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libellumartinae's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
sharnanigans's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Murder
birdafterdark's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Medical content
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Abandonment
emily_journals's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I think the first segment of this book was my favorite, I enjoyed the commentary that the author was making about gender and family roles in Korea through the husband's perspective. I also enjoyed the snippets about Yeong-hye's dreams that were included in this segment, and I really wish this was continued throughout the rest of the book.
The second segment of the book is told from Yeong-hye's brother-in-law's perspective and this segment deals a lot with struggling with the failure to live up to expectations, and also with the exploiting and taking advantage of mental illness. This one was a bit weird to me, as the themes seemed to be working against the brother-in-law while the tone tried to make the audience empathize with him. I'm not sure if this tonal vs. theme discord was due to translation or if this was the way it was meant to be, but the discord was very off-putting and made me confused and unsure of what the author was trying to convey in this segment, so I didn't like this segment as much as the first.
The final segment of this book is told from Yeong-hye's sister's perspective and the main themes of this segment deal with the duties of those in proximity to mental illness and the grief of losing someone while they're still alive. The themes of this segment are probably the most interesting in the book, but the sister's voice and inner monologue are quite strange, which might be due to translation but I'm unsure. The way that she switches between different feelings and trains of thought quite suddenly detracted from the story for me and made it really difficult to immerse myself in this portion of the book.
Overall, I think the themes of this book were quite interesting, but I think either the author or the translation didn't have a clear vision of what voice they wanted to portray to the audience in the later two sections of the book. I also really missed Yeong-hye's short interjections in the later two sections that were present in the first section, I thought they added a lot to not only Yeong-hye's character but also to all the characters reacting to Yeong-hye in the first section.
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse
jbcrue's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail