Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

26 reviews

emolr's review against another edition

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

lillyrose97's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

risemini's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

lotstannard's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

jessiereads98's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad 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

4.25

This promised a sweeping epic of a multigenerational Korean family living in Japan and it delivered. Min Jin Lee’s writing is simplistic and effective. She’s created complex characters and gets the reader invested in their story.  It’s truly impressive how the author manages such a large cast of characters and managed to flesh them all out into realistic people with differing morals existing in the same setting. This is a historical novel and Min Jin Lee has written it with realism for the time. She is also attempting to tackle themes of beauty and desire. That being said and understood, I didn’t enjoy the way female and disabled characters were described and treated in some ways in this novel. I don’t think it actually grappled with the beauty standards, sexism, and ableism of the time period so much as just said “this is how it was” in an objective way. I did still enjoy the novel overall, there were just some character treatments and descriptions I did not enjoy reading. The pacing of the last approx. 100 pages also came off as disjointed compared to the rest of the book which made it more difficult to be invested in the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Infertility, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Rape, Terminal illness, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Abortion, Murder, Alcohol, and Deportation

daphnewoods's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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

5.0

This book definitely delves deep into some really tough subjects, but it’s written with such tenderness and grace and wisdom that it didn’t leave me in a place of darkness; but rather expanded my heart even wider. It’s an absolute treasure and should be required reading. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

tahsintries's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Racism, Suicide, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Genocide, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Infertility, and Abandonment

isgbv's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Alcohol, and War

nila's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

An incredible journey through most of the 20th century following one family and their journey trying to survive all aspects of war and its aftermath. The story had twist and turns, and there were many times I had to put the book down because I was so surprised by what I had just read 

from the reading journal: There's an abundance of the "innocent young good man/boy being corrupted by the sexual whore who only wants their money material things. Yes the" bad men"-characters are also present, but I feel they are more fleshed out and for some reason, their "flaws" are justified and explained away.

One the other end, the "good" woman is also never good enough. She's too boring or even, not "good enough".Every single woman is described and more or less ranked by their sexual availability and desirability. And almost all the women who are described as promiscuous are punished, either with not being allowed to marry again for love, or being beaten half to death in a car or actually dying. While the men who illicit the same kind of behavior get to grow old, and be surrounded by wealth and loved ones. I understand that this is/was the reality of the society that is described in the book, but then what should one think is the "message" behind the story? Or am I overthinking this? I want to read more Asian literature, but find that the sexualisation of women is a deterring factor.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Suicide, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, and Abortion

kimveach's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

I read this book in two forms: hardcover and audio. I preferred listening to it. It's a beautiful, mostly sad, story of a Korean family living in Japan. The struggle of Koreans who were not fully accepted into Japan, either legally or socially, was new to me.  I'm glad I read this and learned about this piece of history.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and War

Minor: Medical content