Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

13 reviews

emmyreads03's review

informative reflective fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Genocide, Suicide, Grief, Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Hate crime, Police brutality, Torture, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, and War

epruta's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Child death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Murder, and Police brutality

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Domestic abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Pregnancy

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Suicide

minireader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Whilst I've given many trigger warnings to this book, it is fascinating. The horrors that Jeju suffered is not entirely untouchable. It's still happening today in other countries. Its an important read and an incredibly heart wrenching story. I can't recommend it enough!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Genocide, Death, War, Torture, Suicide, Violence, Trafficking, Rape, Police brutality, Hate crime, Gun violence, and Death of parent

alexis_baldwin92's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Suicide, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Genocide, War, Sexual violence, Death, Colonisation, Child death, Rape, Violence, Racism, and Domestic abuse

msjacquip's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.0

TW: death; domestic violence; child death; suspected suicide; sexual assault

Young-sook & Mi-ja are two young women, living on the Korean Island of Jeju, who work as part of the island’s diving crew throughout the 1930s and 1940s. They come from very different backgrounds but they forge a fast friendship that appears to be inseparable. Unfortunately, throughout WWII and beyond, their differences (and forces beyond their control) push their relationship to breaking point…

Full disclosure, I would never have read this book but for it being the May book for bookclub. However, I am so glad that I did. It’s a dual timeline, part throughout the 1930s and 1940s and part over a 4 day period in 2008. 

I loved learning about the haenyeo and the traditions that keep this all women collective alive. Young-sook is a formidable woman and the reader is treated to her innermost thoughts and experiences her highs and lows alongside her throughout the book.

There is a lot of tragedy throughout but the book ends with an air of hope. I really loved this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Minor: Suicide and Sexual assault

katiecentabar's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child death, and Torture

Minor: Suicide

rieviolet's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I started this book with very high expectations and maybe that wasn't a good idea because it just added to my disappointment. 

The sections with historical, social and cultural informations were very interesting (at least for me) but I don't think that they were very well integrated into the narration and I can see how someone might find them a bit too much didactic and dry.

The historical events that are the basis for this story were brutal and certainly they cannot be brushed aside, but I still think that an author can approach the portraying of violence in a way that does not feel gratuitous (as it did for me in this case). I don't think that such a violence was well transposed on the page, at times it just felt like a list of atrocities, just for shock value. 

In general, I just didn't get along much with the writing style, I found it eithera bit plain or a bit too much overdone, without much subtlety in terms of both narration and characterization. 

Speaking of characters, I have to say that I struggled to connect with them, even when it came to the main character, Youngsook, there were very few moments when I felt really engrossed in her story and her feelings. I think that the characters' emotions were not so well portrayed, they were either too much melodramatic for my taste or kept hidden or just vaguely hinted at, so that I struggled as a reader to actually understand their depth and to be interested in the unfolding of the various relationships.

I wasn't so keen on the big final reveal, the events of the last chapters
just felt like too much for me, too over dramatic, too out of nowhere, just too much. The ending itself was also very abrupt. 

I really liked the setting and the historical/cultural background but the story, the characters and the writing style quite dampened my enjoyment of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Gun violence, War, Colonisation, Police brutality, Torture, Death, Child death, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Ableism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Excrement, Vomit, Blood, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Child abuse

Minor: Cancer, Body shaming, and Alcoholism

zombiezami's review against another edition

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

I always learn so much about history from Lisa See's novels, and this book was no exception. There was clearly a lot of research and care that went into producing this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gun violence, Violence, War, Death, Murder, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Child death, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Blood, Gore, Animal death, and Genocide

Moderate: Vomit, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexism, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual harassment, Excrement, Ableism, Alcoholism, and Medical content

Minor: Cancer, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Kidnapping, Drug use, and Infidelity

Starvation

ree333's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Torture, Death, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Child death

Minor: Suicide and Rape

elly29's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring 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

A slow burn of a novel, that suddenly dissolves. I loved that it was about women divers (in Jeju, an island off of South Korea's coast). The best part of the book was the society of haenyeo -- as a woman, who works, (and who just got some scuba certification), it was a joy and delight to hear of classic gender roles turned on their head.

Junbu, Young-Sook's husband, seemed like a woman's fantasy of a husband. 

I also didn't know about the Bukchon Massacre, or anything about Jeju Island and the struggle between insurgent and anti-communist government forces. There is a brutal scene that involves lots of things like rape, torture, murder, and child murder. (Also makes me sick at the thought that these things are happening in Ukraine.)

In the end, this is a story about diving, survival, and forgiveness. I love that the sea is a constant, a grandmother who will never leave you even when everything else has changed. I like the phrase, "To understand everything is to forgive." Using Young-Sook and her life as an example of what we should not do: may we be patient, may we ask questions, may we never assume, may we be perceptive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: War, Gun violence, Police brutality, Rape, and Torture

Minor: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Vomit