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I loved the movie but had no idea that the original novel was translated to english!!

This book is actually a contoversy book in south korea. Most people are still conservative. I remember one time, i read on the news some male fans of this particular female singer went mad and destroyed her photos when they found out she read this book! Mental isnt it?

This is such a great book and i was furious too when i read it. Glad im not alone 😅

Hanis wrote: "This book is actually a contoversy book in south korea. Most people are still conservative. I remember one time, i read on the news some male fans of this particular female singer went mad and dest..."

I googled it after reading and saw articles about lots of couples splitting up because of it! If men are working that hard to suppress a book like this, then clearly it is needed! :O

True! I couldn't agree more :)

Great review, Emily!

Nenia ❤️�� I hate everything you love ❤️�� wrote: "Great review, Emily!"

Thank you, Nenia! :)

Fab review Emily, can't wait to read this book. There is so much still to be done regarding women's equality

I just read If I Had Your Face, which is also set in contemporary Korea, and really loved it. But if Kim Jiyoung is the rage-read I think it is, I might have to wait a bit before picking it up. Great review!

Vesna wrote: "Fab review Emily, can't wait to read this book. There is so much still to be done regarding women's equality"

Thank you, Vesna!

Elle wrote: "I just read If I Had Your Face, which is also set in contemporary Korea, and really loved it. But if Kim Jiyoung is the rage-read I think it is, I might have to wait a bit before pi..."

Thank you, Elle! I just checked out If I Had Your Face and it sounds like a must-read. Adding it to my tbr :)

Emily May wrote: "Thank you, Elle! I just checked out If I Had Your Face and it sounds like a must-read. Adding it to my tbr :)"

That’s great, I can’t wait to see what you think! It just came out today, so perfect timing. 😊

HA HA youread peppa pig :)

I love reading your reviews. These really help me select some great reads!

I just want to say thank you for all your excellent reviews. Anytime a book is recommended to me, I check to see if you’ve read it because I always concur with your judgement. Whenever I’m looking to add something great to my list, I look at your latest reads. You don’t just pan or gush, you tell us WHY and that’s what I love. You also acknowledge/are aware of, your biases or ignorance about things which keeps it honest. Finally, while you seem to prefer historical fiction (as do I) you still push the boundaries and read from a variety of genres so we get recommendations for the best books to introduce some diversity into our reading. All that reading and writing of reviews must take so much time. Seriously, thank you for helping me choose the best books to read and for your intelligent and thoughtful reflections. They are truly valued and utilized. Stay safe and healthy!

Laura wrote: "I just want to say thank you for all your excellent reviews. Anytime a book is recommended to me, I check to see if you’ve read it because I always concur with your judgement. Whenever I’m looking ..."

Thank you so much, Laura. Seriously, this might be the nicest comment I've ever woken up to. I don't know that I deserve all your praise, but it was very much appreciated :) Hope you're staying safe and healthy too!

Great review! Especially loved your question about Ji-Young’s mother, about being someone in the “in between��.

Wanted to make a quick comment to wonder if Jiyoung’s breakdown isn’t as bizarre as it seems - in the beginning and end, we really only see it through male eyes. I think there’s something to be said about women doing work that doesn’t stimulate them, especially after becoming a mother, and having only their own minds and memories for company.

Cat wrote: "Great review! Especially loved your question about Ji-Young’s mother, about being someone in the “in between��.

Wanted to make a quick comment to wonder if Jiyoung’s breakdown isn’t as bizarre as ..."

Thank you, Cat!

I was discussing Jiyoung's strange behaviour with a friend, and the odd way mental illness is generally portrayed in Korean media. It's strange, but Korean books seem to portray mental illness as something very bizarre, almost supernatural. The male perspective may have something to do with it, but I also think it is in part due to the stigma against mental illness in Korea.

I picked this up after you and Tatiana reviewed it and I just wanted to thank you for putting it on my radar!

As for the beginning and ending, I appreciated that framing. My interpretation was that it started with her husband’s family asking, ‘What happened to her? Why is she like this?�� Then those questions are answered by going over every struggle in her life that led to where she is now. Only to have a medical professional in the end, who supposedly ‘gets�� her and sympathies with her condition, to perpetuate the exact same behaviors that hurt Jiyoung in the first place. Jiyoung’s life is bookended by men who fashion themselves as progressive and modern, but are still massively falling short.

I can see how those chapters might come off as a bit jarring, but I took that as intentional. As if Cho Nam-Joo wanted to take her readers (esp. men) gently by the shoulders and shake them, remind them this isn’t just a story. Anyways, always love reading your reviews, Emily! Thanks again for posting 😊

Elle wrote: "I picked this up after you and Tatiana reviewed it and I just wanted to thank you for putting it on my radar!

As for the beginning and ending, I appreciated that framing. My interpretation was th..."

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I did like the framing device of starting at her breakdown and going back to see what happened, but it was the really bizarre behaviour that put me off. I already said this in a comment above, but a friend and I were discussing the way Korean books and movies tend to portray mental illness as something really outrageous, even supernatural, and the way this might be because of the stigma against mental illness in Korea.

Great point! I probably haven’t consumed enough Korean media to have caught on to that. Hopefully it’ll start change along with the gender discrimination.

Hi, Emily! I just wanted to add some thought on your comment about the beginning and the end of this book.

I should first say that I’m from S Korea myself but have distanced myself from S Korean lit since teenage years. The main reason was that popular adult fictions that make it into the bestseller list there are mostly heavily loaded with social critique, so much so that it felt as if novels are mostly being used as a vessel for social critique and not cherished in themselves. (I think it has a lot to do with the general public’s perception towards reading - that it should be productive, that you should learn something at the end.. genres like thriller are much less popular in S Korea compared to North America or Europe for that reason) Anyway this whole thing hit me as somewhat snobbish and bleak, I’d say? Like, there’s so much more that fictions can do other than social critique and that those possibilities are not being fully realised, was how I saw it.

I picked this book up more out of sense of duty rather than genuine interest. It made a significant impact in the society and I’m a feminist, so I guessed I should at least check it out (and it’s short), but I assumed this would be a textbook example of S Korean lit that made me distance myself from it for over a decade - all social critique and not enough literature. I felt that way until the second last chapter, feeling ‘meh just another typical S Korean novel that only cares about social critique and nothing else.. this could’ve simply been a nonfiction because it’s honestly so underdeveloped for a novel��, ready to give it 3 stars. However, that last chapter really caught me unguarded, and I really liked the final sarcastic blow. Throughout the whole time I was listening to the audiobook I was thinking, ‘well, if you were gonna write a novel filled with social critique, at least you could’ve taken a more ironical, satirical tone? That would’ve made this novel feel richer and more fleshed out. With this writing style it’s nothing more than average�� and then I finally got the hint of that tone at the last chapter. For me the last chapter, and partly the first chapter, were the kind of twist that would’ve been impossible in a nonfiction, the part where the author was really utilising the capacity of fiction. I appreciated that.

I know that this is mainly a narrative about female life, and that starting and ending it with male voices can feel like watering down the essence of the book. However, I felt that without the first and the last chapter, if this book started and finished simply with Kim Ji Young’s life, the book would’ve been duller, the kind of novel that treats its plot and characters merely as props for social critique and nothing more. It was also a sort of perky winking gesture to those men who consider themselves gentle, understanding and feminist enough but are fundamentally misogynists in disguise, the kind of satire that can be better done in fiction than in nonfiction, so I guess I really enjoyed the last chapter :) Sorry that this comment got too long!

spot on.

I disagree with you...it should be for everyone

First and foremost, I loved your review Emily!

I just wanted to share that to me the fact that Jiyoung channeled other women's voices isn't about mental illness. It's more about how both Jiyoung and the book give voice to the frustration and powerlessness that thousands of women feel after dealing with misogyny for so long.

I could relate to it quite a lot even though I grew up in India. I like how the book was capable of acknowledging women's problems universally.thank u for this review

So agree! I read this thinking I was going to recover from a chilling read (Thirteen) but this infuriated me even more.