Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Pachinko

Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

41 reviews

helsinginlinnut's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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etsang647's review against another edition

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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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I enjoyed the first half of the book the most, but later on as the main heroine’s story slowly got pushed to the side in favor of smaller characters, I found my interest waning. I also didn’t like how sudden the developments were in the second half of the book, as it gave me no time to process.

Regardless, I learned so much about the kinds of struggles Koreans faced during and after Japan’s occupation that I have no doubt recommending this to anyone interested in the history.

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tomellibee's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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bloodmaarked's review against another edition

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challenging informative 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

4.5

if pachinko is something you’ve been wanting to read for a while, please bump it up your tbr list! or if you’ve heard the hype and are not sure whether to buy into it, take the plunge and give this a read. i highly doubt you’ll be disappointed. i was so unexpectedly impressed with pachinko, an ambitious story that tells the story of four generations of a korean family that emigrates to japan. this is undoubtedly one of my top books of 2024.

✧ full review on my tumblr ✧

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aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.5

One part I can see the praise another part I can see the criticism (especially calling it trauma porn).
If you dont know about the Japanese occupation in various countries, this could be eye opening/informative while including characters that you either love or hate.
Personally as someone who has family affected by the Japanese occupation, I already knew a lot of the negatives of Japan during that time and thought some parts/descriptions were gratuitious.
There were also a lot of characters to keep track of and some parts of many of their stories felt too rushed because there were so many. I felt that we didn't get enough time with one tragedy before immediately moving on to another (which I understand that in life, especially during war and immediately after, tragedies can come right after another without giving the sufferers enough time to even process it but as a reader, it would've been nice to sit with certain things longer than a brief 2 sentences and a brief few sentences afterwards at the end. So I would've preferred cutting down on characters and expanding on certain tragedies and how the characters cope/lived with it).
Read content warnings because there is a lot.

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thecityofstarlight's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-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? Yes

5.0

This was such an awesome book. It was so cool to read about the experiences of the generations that endured Japanese control. I found the storyline to be really interesting and loved the mentions of issues outside of the plot; commentary regarding topics like socioeconomic status, survival, family dynamics, education, mental health, immigration, etc.. This book is packed with so many things to offer. I cannot recommend it enough.

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