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SHELTER by Jung Yun is a novel that emotionally leaves the reader reeling. It’s an emotional family drama hidden in a crime suspense novel. Author Yun brilliantly writes her characters to the point that the reader is invested in their lives.

The novel begins with 36 year-old Kyung Cho attempting to ready his home for sale. He and his wife, Gillian, have been living beyond their means and are stuck in suffocating debt. From the start of the novel, the reader feels the darkness of Kyung’s life, his disappointment with his station in life. The reader feels his distain when he corrects his realtor who suggests he’s Chinese: No, he’s Korean. The reader gleans that there’s more to Kyung’s unhappiness than his financial follies.

Kyung’s parents are victims of a horrific home invasion, which brings Kyung’s troubles into focus. After the crime, Kyung insists that his parents live with his family while his parents physically mend. At this point the reader learns of the domestic violence Kyung lived through growing up. Having his parents live with him forces Kyung to face the impact of his childhood to his current life.

Author Yun exposes domestic violence and the emotional rubble that requires mending. This is a great book club read, for I grew exasperated with Kyung. He’s a 36-year-old man who still harbors grudges and anger over his childhood. He became a man with a chip on his shoulder: an anger that he never worked through. To add to this, Kyung’s parents are immigrants from Korea and raised him with traditional Korean values. Kyung is first generation Korean-American and thus saw how American children were raised. Kyung’s anger at his parents for not showing him affection and love similar to the American dream families rages in his soul. Instead of working through those issues, as his wife begs him to do, he becomes a self-sabotaging train wreck.

While Kyung is personally imploding, Yun writes a stunning end to the novel. To even suggest how she ties everything together would be a crime to future readers. As I wrote at the beginning, the reader becomes so invested in the characters and the outcome of this fine novel, that I found the ending to be amazing. It’s a must read. It’s not a frivolous read; it’s not a happy book. It’s an amazing story.