Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

90 reviews

emmaopaline's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide, Racism, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Torture, Physical abuse, Infertility, and Police brutality

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

franzi_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Bullying, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Colonisation

Moderate: Misogyny, Infertility, Police brutality, Terminal illness, War, and Miscarriage

Minor: Abortion and Alcoholism

readingsponsoredbybts's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Hate crime, Adult/minor relationship, War, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Violence, Classism, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Medical content, Deportation, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Police brutality, and Rape

Minor: Drug use, Cancer, and Homophobia

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

navyredrose's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Racism, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Death

Minor: Abortion and Terminal illness

wuasti's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, War, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Racism, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

georgialee01's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• 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: Colonisation, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, War, Pregnancy, Death, Sexual content, and Racism

Minor: Terminal illness

rit's review against another edition

informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

5.0

This is an amazing book. The story told feels so real, it made me feel like I was there and the characters were my best friends. I felt mad, I felt happy, I felt in love and I felt sad through the history of a family during WWII. I highly recommend it, but be aware of all its trigger warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racism, Rape, Terminal illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Abortion, Car accident, Miscarriage, Stalking, Cancer, Religious bigotry, Trafficking, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Infertility, Medical content, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Infidelity

Minor: Alcoholism, Ableism, Alcohol, Abortion, and Addiction

maddeesryan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

absolutely loved this. almost a modern “one hundred years of solitude.” it would have been a good callback to marquez if lee had chosen to end the novel with the birth of a child with a cleft palate, but that wouldn’t really align with the themes present in this novel. just would have been a super fun allusion; however, the novel itself would probably require different overarching themes, as hope isn’t quite a theme present in “one hundred years of solitude”. pachinko feels more about growth, hope, the passage of time & the changes that occur generation to generation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Racism, Miscarriage, Grief, Cursing, Child death, War, Cancer, Bullying, Abortion, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

amazing read