Reviews with content warning for War - Pachinko

Reviews tagging 'War'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

269 reviews

kieralyn_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-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

4.75

another good long read tracing a family across multiple generations. the author really loves throwing in hard-hitting-story-changing-why-the-hell-would-you-do-that-sad moments at the very last page of a chapter. i learned a lot about japan's colonization of korea and the effect on families too

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a_lf05's review

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dark emotional reflective slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

I don't have much to say about this book but it was definitely really good !! going into this I was worried it would be a bit slow going through four (?) generations but it was very engaging and generally the characters were very well written and felt like real people !!

Some of the storylines that didn't revolve around sunja's immediate family felt a little forgotten at times but I can forgive that 🙏🙏

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matcha_cat's review

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challenging emotional reflective slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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chiffonng's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad fast-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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mmccombs's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

A multigenerational story that definitely belongs in the pantheon of great classics! I loved these characters and the natural flow of the story, where each turn and tragedy of these characters’ lives felt very lived in. The examination of culture and how it changed over time, of the racism towards Koreans and longstanding impact of colonialism, and of intergenerational conflicts and expectations for women were all wonderfully nuanced.
I didn’t leave this book feeling as wowed as I anticipated, I think i found this either too short or too long. So many characters came and went, to the point where I never quite felt enough depth from most of them except for Sunja. In the end though, I’m glad I finally got around to this one, it was a great sweeping story that will stay with me for a long time!

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gabrielcunha's review

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emotional 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? Yes

4.0

I posted on my instagram about this book and i was just in the beginning of book 3 when i did so - i had given the book a 5 star review midway. I completed changed my mind on book 3 though. The way the story was being carried out was very interesting up until then but there were major plot changes that made me feel like i was reading a different book and even the perspective changes focusing on side characters rather than maintain the story on the path it was going made me change my mind. I understand now why one of the main characters

gets cut off

after thinking about this book for two days after finishing reading it - but still after that the book just gets weird at least for me. Although i didn't enjoy book 3 as much book 1 and 2 were absolutely amazing - i really like how the story is developed from the multi perspective point of view, specially now that i have discovered that family sagas/generational fiction is my favorite genre. anyway, i really enjoyed some major reflections i made about race and social acceptance that are main central points of this book, it definitely is not just a book to read and forget but one that will stay with you and make you reflect upon the subjects that are presented. i have noted down three parts of the book that really resonated with me:

1) Akiko's intrusion on Hansu's lunch: this is one of the big plots of the book, this girl just destroyed Noa's life for no reason and it is in this piece that Noa notices that she only saw him as a "Good Korean" and not as a human being, which was what he wanted all his life. However she carries herself as being "above prejudice" but still is driven but such social bias of Koreans in Japan.

2) Solomon tells his boss: "so then the success tax comes from envy, and the shit tax comes from exploitation." Couple of chapters after we see that Solomon is actually paying the shit tax rather than the success as his boss had implied.

3) Phoebe tells Solomon: "There was more to being something than just blood." Another big discussion of the book, how Koreans were treated all their lives - even if they were born and raised in Japan - they would never be considered Japanese people, I think this last few chapters and Solomon's plot makes up for the 3rd book. He's relationship with Phoebe (a Korean American) says a lot about himself, his identity (he sees himself as more Japanese than Korean but he is a Korean citizen even if he has never lived there) and his ambition. He thinks he has everything figured out after college but little by little he begins to lose everything he had hoped to build.

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oceanwriter's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

This book hadn’t been on my radar but I have seen it around over the past few years. I picked it up when it was selected as a group read. I’m glad I got to go into it with an open mind. I came away with mixed emotions.

Beginning in the early 1900s, we meet Sunja and her family living in Korea. She meets Hansu and envisions a future with him, especially once she discovers she’s pregnant. Unbeknownst to her, he has a wife and children in Japan. Refusing to see him again, she accepts the offer of marriage from Isak, an ailing minister. Together they set off for Japan to live with Isak’s brother and his wife with Isak adopting Noa and raising him as his own. Parts two and three follow the lineage of Sunja’s family through to the 1980s.

As I was reading the book’s first part, I anticipated this being a five-star read. I was completely absorbed in the plot, characters, setting, history, writing… all of it. Part two started to lose me a little bit, especially reaching the second half of it. Part three was an absolute headache. I no longer had a grasp on the characters or the many plot lines the story now involved.

So many of the monumental moments of the book, particularly in the second half, start, occur, and end in the span of one to three paragraphs — if that. Because of this, there’s no chance to build a bond with a number of the characters or their situations. After a slower build in the beginning, all of a sudden switching to fast pacing and sporadic time jumps was dizzying. I cannot recall most of this second of the book as my reading was interrupted to go back and see if I missed something, only to realize a major plot point was dropped in a singular sentence with little to no explanation around it.

I’m definitely walking away feeling disappointed after so much enjoyment in the beginning, but I’m glad I went along for the ride.

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hankhank's review

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emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. The vividness of the story's world was built up from the tiniest personal details, into a whole society. The main cast of characters felt like real people to me, and I'll miss their company. It was especially impressive how the author moved through time so seamlessly, and how characters we met first as children aged so realistically. There are lots of terrible things that happened in the story, and many sad moments, but also many sweet, funny, beautiful things, too. I would recommend this to anyone who like stories about people.

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ssram28's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad

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

5.0

Beautifully written, deep dive into a fictional family that deals with the social repercussions of WWII on Korean treatment in Japan. You get a feel for the setting while also experiencing through multiple perspectives of this generational family. I didn't know I could feel heartbreak this many times for this many people.

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lilyeligator's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

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