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amselot's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Sexual assault, Death, Death of parent, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, and War
Minor: Homophobia, Child death, and Lesbophobia
jayisreading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
4.0
I have mixed feelings about this one. To start things on a positive note, it’s wonderful to see mixed race, queer, and disability representation in Korean literature, and they’re just there, existing. Even in a bleak and post-apocalyptic world like the one in To the Warm Horizon, it was heartwarming to see such quiet yet powerful representation with Jina and Dori, with Joy.
Told in alternating perspectives from four characters (Ryu, Dori, Jina, and Gunji), this is where it started getting a little disorienting for me. I couldn’t quite follow what was happening, making the plot difficult to follow and the motives of these characters a little unclear. Yet, at the same time, I can’t help but wonder if this was deliberate. After all, these characters were unexpectedly uprooted from their homes to flee a deadly virus, making them just as disoriented and overwhelmed with grief, trying to figure out how to make their way across Russia in the dead of winter. At times, I accepted the author’s choice to create a story nearly devoid of a plot. Other times, I found it frustrating. Perhaps another reason why this book is a bit difficult to follow is because it’s not quite character-centered either.
I would say this book is more of an affective experience, in which you want these characters to make it, to continue to be resilient despite the bleak world they’re in and depressing situations they find themselves in. Somehow, Choi fostered a sense of hope in me as I made my way through this book, as unclear as it was at times. I think expecting more affect than anything else makes this book a lot more approachable to read.
I also liked Soje’s translation of this book. They found a good flow in pushing the story along and establishing the emotional states everyone was in. (A complete aside, but I absolutely love that there are more Korean translators emerging who are really able to address cultural nuances.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Rape, Gun violence, Death, Murder, and War
Moderate: Misogyny, Suicide, Bullying, and Ableism
Minor: Lesbophobia and Domestic abuse
hyliansee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, War, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Child death, and Misogyny
Minor: Homophobia
etherisapoet's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I would never recommend this book for someone who wants something ligh-hearted, because it just brushes up so lightly on some really dark things, you would just be peacefully reading about this cute queer romance in an apocalyptic setting then BAAM SURPRISE ATTACK its a rape scene, a gun shot, an act of violence...
Nevertheless it was an easy read, quite short, the type of book you would read to get back to reading but that only applies if dark, violent texts are your thing, I also want to mention something that I didn't like is (spoiler alert pls)
When Ryu was going to/getting raped by her husband and she mentioned how she never really gave consent or enjoyed her sex life with him before the plague I didn't like how the author still portrayed her like she loved him and has an emotional link with him because somehow as a reader it could make sex without proper consent okay with linking those two images, I could maybe understan if she wanted to portray how an abused person could be under the charm/ brainwashed by their abuser but it didn't seem to be the case since she never developed in any of the subjects too much nor did she gave them that much importance mentioning rape and sexual violence like a casualty, actually the world building of the story felt really messy in general like she started or wanted to start something but didn't have enough pages to do so, she touched up a bunch of subjects ranging from ableism to domestic violence, feminist issues in korea/the world, exploitation in capitalism, bullying, domestic violence, marital rape... but never dived in any of them always getting back to the main track wich was the queer romance
It felt like a fancy presentation for our meal wich was the queer romance (stan dorie and jina best girls <333)
Personally I love having morally ambiguous to plain horrible characters wich is why i appreciated every one of them even thought none of them had that much depth or personality, they had potential but we didn't get to see it, but the only I regret was Joy I would have loved to hear more of her, even though I somehow understand that she may have symbolized silent pain and people who suffer from depression without anyone knowing, her suicide was so unexpected that I can understand it's meaning (at least how I interpret it)
In this book I also saw how way brainwashed ppl and how different positions change our perspective like the dad told Jina that her getting raped and exploited was nothing, she should just endure it, it was her participation to war, so maybe it reflects how us ppl in privileged positions may not see how others suffer (just like palestine, syria, Afghanistan, ukraine...), we would just move on with life and let them battle for survival and even ask them for accountability and give them the same talk as jina's dad
So overall I did like the flow of the authors writing, the translation was also quite nice (thank you very much soje for your work)
And I just loved the diversity of the characters so much, the romance was so cute jina and dorie are now my fav couple and I just loved having this cute random queer couple like without any weird sexual references or voyeurism or fetishizetion.
I also want to add that this book felt more like a statement than anything, it's like the author was screaming to us "YEAH THIS IS THE APOCALYPSE BUT LOVE CAN STILL EXIST, ITS AN APOCALYPSE BUT LOOK A LESBIAN COUPLE IS JUST RANDOMLY EXISTING HERE WITHOUT THE STORY HAVING TO BE ABOUT LESBIOPHOBIA/ LESBIAN STRUGGLES", idk how to put it into words but it just felt like the author wanted to show a normalized cute queer relationship without it having to be all around queer trauma and pain but just a different type of pain, the story centred the trauma and suffering of the characters around different subjects but never their sexuality, and I just enjoyed that fact so much.
So yeah I would definitely recommend this story, but please be careful since it's definitely NOT a light read.
Thank you Choi Jin-Young for delivering such a great book.
Nevertheless it was an easy read, quite short, the type of book you would read to get back to reading but that only applies if dark, violent texts are your thing, I also want to mention something that I didn't like is (spoiler alert pls)
When Ryu was going to/getting raped by her husband and she mentioned how she never really gave consent or enjoyed her sex life with him before the plague I didn't like how the author still portrayed her like she loved him and has an emotional link with him because somehow as a reader it could make sex without proper consent okay with linking those two images, I could maybe understan if she wanted to portray how an abused person could be under the charm/ brainwashed by their abuser but it didn't seem to be the case since she never developed in any of the subjects too much nor did she gave them that much importance mentioning rape and sexual violence like a casualty, actually the world building of the story felt really messy in general like she started or wanted to start something but didn't have enough pages to do so, she touched up a bunch of subjects ranging from ableism to domestic violence, feminist issues in korea/the world, exploitation in capitalism, bullying, domestic violence, marital rape... but never dived in any of them always getting back to the main track wich was the queer romance
It felt like a fancy presentation for our meal wich was the queer romance (stan dorie and jina best girls <333)
Personally I love having morally ambiguous to plain horrible characters wich is why i appreciated every one of them even thought none of them had that much depth or personality, they had potential but we didn't get to see it, but the only I regret was Joy I would have loved to hear more of her, even though I somehow understand that she may have symbolized silent pain and people who suffer from depression without anyone knowing, her suicide was so unexpected that I can understand it's meaning (at least how I interpret it)
In this book I also saw how way brainwashed ppl and how different positions change our perspective like the dad told Jina that her getting raped and exploited was nothing, she should just endure it, it was her participation to war, so maybe it reflects how us ppl in privileged positions may not see how others suffer (just like palestine, syria, Afghanistan, ukraine...), we would just move on with life and let them battle for survival and even ask them for accountability and give them the same talk as jina's dad
So overall I did like the flow of the authors writing, the translation was also quite nice (thank you very much soje for your work)
And I just loved the diversity of the characters so much, the romance was so cute jina and dorie are now my fav couple and I just loved having this cute random queer couple like without any weird sexual references or voyeurism or fetishizetion.
I also want to add that this book felt more like a statement than anything, it's like the author was screaming to us "YEAH THIS IS THE APOCALYPSE BUT LOVE CAN STILL EXIST, ITS AN APOCALYPSE BUT LOOK A LESBIAN COUPLE IS JUST RANDOMLY EXISTING HERE WITHOUT THE STORY HAVING TO BE ABOUT LESBIOPHOBIA/ LESBIAN STRUGGLES", idk how to put it into words but it just felt like the author wanted to show a normalized cute queer relationship without it having to be all around queer trauma and pain but just a different type of pain, the story centred the trauma and suffering of the characters around different subjects but never their sexuality, and I just enjoyed that fact so much.
So yeah I would definitely recommend this story, but please be careful since it's definitely NOT a light read.
Thank you Choi Jin-Young for delivering such a great book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Violence, Ableism, Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, War, Gore, Gun violence, and Infidelity
Moderate: Ableism, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Lesbophobia, and Slavery
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