Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

17 reviews

kat_jack's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Eating disorder, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Minor: Alcoholism, Cursing, and Sexual content

gossameralbum's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

i can not stop thinking about this book. overall it is about the absence of autonomy for women, in every way imaginable.
definitely check content warnings and do not take them lightly, as most of them are very graphic and haunting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism

heddasch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcoholism, Dementia, and Mass/school shootings

maddamreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

In three parts, the most compelling was the first and maybe the last, with the middle only serving to propel the story. It feels like statements and themes were on the beginning of exploration before abandoned to serve what happens next. I think a lot of the effect was missed by the translation into English.

Part 1 The Vegetarian
Definitely a strong but strange opener, the choice to have the story be told primarily through the husbands thoughts is provoking. It touches on themes of duty and expectation for women while also having the reader question “what defines madness.”

You start to empathize with Yeong-hye's desire. How much is it madness and how much is it reaction to her family and husband not respecting her wishes.

Part 2 The Mongolian Mark
I hated this chapter so much I skimmed a bit. Talking about lust, need, and the romanticization of living and mental illness. I found the character to be deeply unsatisfactory and one-dimensional, even though it felt like the point was to make the audience empathize with him.

There could have been an exploration of the meaning of sex, the meaning of art, and the meaning of living fully. But all I got was a horny guy having sex with his sister in law “for the sake of art.”

Part 3 Flaming Trees
A thorough, honest look at mental illness, how it affects one’s duties to others, and grief for someone still alive. It was very introspective, but it could have been way shorter with the flashbacks. The overall tone is melancholy and helpless-which is perfect. It did not make me turn pages the way the first chapter did.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Blood

May be hard to read if previously suffered from depression and/or an eating disorder.

birdafterdark's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

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

monserrot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, 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, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

emily_journals's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

• 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

This book is broken up into three segments, which are each told from a different character's POV and at different points in the story, which surprised me based on the description as I was expecting this story to all be from Yeong-hye's POV. Only the first segment has any of Yeong-hye's perspective, but her perspective is in the background of even that segment, as the first segment is from Yeong-hye's husband's perspective. 

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. 

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Content Warnings

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

wellreadsquid's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was an intense and difficult read, one I'm happy to have completed. Watching the way everyone experienced Yeong-hye suffering while Yeong-hye never once got a say in her suffering was so disheartening. I'm going to be writing a much longer review on my blog if you want my full thoughts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Chronic illness, and Blood

There is Marital Rape in this book so read with caution.

thefearlessfrock's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is extraordinary but I still feel something's missing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

It's really heavy.