Reviews tagging 'Mass/school shootings'

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

21 reviews

emvoor's review

adventurous informative sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Sexual violence and Domestic abuse

astonecdp's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Beautifully written historical fiction. I learned so much about the time, place and people (especially women) of Jeju, Korea.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Genocide, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, War, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Sexual violence

azilisssss's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Hate crime, Murder, Police brutality, Rape, Domestic abuse, Mass/school shootings, Gore, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, War, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, and Colonisation

Moderate: Vomit and Pregnancy

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

larkken's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Mass/school shootings, Child death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Rape and Domestic abuse

bwwilhelm's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

HEED THE TRIGGER WARNINGS. This book is emotionally engaging, but I cannot in good conscience recommend it to anyone. It deals with war from the viewpoint of a young woman on a small island. Things get gruesome, and graphic in parts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Child death

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

This book talks about the horrors of war, REPEATEDLY. Do with that information what you will. Specific trigger stuff in spoiler text.

About halfway into the book, Young-sook's entire village is herded into the local school by armed police. Some villagers are tortured, and Young-sook's husband, son, and sister-in-law are killed. It is GRAPHIC. Also, near the end of the book, Mi-ja goes into semi-specific detail about everything her husband did to her. Not incredibly graphic, but still made very clear. R*pe, police violence, colonization, etc, are mentioned throughout, pretty much from the beginning of the story, but it's generally very matter-of-fact with little to no details.

krisawesome's review

2.5

Pacing is odd, Young-sook isn’t an especially engaging protagonist, and some of the personal conflicts were super predictable and felt a little trope-y to me (and not in a good way).

Although I had been warned about some of the descriptions in this book, I was still not fully prepared for how brutal some of the instances were. I’m usually fine to read those if I’m aware of them ahead of time but the end of the “Life-Giving Air” chapter (and a bit of the following one) were too much even for me. Note that I don’t blame See for including them, and I wouldn’t have even been all that surprised if I’d read them without warning - it’s not like she’d pulled punches earlier in the book either. But they’re hard to get past, is what I’m saying.

The 2008 chapters feel like they’re a little phoned in, compared to the research and effort that See obviously put into the main timeline. 

Stars were earned mostly by the anthropological and historical elements, as difficult as the latter were to read about at times. It was especially fascinating to read about the haenyeo and their matrifocal society.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, and Excrement

Other warnings: drowning, mutilation

spinesinaline's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Excrement, Infertility, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, and Blood

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Cancer

books_and_fairy_lights's review

emotional hopeful informative sad medium-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

4.75

I don't remember ever crying so much over a single book. It got me laughing and sobbing. It's tragic and very emotional, but hopeful, and beautifully written. It's also very instructive and I loved it from the first page to the last one. A wonderful book about love, friendship, survival, and the importance to forgive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mass/school shootings, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Rape

Minor: Cancer

tripscurlies's review

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I love stories about women friendships and their complexities and this one was excellent. There are many tragedies in this book, and it had me weeping at the end, so be warned about that. It also takes place over several decades on Jeju, which is a part of the world that I hadn't looked into prior and found incredibly interesting. I really felt that the author put a lot of research into it and it makes me want to seek about more information. Overall, I would highly recommend this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content