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catrocketship's review against another edition
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
sarahbroccoli's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
edamamebean's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Racism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction, Infidelity, Abortion, and Alcohol
claire_reardon's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent
psellars11's review against another edition
5.0
I didn’t realize Michelle Zauner had written this book - it was always on my list because I am part white and Asian and I thought the discussions of Asian culture and family relationships would be interesting to me. It definitely was, and it really highlights the trauma evident in many Asian households and the rigid relationships parents and children have, especially dealing with their lives in America. Zauner writes so eloquently, touching on many trying and traumatic aspects of growing up biracial in America, from having few friends, to rebelling against Asian culture, to wistfully regretting that rebellion as an adult, and trying to reclaim and recapture that identity again later on. The loss of connection to your Asian family, the desire to be conventionally beautiful in either white or Asian culture, and so on. Additionally, the importance of food is woven throughout, as it’s emblematic of Korean culture and her relationship with her mother.
This book will make you cry. I cried at least 4-5 times when the grief was discussed and her mother’s death. I knew it was inevitable but it still hurt me nonetheless. It was incredibly cathartic and if you are in the right headspace- this is an incredible, touching read. It ended on a positive note highlighting Zauner’s relationship with Peter and their success in their band, Japanese Breakfast. I loved the homage to her mother with the cover of the album too.
Graphic: Cancer, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Racism, Terminal illness, and Car accident
flamesocks's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Moderate: Abortion
linearev's review against another edition
4.75
However, I was not in the slightest, ready, for the heavy hitting force of the fact, that this is a self biography. A portrait of no the the Korean minority in USA but also of a complicated relationship between a mother and daughter. A generational tradition of complicated love and amazing food. It introduces the reader to the inner workings of someone who is both rather relatable as she is partly American, yet also somewhat astranged (from someone who grew up so differently). And yet, the brilliance of her writing reveals itself by letting us into her Korean side and guiding us through that world. It left me feeling both entertained yet also more knowledgeable each time I finished a chapter. Because somehow she balanced this complicated self portrait with humor which created the sort of entertainment often found in fictional books.
All to say that this was very good. It sort of reminds me of the new and popular “I’m glad my mom died” which ironically takes the opposite stance of the maternal relation between the main people, yet left me with the same feeling of stepping out of the life of someone compelling and complicated. I liked it enormously and hope to read more from her soon.
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent
madreadings's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, and Death of parent
Moderate: Vomit
crieraylas's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent
Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infidelity, Violence, and Abortion
_annika__'s review against another edition
3.0
The issue I have with this book is personal, but perhaps relatable to anyone from a small town - I almost had to put the book down because I couldn’t stand the author continuously calling Eugene, Oregon (second biggest city in the state, a major PAC12 college town, an hour away from Portland) small, boring, and dull. Almost every single person I’ve met that’s lived in a <10,000 person town (and bigger, honestly) would KILL to be in Eugene. If the author would have said “I hated growing up in Eugene” I could’ve moved on, but she seemed to hate it specifically because it’s “small” and because there was “nothing to do.”
Every kid that’s suffered growing up in a 3,000 person town in the middle of a corn field somewhere in the Midwest - where 99.99% of the population is white and so strictly religious they unironically call Halloween “the devil’s holiday” and avoid you like the plague if you don’t go to their same church (imagine if you don’t go to church at all, and they repeatedly egg your house for it) - would have likely cut off a finger or two to grow up in Eugene or anywhere near it. I’m hoping the author bemoaned her adolescence in such a “small town” for dramatic effect and that she didn’t actually feel that strongly about it.
I understand teenage angst and depression and would have been more understanding if that was the main reason for feeling the way she did growing up, since most teens experience those feelings and at least at the time, likely no matter where you live, we feel like we don’t belong and we hate it there. But the amount of those feelings that she blamed specifically on the “small dull Pacific Northwest town” she lived in personally made my eye twitch. Growing up in a larger, modern, and progressive college town (often rated one of the most progressive cities in the entire U.S.) would be a privilege to sooo many.
Since the reader knows she’s writing this post-adolescence I was waiting for her to correct how she felt about this small town with “nothing to do” (aside from going to record stores, go vintage clothes shopping, get specialty Korean ingredients from a local market, and see Modest Mouse - just to name a few). Again, I acknowledge this as a personal issue taken with the book, but I assume most people that grew up in rural or small towns would struggle and also feel that a large part of the author’s adolescence and story is unreachable and I relatable because of this as well.
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Abortion, and Alcohol