Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

56 reviews

skyebird16's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Vomit, Grief, Gore, Pregnancy, Torture, Violence, Toxic friendship, Child death, Excrement, and Genocide

Moderate: Colonisation and Rape

Minor: Animal death and Alcohol

mmorice's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Wonderful book with an interesting insight in Korean history from a woman's perspective. Loved reading about the matriarchical culture of diving in Jeju. Very intense scenes describing the war repercussions on their island.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Police brutality, Genocide, Body horror, Colonisation, and Child death

franzicalzelunghe's review against another edition

emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, War, Genocide, Grief, Death, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, and Child death

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

inhale_exhale_read's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring 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

Lisa See does an amazing job of writing about relationships that span a lifetime and what it's like to live through traumatic events that impact someone's life forever. The way she wrote about the haenyeo culture and everything these women lived through from childhood to old age made me feel like I was right there - atmospheric, visceral, and emotional. Incredible story and incredible writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death of parent, and Child death

Moderate: Rape and War

pbuzzard's review

challenging emotional inspiring sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Abortion, Bullying, Child death, and Abandonment

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual assault, Gore, Suicide attempt, Cultural appropriation, Slavery, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Trafficking, Mental illness, Murder, Hate crime, Infertility, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Violence, Body shaming, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, War, Medical trauma, Grief, Racism, Alcohol, Excrement, Physical abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Torture, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, and Gun violence

brogan7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative fast-paced

4.0

I loved the beginning of this book.  I didn't understand how brutal the story it had to tell would become, and I can't say I was quite ready for it.
Also, I couldn't quite relate to the perfect friendship/turned so completely to trauma of a level so deep...I couldn't relate to either of them by then, Mi-ja and her seeming instantaneous change of heart, Young-Sook and her complete unwillingness to listen or interact with her, even if she felt betrayed. 

She had to know that Mi-ja didn't cause the massacre, and that no matter Mi-ja's failure to act, it wasn't all her fault.  And on the other side, what friend asks you to choose one of your children to save? What was that?

The book explicitly and implicitly favoured a "forgiveness" pathway that felt more like passivity than forgiveness.  The ending really pushed toward a particular interpretation, which felt imposed by non-survivors (the author? Or the cultural stereotype of the passive Asian woman?). The character of Young-Sook felt like she wanted to shatter those expectations, and for the better, but she wasn't allowed her free reign.

. Originally, when Mi-ja comes to the ceremony with Shaman Kim, what happened there was wide open for interpretation.  I thought that Shaman Kim was chastising Mi-ja by reminding her of the trauma of the day of the massacre.  She was saying the family members forgave, but they were speaking to Young-sook: they were easing her pain.  To Mi-ja, outside of it all, it seemed to me that they were showing her separateness from the massacre: she was there but not there, she walked away and washed her hands of it, they had nothing to say to her and they were showing their connection to the community, but not to her.  Mi-ja, who could not accept forgiveness anyway, would not have felt herself absolved of guilt by this.  She would have trebled in guilt, for thinking she didn't deserve their forgiveness.
When Shaman Kim reinterprets this at the end of the book, she chastises Young-Sook, she pushes her to forgive Mi-ja, and by extension their Korean attackers, but that is not what was necessarily meant by the family's statements or by Shaman Kim's words to a community member.  I thought Shaman Kim was originally enjoining Young-Sook to forgive herself, as a survivor.  This was much more interesting to me than anything about Mi-ja at that point... Mi-ja's husband could not help them, even if he wanted to, that kind of heroics is for Hollywood...he had chosen his side and Jun-Bu wasn't on it, even had they been friends, which they weren't.  Massacres don't tend well to exceptions, it's unlikely he could have saved his wife, at that point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Colonisation, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexual violence

TW: mass killings

hannahfaith25's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, War, Grief, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Rape, Colonisation, and Child abuse

zoegg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.75

my goodness this story. i actually dropped this book previously because i really struggled with the pacing and the lack of connection i felt to the characters in the first third of the book, but i am SO GLAD i decided to give it another chance.

this story so beautifully depicts the ebbing of trauma not just on an individual level, but across a whole community. i was so heartbroken for jeju as a whole, and for young-sook and mi-ja — it felt like there was always too much time (for more hurt) and never enough (to learn to overcome it). watching young-sook grow from a teenager to eventually be a grandma was spectacular, and i felt so connected to her at the end that i could not believe that her story ended with this book. 

if the pacing was a bit better, this would be an easy 4 (if not 4.5), but i am still so so glad to have finished this and highly recommend others give it a try :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Death, Grief, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

smstevens's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Pregnancy, War, Grief, Child death, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Injury/Injury detail