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rainbowarpaint's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, and Murder
lynxpardinus's review
5.0
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Gaslighting
Minor: Pedophilia and Rape
jayisreading's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, and Kidnapping
Minor: Ableism and Eating disorder
kcelena's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder
Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
linguaphile412's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Violence, Medical content, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, and Eating disorder
snowwhitehatesapples's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Told in different perspectives and at different points of time, Lemon is a story that revolves around the murder of Da-on’s beautiful older sister, Hae-on. But, it’s not a murder mystery in the traditional sense. Instead, this book focuses more on exploring grief and trauma in various perspectives while touching on other topics like prejudice based on appearance, privilege and inequality; corruption within the system; and the deeply rooted misogyny in South Korean society.
Unfortunately, despite my liking books that are in the same vein, Lemon is not the book for me. As aforementioned, this book is less traditional murder mystery and more an exploration the aftermath. I had expected stronger emotions and more human-like characters, but the narratives were in overall, too clinical and detached. I felt no suspense, no anxiety, no sadness—nothing. And, because of this lack of emotional impact, the impact resultant from the observations of the prejudice, corruption and misogyny suffered as well. In short, Lemon read more like social commentary disguised as a mystery novel. To me, it felt that the main point of the book leaned more towards on emphasising the social commentary while the characters were simply vessels to deliver that commentary. And, I’m sorry to write this, but the social commentary was just typical and obvious (there’s no subtlety at all, which made the commentary hollow). It simply scratched the surface, providing no new or deeper, thoughtful outlook on the realities.
Honestly, Lemon fell short of the hard-hitting brilliance it could’ve been. If the social commentary had been more subtle and the human emotions of the characters more well developed, this book would’ve been stunning.
Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder
katiewhocanread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
Graphic: Mental illness, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Bullying and Cancer
Minor: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent
internationalreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.5
Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
sarah984's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Grief and Murder
Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Death of parent
Minor: Ableism, Rape, and Stalking
whatellisreadnext's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Hae-on was murdered at 19, the case was left unsolved. Da-on, her sister, trying to recover from this loss, sets out to find the truth.
Lemon is a short, dark and captivating novel about a sister trying to find justice. I read this today within a few hours, I just couldn't turn the pages quick enough.
We get multiple perspectives, and it's not stated who they are immediately, like a lot of the novel you have to come to your own conclusions. Which I loved. When everything slid into place at the end I did a little gasp. It's pretty evident fairly early on who the murderer is, but that wasn't the shocking part.
For such a short book, this goes to some super dark places, it reminded me a lot of The Vegetarian by Han Kang, and how as the reader we're just forced to just go with the flow.
I highly recommend this if you love mysteries and short translated fiction. Thanks so much to Head of Zeus for the gifted copy, and for allowing me to be a part of this tour! (AD-PR PRODUCT)
Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent