Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

17 reviews

alpettit's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.75

A beautiful and sad story spanning generations. It touched on so many political, social, economic, and cultural issues. I learned a lot while following their stories. It really showed how our choices can impact others while at the same time changing the course of our lives forever. I felt such deep sadness for the characters as they toiled to take care of their families during the wars and then later how they struggled to climb the socio-economic ladder. I felt their pain when they lost loved ones. The story was so real. The only thing I didn’t like is how it stopped so abruptly. There wasn’t closure for some characters’ stories. But that’s life, right? It just keeps going. The story could go on forever. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and Colonisation

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-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

4.25

The best works of fiction are the ones that transcend your own reality. This multi-generational saga shines a light on a specific and untold slice of human experience during one of the most often recounted periods of recent history. 

While the beats of civilian suffering during WWII are a well-trodden artistic theme, the specific marginalisation that ethnic Koreans experienced living in colonial Japan during this period are less well explored in western literature. Min Jin Lee's story takes familiar beats from war fiction and gives them a new and distinctive perspective.

While there are moments of gorgeous prose in this book, I was impressed by what a light touch the omniscient narrator's voice has throughout the book. The writing is clear and unadorned, leaving space for the characters' specific voices to shine through.

My biggest complaint about this book is that it wasn't long enough! It covers a huge swath of time in less than 500 pages, which means that each chapter is like glimpsing a vignette from the life journeys of its characters through the flash of a moving train window. I would have liked it if we had been allowed to get off and stretch our legs at each station. Instead I felt propelled through the narrative and away from the characters at each stage of their lives before I was ready.

Having said that, this book covers a huge swathe of characters, time periods and perspectives. It does not let its ambition detract from being an engrossing and entertaining read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Deportation

Minor: Rape and Trafficking

magnolia_berry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Child death and Trafficking

isacarvalho91's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Genocide, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and War

jg34's review

challenging emotional inspiring slow-paced

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

3.25

Many emotions. Learned a lot about Korea-Japanese relations. Didn’t love all the random time jumps and character shifts. For a few chapters one character would be all that is talked about then they aren’t mentioned for 100s of pages!!
Still a good story and made me cry ugly tears

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, and War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Police brutality

Minor: Cancer, Confinement, Infidelity, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

eiireads's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad fast-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

4.75

this book left me empty, numb, and ruined. oh i dont think i can ever recover. i teared up several times and whenever i thought, ‘oh, this will get better,’ TADAA ! another heart wrenching scene was waiting on the next page. there are still so many pain, prejudiced, and WORKS to do to make this world a better place. pachinko is a book that you HAVE TO read at least once in this lifetime. trust me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Genocide, Hate crime, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Colonisation

aexileigh's review against another edition

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

rieviolet's review against another edition

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

3.0

The book is divided into three parts: the first one I liked well enough, the second one was so-so, the third one, well, I just kept thinking "What is going on here? What the heck am I reading about?".

There were just too many characters, especially given that the book already covers a very long period of time and many generations of a family. I really think that some characters were just unnecessary additions and we could have done without their perspectives, so that more space could be given to the main ones. All the jumping between so many different points of view just made it hard to become invested. 

Moreover, very big and even traumatic events are just briefly explored or worse just mentioned in passing. This character died, this one entered a relationship , and so-and-so did that, well good for them, am I supposed to care? There is no groundwork, how can a reader get attached to these people and their stories when you as an author have given them so little? Well there was time to go on and on about George Elliot's novels but no time to delve into a main character' emotions, I guess. 
I was just not a fan of how the author portrayed the characters, if there isn't a good handling of their depictions then the story just turns into an over-the-top soap opera.  

I found interesting the setting and the overall theme (exploring the lives of Korean people and their descendants living in Japan) but I was not that impressed with the execution itself.

For its length, the book is quite easy to get through, the chapters are not too long, the pace is quite fast and the narrative style is readable enough. Still, the writing style is nothing much to talk about, overall it's a bit too much dry and matter-of-fact for my taste. 

All in all, the premise sounded good but the book was a disappointment for me and the three-star rating is basically only for the first section, the rest I'm wilfully choosing to ignore.         

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Suicide, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Infertility, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Antisemitism, Car accident, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

scifi_rat's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.75

Plot: 4.5 ★
Prose: 4.5 ★
Pace: 4 ★
Concept/Execution: 4.5 ★/5 ★
Characters: 5 ★
Worldbuilding: 5 ★
Ending: 4 ★

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation