Scan barcode
neenzreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Magical realism at its finest. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Family, mental health and Korean immigration in the US and Europe are explored through the perspective of experimental physicist Elsa Park.
I loved how the author wasn't afraid to weave in various fields of study throughout the story. Physics, Korean & Norse literature are often used to draw comparisons to Elsa's current state of mind. As Elsa travels across the globe (Antarctica, Sweden and California), she realizes she can't run from her past and the past of her family. She must face *her* reality. Juxtaposed with the disturbing relevance of racism globally, Elsa's journey to find peace is turbulent and complicated.
Elsa'a brash sense of humor and physics expertise make her a fascinating character. Character development is so strong in this story, and the ending is beautifully done. I can't recommend this book enough.
TW: physical/verbal abuse, mental illness, racism, suicidal thoughts
Family, mental health and Korean immigration in the US and Europe are explored through the perspective of experimental physicist Elsa Park.
I loved how the author wasn't afraid to weave in various fields of study throughout the story. Physics, Korean & Norse literature are often used to draw comparisons to Elsa's current state of mind. As Elsa travels across the globe (Antarctica, Sweden and California), she realizes she can't run from her past and the past of her family. She must face *her* reality. Juxtaposed with the disturbing relevance of racism globally, Elsa's journey to find peace is turbulent and complicated.
Elsa'a brash sense of humor and physics expertise make her a fascinating character. Character development is so strong in this story, and the ending is beautifully done. I can't recommend this book enough.
TW: physical/verbal abuse, mental illness, racism, suicidal thoughts
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts
hamohero's review against another edition
Not my cup of tea. Don't really care for the characters or romance. Narrator would go on tangents and there were dialogues that made me go "Who talks like this?"
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Violence, and Xenophobia
girlonbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
🎀🎀🎀🎀🎀 (five stars as rated in red ribbons trailing along behind your friend each time she visits)
Stationed at a research center on Antarctica, Elsa Park is confident that she’s finally put as much distance as she can between her and the generational trauma of her Korean-American family. When a “ghost” from her past reappears unexpectedly, Elsa must come to terms with her history – both myth and fact – whether she’s ready to or not.
“Please,” she said from her corner, “do not blame us for how our lives have turned out. Perhaps it’s not just the women in our family anyhow—our entire people have been telling the wrong stories, making a wretched mess of our history. As if anybody wants to be told that their ability to endure is their greatest virtue. No wonder we get invasions and occupations, war and asshole husbands. What kind of stories, I wonder, do the white countries tell of themselves?”
Folklorn is an exploration of diaspora, identity and self love at it’s most revolutionary. The experiences – both real and imagined – of the protagonist, Elsa, as well as her brother, Chris, her parents and particularly that of her friend, Oskar are all written, even at their worst with so much compassion. And while the pain was visceral at moments, it does ultimately lead to a place of healing that is deeply deserved by the characters and was profoundly satisfying for me as the reader. For me, of course, the best part of this book was getting to share it with my friends (for whom similar stories and experiences of the Asian diaspora are starkly underrepresented in publishing) relate and empathize with Folklorn so deeply. There really is no “reviewing” an experience like that.
Oskar was easily my favorite character (though the more I look back on the book I find myself really empathizing with Chris as well). Described by my friend Moon as the “hottest Korean in fiction as of now,” I was enamored with the acceptance and empathy that Oskar held for Elsa even when she could not find the will to feel it for herself. From a mental health standpoint, I hold deep appreciation for Oskar’s because of his insistence on Elsa’s value and attractiveness to him even when she was clearly not healthy. Love is not something to be withdrawn when we are at our worst. And we are not only worthy of it once we’ve found the strength – more often resources – to “fix ourselves.” The Park family exemplifies how much of a privilege the idea of “mental health” can truly be as well as the weight of generational trauma. This aspect of Elsa and Oskar’s arc together, in particular, really affected me personally.
✨ Rep in this book: East Asian cast of characters
✨ Content warnings for this book: drowning, death of a parent, racism, domestic abuse, violence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
dedonohoe's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, Racial slurs, and Toxic relationship
ndrsmoon's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It’s been two weeks since I read Folklorn. I cried, I closed it, I sighed, and then started ruminating how to speak about it. It has accompanied me to the grief of recent events, it has been in the back of my mind when I watched the Spanish trailer of Minari without a trace of a Korean word in it. This novel has opened a lot of bottled emotions that I didn’t know where to put them. That has been Folklorn to me.
As a child of Korean immigrants in Spain, I’ve always have had trouble with the concept of home. An insane obsession, like the portal fantasy trope of voracious reader that finds refuge in fiction, to shield themselves from reality. Now this novel, this hit home. Not the idealistic version in which I would like to be, but the real, gritty and flawed home that my own identity inhabits. Sometimes I see my kid singing to “Let it go”, or “Into the Unknown” to the top of her lungs and feeling it, but to me, the Elsa that adventured on the hidden places of my own self is Elsa Park, main character of Folklorn.
We meet Korean American Elsa Park reminiscing her mother and her Korean folktales, giving us her own description and image of a key part of her own self. After that quick glance, we move with Elsa to her present—she’s an experimental physicist looking for neutrinos (ghost particles) in the South Pole station. Loudmouthed, navigating racism with her own prejudices and bias, overt and upfront against sexism, she’s a force to be reckoned with, that’s for sure. But the stitches of the wound healed by her excellency are plain to see: “you are like one of us”, they tell her, displacing her from the here and there, forcing her to inhabit those liminal spaces in-between (one of the major themes of the novel, and the big reason it hits home). Sleep deprived and exhausted, Elsa starts hearing a bell. After discarding it as tinnitus, she decides to skip a party to get the rest she needs, but it in that moment, she’s reunited to a childhood imaginary friend that embodies her mother’s Korean folktales. She will then embark in a journey of self-discovery within the darkness of the big shadow cast by those before her.
Folklorn is a beast. Korean folklore is seamlessly interwoven in the story, playing and enhancing the great amount of layers that the story offers. Angela Mi Young Hur uses Elsa’s little microcosmos to unravel, unpack and showcase some of the nuances and experiences of what Korean diaspora means. Her parents generation, with their hustles, the trauma they directly or indirectly caused in search of a better life; her brother Chris, who has some of the scenes that will live freely and forever in my brain, who has to make sense of who he is after being told the lie that A+B will get you to C, but that, after all, he’s incredibly devoted so that her sister can shine; Swedish Korean adoptee Oskar Gantelius (hottest Korean in fiction as of now), who provides the excellent contraposition between the differences in racism between the American experience and the colorblind European experience, while also giving way to describing the particularities of what it means to be othered, to belong, to be oneself in the adoptee experience.
It was really hard to find a metaphor to describe Folklorn, but now I feel that the answer has been in front of me all the time: Taeguk. As Wikipedia says, not to be confused with the Pepsi Globe, a representation of the Taeguk is in the center of the South Korean flag. Red and blue forces interlocking and forming a new entity—and Folklorn is that, a tapestry of dualisms that showcase the Korean diaspora experience. The differences between the good daughter and the good son, the hyonyeo and hyoja, offered both in the form of traditional folktales (like Shim Cheong), and with the translated or derived forms embodied by Chris and Elsa. Mythomania against a harsh reality ridden with trauma, with all the characters trying to make peace with their grief and all the pieces that are part of their own selves… And like the swirl of the Taeguk, Hur is capable of loading the present-story with a lot of symbolism that is from the ‘source material’: the bells, the tinnitus, Shim Cheong’s father and Elsa’s… There are lots of details here and there that move your guts while also fill your brain with awe. It is that good.
Folklorn doesn’t shy away of the violence. Like traditional folktales (and not the exaggeratedly sweetened versions we are force-fed in mainstream media), there’s a history of emotional abuse, inadvertent or overt. All characters are not saint-like heroes or plain victims—they made their choices, they made their mistakes, and sometimes they own them and try their best. There’s hustle, fighting, survival, but not in a preachy-tone. It is just what it is. And like the dualism pointed before, Hur also offers a lot of poignant humor, punching fists to everything in her way, even daring to break the fourth wall just to make a point (and give you the laugh). Yes, she’s in control, and WHAT. A. RIDE.
It’s March but I know that this novel is going to be my favorite of this year. This review is my feeble attempt to give it the sixth star that it deserves.
Thanks to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for providing me an eARC of this book
As a child of Korean immigrants in Spain, I’ve always have had trouble with the concept of home. An insane obsession, like the portal fantasy trope of voracious reader that finds refuge in fiction, to shield themselves from reality. Now this novel, this hit home. Not the idealistic version in which I would like to be, but the real, gritty and flawed home that my own identity inhabits. Sometimes I see my kid singing to “Let it go”, or “Into the Unknown” to the top of her lungs and feeling it, but to me, the Elsa that adventured on the hidden places of my own self is Elsa Park, main character of Folklorn.
We meet Korean American Elsa Park reminiscing her mother and her Korean folktales, giving us her own description and image of a key part of her own self. After that quick glance, we move with Elsa to her present—she’s an experimental physicist looking for neutrinos (ghost particles) in the South Pole station. Loudmouthed, navigating racism with her own prejudices and bias, overt and upfront against sexism, she’s a force to be reckoned with, that’s for sure. But the stitches of the wound healed by her excellency are plain to see: “you are like one of us”, they tell her, displacing her from the here and there, forcing her to inhabit those liminal spaces in-between (one of the major themes of the novel, and the big reason it hits home). Sleep deprived and exhausted, Elsa starts hearing a bell. After discarding it as tinnitus, she decides to skip a party to get the rest she needs, but it in that moment, she’s reunited to a childhood imaginary friend that embodies her mother’s Korean folktales. She will then embark in a journey of self-discovery within the darkness of the big shadow cast by those before her.
Folklorn is a beast. Korean folklore is seamlessly interwoven in the story, playing and enhancing the great amount of layers that the story offers. Angela Mi Young Hur uses Elsa’s little microcosmos to unravel, unpack and showcase some of the nuances and experiences of what Korean diaspora means. Her parents generation, with their hustles, the trauma they directly or indirectly caused in search of a better life; her brother Chris, who has some of the scenes that will live freely and forever in my brain, who has to make sense of who he is after being told the lie that A+B will get you to C, but that, after all, he’s incredibly devoted so that her sister can shine; Swedish Korean adoptee Oskar Gantelius (hottest Korean in fiction as of now), who provides the excellent contraposition between the differences in racism between the American experience and the colorblind European experience, while also giving way to describing the particularities of what it means to be othered, to belong, to be oneself in the adoptee experience.
It was really hard to find a metaphor to describe Folklorn, but now I feel that the answer has been in front of me all the time: Taeguk. As Wikipedia says, not to be confused with the Pepsi Globe, a representation of the Taeguk is in the center of the South Korean flag. Red and blue forces interlocking and forming a new entity—and Folklorn is that, a tapestry of dualisms that showcase the Korean diaspora experience. The differences between the good daughter and the good son, the hyonyeo and hyoja, offered both in the form of traditional folktales (like Shim Cheong), and with the translated or derived forms embodied by Chris and Elsa. Mythomania against a harsh reality ridden with trauma, with all the characters trying to make peace with their grief and all the pieces that are part of their own selves… And like the swirl of the Taeguk, Hur is capable of loading the present-story with a lot of symbolism that is from the ‘source material’: the bells, the tinnitus, Shim Cheong’s father and Elsa’s… There are lots of details here and there that move your guts while also fill your brain with awe. It is that good.
Folklorn doesn’t shy away of the violence. Like traditional folktales (and not the exaggeratedly sweetened versions we are force-fed in mainstream media), there’s a history of emotional abuse, inadvertent or overt. All characters are not saint-like heroes or plain victims—they made their choices, they made their mistakes, and sometimes they own them and try their best. There’s hustle, fighting, survival, but not in a preachy-tone. It is just what it is. And like the dualism pointed before, Hur also offers a lot of poignant humor, punching fists to everything in her way, even daring to break the fourth wall just to make a point (and give you the laugh). Yes, she’s in control, and WHAT. A. RIDE.
It’s March but I know that this novel is going to be my favorite of this year. This review is my feeble attempt to give it the sixth star that it deserves.
Thanks to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for providing me an eARC of this book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Death of parent
mvvelde's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- 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? It's complicated
3.0
There are many things that I enjoyed about Folklorn. Overall the author's telling with the usage of folklore was beautiful and the writing was lovely. I also really enjoyed part of the plot taking place in a higher academic setting--the usage of language and the the parallel of Elsa's scientific studies with her own journey were intriguing. I also enjoyed her slapstick way of communicating, as well as the stream of conscious of her thoughts from cultural stereotypes to reasoning and flashbacks. I cannot highlight these points enough--they alone made the book worth reading.
That being said, there were also a number of things I didn't enjoy about the book. But before I go further, I would like, first, to note that I am likely not the intended reader for such a book. As such, please take my criticisms of Folklorn with a grain of salt. I felt it hard to connect with the story in general--something that I really don't understand because I really did enjoy the premise and all of the elements in Folklorn. Perhaps this is due to how drawn-out the opening 30% of the book felt. But some of actions taken and things said by Elsa felt counterintuitive to how the plot developed.
Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC.
That being said, there were also a number of things I didn't enjoy about the book. But before I go further, I would like, first, to note that I am likely not the intended reader for such a book. As such, please take my criticisms of Folklorn with a grain of salt. I felt it hard to connect with the story in general--something that I really don't understand because I really did enjoy the premise and all of the elements in Folklorn. Perhaps this is due to how drawn-out the opening 30% of the book felt. But some of actions taken and things said by Elsa felt counterintuitive to how the plot developed.
Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Grief, Death of parent, Violence, Racism, and Racial slurs
nightwing's review against another edition
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC, though I feel awful about not being able to continue it. I had to DNF at 20%.
Now, this is NOT a terrible story or anything, I think it's just not for me. This has a lot of political and social themes that are hard to understand and connect with. It's also pretty dark, like dark humor surrounding racism, so that's also hard to swallow.
The writing style jumping back and forth in time also makes it difficult to follow.
Again, it's a well-written story with complex thematic elements, I think it's just not my kind of book.
Now, this is NOT a terrible story or anything, I think it's just not for me. This has a lot of political and social themes that are hard to understand and connect with. It's also pretty dark, like dark humor surrounding racism, so that's also hard to swallow.
The writing style jumping back and forth in time also makes it difficult to follow.
Again, it's a well-written story with complex thematic elements, I think it's just not my kind of book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs
More...