthropic despite all the challenges the characters face. It doesn’t have a super intense plot but I found myself drawn into it and needing to know how it ended for the characters. Yet, there is not really much of clear ending - just as life, it just goes on. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia, Racism, and Sexism

Minor: Homophobia

ackee's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

For other Asian diaspora like me, I hope you find this book. It was wonderfully enchanting and a deep tribute to the quiet women that held communities together in Asia in the 1990s, against so many outside unknown forces. It was so humanizing, and by bringing us along to see intense private emotional conflicts it sheds light on a marginalized and mistreated group of people in a beautiful way. I personally feel so much gratitude for the success I’ve had, and MJL shows that such success rests on the shoulders of shoulders that have worked tirelessly for generations. Luck exists, but in unfortunate times, it is rare. I had difficulty finishing this book and had to set it down many times—it’s very emotionally hard hitting. It’s worth teaching the conclusion, but I would encourage a sensitive reader to take their time. Reading is supposed to be enjoyable, not painful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, War, Pregnancy, Death, Bullying, Colonisation, and Misogyny

madi22w's review

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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

4.5

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is a masterpiece of a book. Taking you through three generations of families, Lee ensured that you were close to individual members of the family as well as generations and cities as a whole. The main point of her book, being to demonstrate the divided between Koreans and Japanese in Japan, was communicated well, but it didn’t feel extremely obvious that this was the point of the book. The only reason why I dropped some points was because I thought that some of the plot points didn’t seem to make sense, but I think that this would have to be a much longer and more dense book for every characters actions to make sense to the reader. Overall, fantastic book—before I was even 1/5 of the way through it, I was sad for it eventually to be over.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: War, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Colonisation, Hate crime, Infertility, Misogyny, Car accident, Classism, Ableism, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexism, and Suicide

Minor: Colonisation, Addiction, Cultural appropriation, and Emotional abuse

dnpatterson2's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Classism, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, Grief, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Death

zarlynsnook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

reading about history somehow,changes me.
this books reminds me of the frist time i read the kite runner and another korean historical novel, year of a thousand goodbyes.
at some point,reading these books makes me feel guilty of being oblivious to the parts of our history these books have told.
Pachinko.
i've been meaning to read this book since 2019.i even posted about it being the book i'm currently reading but just like some other books on my then tbr, it was one of those books where i have to find the perfect time and mood to read.
writing this review, my thoughtswhile always circles back to the time i first learned about the division of the Korean Peninsula. it wasn't from my history class in highschool but from a 20-peso book i found from booksale, year of a thousand goodbyes by sook-nyul choi. that book was an eye-opener for me. my knowledge about Korea back then was limited to  Korean dramas and k-pop groups that started to become popular here in the 🇵🇭. for some reason, i got a bit sense of maturity having to read that book and knowing about what the 38⁠º parallel meant.(again, i remembered that book when i saw the k-drama, Crash Landing on You).
Having to read Pachinko now was somehow, a continuation of the history class i've had from that book many years ago.
while YoTG tells the story of a family left in Korea during its tumultous years of oppression, Pachinko told the story of many who was left with no choice but to leave and brave the challenges of finding safety in the country of their oppressors.
Sunja is like Korea itself. she was divided, at first by her past and her present – Hansu and Isak. Then again with her two sons, Noa and Mozasu whom in my opinion,suffered the same but different fate.

History has failed us,but no matter.

it indeed, failed Sunja and her family in a lot of ways. the decisions Sunja was forced to make throughout her life has affected the rest of her family and somehow, would also dictate the decisions of the generations to come.

this book left me half in awe and half in tears. i did not expect the book to end that way,and i also did not expect to be this hurt with that ending. i thought it would be a bittersweet ending but that is so naive of me to think because the opening line has already said it 'history failed us'. the 'no matter' part i guess,simply implies that despite everything, as human beings, we are initially inclined to keep going in life even if it fucked us over many times.

to sum up my review, this book broke me.
 
5⭐

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, War, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Violence, Suicide, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Deportation

emolr's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Racism, Suicide, Alcoholism, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Genocide, Racial slurs, Ableism, Mental illness, Death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Drug abuse, and Misogyny

aexileigh's review

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Sexism, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Sexual content, War, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Alcohol, Cancer, Chronic illness, and Classism