The Vegetarian: A Novel

I read this on my kindle purely because my lecturer said it was pretty good. (Same one who told me about "Eileen" - and that worked out nicely).

Well, I started it whilst brushing my teeth this morning and putting on my make-up. It was shorter than I expected but, holy christ was it emotional! 

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and this Man Booker Prize is gonna be one close call - I can see it. 

Characters: 

Yeong-Hye was my favourite character. She is our "vegetarian" in question. I just feel that something would've worked out differently if people had been listening to her dreams and maybe offering her some useful help. You end up feeling really sorry for her, even though at times she can make you really impatient. 

Themes:

My favourite theme was madness. In this novel, being a vegetarian and being mad are parallels. Throughout the book - people seem to think that because Yeong-Hye is a vegetarian, that she must be insane as well. It's that thing where if enough people say that you're insane, will you start to believe it? (She didn't seem that mad at the start of the book). 

Storyline:

My favourite part of the story was the second section. This is because we had a character that actually liked Yeong-Hye instead of just kept trying to institutionalise her all the time. But, as we gradually move through the chapter - a thought of "does he really like her?" comes over you and your answer is most probably "no". The ending of this chapter is also amazing - so fast-paced and thorough!

Verdict:

I give this book 8/9

100% for characters: I loved Yeong-Hye - she seems so misunderstood and just looks as if she's going along with what everyone is saying to her. 

100% for themes: I loved the theme of madness tying into being a vegetarian. Never seen that done before, but it worked nicely. 

2/3 for storyline: Just wanted it to last longer really. I thought it was pretty short.