Tanvi Desai

Trigger Warning: This book contains themes of mental illness, sexual violence, and emotional abuse. When I started this book, I thought it was just about a woman slowly losing her grip on reality. And in some ways, it is—but the more I sat with it, the more I realized it’s also a quiet scream against misogyny and control. The novel follows Yeong-hye, a seemingly ordinary woman who decides to stop eating meat after a disturbing dream. What begins as a simple personal choice spirals into a complete unraveling of her life, sanity, and relationships. No one asks why or tries to understand her—they just try to fix her, punish her, or use her. It’s uncomfortable to read, but intentionally so. Han Kang never gives us a neat diagnosis or explanation. Instead, she shows us how a woman can disappear under the weight of expectations—how mental illness and societal oppression can blur into one. It’s haunting, surreal, and deeply unsettling. The Vegetarian is not an easy read, but it’s one that lingers—a story about the body, about silence, and about what happens when a woman finally stops trying to be what everyone else wants.