Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

165 reviews

ssipos's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

Pros:
- The portrayal of the many, many female characters in the novel and how their backgrounds and circumstances explained the decisions they made and the behaviors they exhibited; even unlikeable characters like Hana could be sympathized with by the end of the book
- Sunja; she was easily my favorite and a stand-out character for making the tough but right choices time and time again, despite so many factors working against her; her indomitable spirit is admirable
- The complex evolution of the Koreans living in Japan and assimilating into Japanese culture and language but without being truly accepted into Japanese society and facing continuous racism

Cons:
- The author chose to often describe the naked bodies of the female characters in detail, but not for the male characters; this may have been purposeful by the author to highlight the sexualization of the women, but it didn't feel like these multiple depictions tied into the larger story in a neat way
- The length of the novel felt long once we moved into the last generation's story (Solomon); and jumping from many characters towards the end of the book (Haruki, Hana, etc.) felt scattered and less like an epic novel and more like short stories tied together
- I wish the book had just focused on Sunja's life and the people around her - transitioning to others like Haruki, Etsuko, etc. didn't hold my attention like the beginning of the book when it was more focused on Sunja

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, and Suicide

Minor: Addiction, Police brutality, Trafficking, Abortion, and War

a minor female character, who suffers from disfigurement (crooked nose) due to the assault>

itsaas_r's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Suicide and Abortion

kmetzing's review against another edition

emotional informative sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, and Colonisation

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicide, Trafficking, Car accident, Abortion, and War

atreegrowsinbooks's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Wonderful narration by Sandra Oh. This reread hit differently after seeing the first season of the mini series. Still love this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, and Abortion

madstoss's review against another edition

emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

It’s heartbreaking yet rewarding getting to watch the characters persevere, adapt, and change over the span of decades. It didn’t feel tedious or slow at all. So glad I finally read this after having it on my tbr for years.

I do agree with some of the other reviews that there is a deeper connection to the characters in the first half of the book. However, I think Sunja’s story is meant to be more deeply explored, and that there is logic to the later generation being disconnected from the original pain of the novel’s first parts. The later generation of characters and their stories are affected by the past, but as Solomon realizes, not defined by it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Xenophobia, and War

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Abortion

jg93's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Racism, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual content, Abortion, and Death of parent

emk5's review against another edition

emotional

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Stalking, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

Minor: Miscarriage and Abortion

carlytenille's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Classism

astrofeldy's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-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? Yes

2.5

Pachinko follows an epic family saga across four generations, introducing the reader to an oft-forgotten side of Japanese racism against displaced and migrated Korean families (especially challenging in a modern day boom of Japanese pop culture among western readers), and grapples with what it truly means to answer “where are you from?”. While an impactful premise and arc, the story is unrelentingly grim, and builds up certain story lines to simply have them ripped away and never interrogated or looked at with nuance, thereafter. The author has an odd obsession with introducing characters via their breast and butt size that is representative of the shallow engagement with female characters (granted, possibly as a device to reflect how women were seen at the time), and this irked me throughout, too. Overall, I felt as though Pachinko was simply trying to do too much (and was ~1/3 too long, as others have noted), and in biting off such large themes and stories, doesn’t wholly chew any of them in a completely satisfying way. While I seem to be in a very clear minority of folks who didn’t enjoy this book, I simply didn’t find the strong start redeeming enough to carry me through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Abortion, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

sundayfever's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad 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? Yes

3.0

Sad but informative, learned a lot about the history of Korea and Japan. The timeline skips forward a lot and I found the ending too abrupt. I liked the story and characters but the pacing was not my favorite. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and War

Minor: Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Abortion