Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

49 reviews

jkunke's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

3.0

This book is beautifully written but it’s trauma porn. The author clearly did a lot of historical research but doesn’t write as if she has experience working with people who have experienced trauma. Instead many of her characters come off as two-dimensional stereotypes. And many people describe one of the main characters as a love interest but there is nothing romantic about him or about their relationship; he and their relationship are terrible, manipulative and abusive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

emmaopaline's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

madeline_schmidt20's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Torture and Trafficking

Minor: Sexual content

mysterymom40's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Infertility, Mental illness, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Minor: Miscarriage

mal_reads_books's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.5

I enjoyed the range of characters and the drama between them. I felt invested in most of them, especially Sunja. When it started focusing on the newer generations (the 1970s-80s chapters toward the end), I did find myself flipping through more quickly because I wasn’t really interested in them.

(Side note: It took me a while to figure out Mozasu was named after

Moses

and I feel kind of dumb for it 😅)

Overall, great story that demonstrates the discrimination and other hardships that Koreans experienced in 20th century Imperial Japan. I already had a surface level understanding of how the Japanese treated Koreans back then (“comfort women”, for example), and this book gave me an in-depth look of what the Koreans went through. I felt immersed in the story, settling, and culture. Would love to read more books like this. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

Minor: Infidelity, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, and Abortion

Christian themes are prevalent, especially toward the beginning. Several characters have biblical names, such as Sunja’s pastor husband (Isak), brother-in-law (Yoseb), and children (Noa and Mozasu).

Isak and several members of his church are imprisoned because one member was caught saying The Lord’s Prayer instead of worshipping the Emperor. He is released shortly before he dies and his injuries show that he was tortured in prison. Seeing him die, and how unrecognizable he looked, especially when his family hasn’t seen him in years, was upsetting.

Other things worth knowing: teenager is groomed and gets pregnant by man twice her age; also a group of boys attempts to sexually assault her, but she is saved by this man. Resilience against racism and misogyny are major themes of the book, so anti-Korean and misogynist comments are frequently seen in dialogue.

lisamsalgado's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Genocide, Misogyny, Racism, Violence, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia, and Sexual content

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Torture, Abortion, and Colonisation

lambclown's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Suicide

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

thedailyhailey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

I love the omniscient POV. There are so many characters, and you get to hear a lot of thoughts, perspectives, and motives. It’s over all pretty tragic and

does not have a resolved or happy ending,

but it’s an important fictional perspective on Koreans & Japanese during this time period.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Torture and Abortion

rain_bellin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Rape and Trafficking

Minor: Alcoholism