Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

187 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Colonisation, Death, Incest, Sexual content, Hate crime, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: War

Minor: Terminal illness

kinda reminds me of "the love songs of w.e.b. dubois" and "homegoing" in the way it traces a family over generations also warning for sex b/t minors/incest

page_karla's review

emotional inspiring 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

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Abortion, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infertility, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Abandonment, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Sexism

matcha_cat's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Racism, Sexual content, and Classism

Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Bullying, Colonisation, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Death, War, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Miscarriage, Ableism, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Alcohol, Child death, and Violence

oceanwriter's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, War, and Sexual content

Minor: Abortion and Miscarriage

hankhank's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Grief

Moderate: Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Infertility, Death, Death of parent, Racism, Addiction, Abortion, and War

thenoboshow's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Death, Bullying, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Grief, Infertility, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, War, and Xenophobia

drkng31's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Classism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Drug use, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Death, War, Cancer, Terminal illness, Abortion, Addiction, Colonisation, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Bullying, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia

sas_lk's review

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This was the type of novel I had to digest slowly, and take the time to enjoy every chapter. I really liked the first two thirds, they felt like 4.5-5 stars at parts. 
The last third is unfortunately what lost me a little, and it is also why I am giving it 4 stars instead of something higher. At the end it started feeling a little disjointed, like the author lost track of the story a little bit. We were following the POVs of way more characters all of a sudden and quite a few felt pointless - atleast the depth that the author went into. And then it felt like the author added a couple traumatic things to keep the book sad and shocking without delving into these traumatic events. It felt like at the end she was speeding through her writing instead of taking her time with the events and happenings like she did in the first 2 thirds - this made me lose touch with the characters, and I almost felt like I stopped knowing them; like they were different characters than the ones I had been following throughout the whole book.
Overall, a great book, and I would definitely recommend it, I just wish the author had sat with the last third a little longer and not tried to do too much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Suicide, Death, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, War, Sexism, Death of parent, Grief, Colonisation, Car accident, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Hate crime, Bullying, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

ryan4092's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Suicide

Minor: Child death, Miscarriage, Infertility, War, and Abortion

moonmoonsun's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility, Police brutality, Racism, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Domestic abuse, Trafficking, War, Abortion, Addiction, Chronic illness, Cursing, Deportation, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Grief, and Infidelity