Reviews with content warning for Child death - Marilyn und ich

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Marilyn und ich by Ji-min Lee

8 reviews

rogankeira's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad

2.0

The writing was really atmospheric, but I found the ending rushed, the aspect with Marilyn undeveloped and the focus on Alice's pre-war romantic (adulterous) relationships took away from the interesting aspects of her war and post-war experience.

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justreads93's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I feel like I got click baited with this book. I thought I was getting a book about Marilyn’s time in Korea during her USO tour told through the perspective of her translator. Instead Marilyn is a side character and really more of a framing device for the main character to tell her harrowing story.

I really don’t know how I feel about the book itself; I think if I had known what I was getting into I would have liked it more. This is a story that is worth telling and worth reading. I feel like I rarely see stories set during the Korean War and this short book was a fascinating character study. But it’s not the book I had wanted to read.

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kmsander4's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.25

A quick read but a story that draws you in nonetheless. I felt for all of the characters in this story from Alice to Marilyn to Min-hwan to Joseph and everyone in between.

War is messy. It leaves people destroyed for years and generations to come. And the ripple effect is never ending.

A heartfelt story of grief and pain and reaching a point of acceptance.

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bilitis's review

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

i thought the author's intent to give a voice to the stories that were lost to the war really came through because there was clearly a lot of love in all of those bits. the actual title has very little relevance to the story as marilyn does come across as an afterthought, but i still thought the idea of drawing a parallel between alice and marilyn, both in appearance and personality, was really interesting even if it came a little short. the book felt really fragmented at times so im not sure if being longer would've helped fix it's shortcomings, but i enjoyed it anyway.

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