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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
a quiet mundane book about malaise... effective in painting the picture it wants to (in ink, on gnawed paper)
i still feel like i'm missing something here, but i think that's the point.
incredible.
incredible.
In wintry Sokcho, a quiet town on the border of North & South Korea, a young French-Korean receptionist meets a French cartoonist seeking inspiration. They travel to snowy peaks, waterfalls, and even across the border, but he ignores the Sokcho she knows - the neon lights, war scars, and fish market where her mother works - driving her to find a way to make him truly see her.
This was a debut novel from a French Korean author, which was very apparent in the ‘writing from what you know’ for you debut - as the MMC is French and the unnamed FMC is Korean.
Whilst the writing style initially suckered me in, I soon found myself waiting for the plot to start - and then by the time I was 80% through and thought, I don’t think there’s a plot coming here and was rushing through to the end.
I loved how this was written - it has a really gentle and quiet tone that isn’t loud on character emotions which I’m finding to be a trademark of a lot of translated fiction from Asia, but it was just missing too much for me to feel like I had enough to sink my teeth into.
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really wanted to like this book. The story had potential but the execution was far from ideal. I don't mind the cold and cut throat writing style, I think it gives the story more character bc the actual characters in it are so two dimensional and far away from the reader that none of their actions make much sense.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A delightful little novella full of food and feelings in the depths of Korean Winter, in Sokcho. The perfect palate cleanser. I’ve been really enjoying reading more books set in Korea lately, and learning about its culture and history which I was quite naïve to previously.
A wintry mix of a novel, this provided no escape from the frigid temperatures of these past days. The nameless narrator, sentence fragment descriptions, and lack of chapters made this book spare and strange, a dreamy walk through the snowbanks. I liked how food linked scenes together. It felt like a quiet sob, muffled between the demands of everyday life. I remain largely unaffected by it, but the author did some interesting things in a short amount of time. I have to admire her for that.