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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
This typically isn’t my kind of book. Contemporary fiction tends to bore me and I don’t often relate to the characters - in fact, they tend to irritate me. However, I can acknowledge that contemporary fiction is far more vast than I give it credit, but also this book is special. It’s not my story, this story has nothing to do with how I was raised, but I still deeply related to the main character in many other ways. It’s a beautiful thing when the human experience brings people closer, even when our upbringing and our backgrounds give us different lenses to see the world through, there is still so much that we can relate to. I loved the characters in this book for how utterly flawed and broken they were. I even loved that throughout the middle portion of the book, I was frustrated and annoyed at how these characters were so stubborn and stuck in their heads about what was going on, and then for the end to come and everything to conclude in such a heartwarming way. I feel like this book really reminds me that no matter where we are in life, and no matter the mistakes or faults we have, we are each still deserving of love, we are all still good people, and that we need each other more than we realize. Love love love this book.
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Really sharp and beautiful. The sisters are sublime. NYC is terrible and wonderful. The writing — oh it’s so good.
“Life is random, I think. Data sets are fine, but mortality is random. Cancer is random.”
Yolk is a heartwarming and beautiful story of sisterhood. Jayne and June are two polar opposites. Everything was fine, until one day June broke the news to Jayne. She has cancer. From being estranged sisters, they now both have to take care of each other throughout their journey of endless struggles.
‼️ TW: Chronic illness, mental health, eating disorder. ‼️
I’ve seen this book everywhere on bookstagram and decided to finally pick it up because the cover is simply stunning and the story sounds so interesting. It’s been a while since I’ve read books that has themes of chronic illness or mental health so I was really excited to read this one. This was such a good read too and I enjoyed every moment of it.
I love how complex the characters are. Jayne and June’s sisterly bond is something that I think every siblings have. I’m an only child so I can’t speak on that much but it was truly heartwarming to see how realistic their relationship are as sisters. The sharing, the fights, the playfulness of their characters was just very fun to read. I personally relate to Jayne a lot, especially with the fact that we both dealt with ED. The anxiety that she had too, constantly thinking and endlessly worrying of her sister’s life with cancer felt realistic to me.
This book was just absolutely beautiful and poignant. The family theme is just wholesome and heartbreaking and I love Mary H.K. Choi’s writing. This is my first book of hers that I’ve read and I’m very impressed by it so I will definitely pick up the rest of her literary masterpieces some time soon ❤️
I would highly recommend this to everybody. However, if you are uncomfortable with topics of chronic illness or mental health, do pick it up at your own discretion.
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3.5 ⭐️
Whoever categorized this as YA.... I have so many questions. This book felt messy in a distinctly adult way—both the protagonist and her sister immediately striking me as unlikeable because of their seemingly petty attitude and angry way of viewing the world and each other. It was easy to dislike them before being made to know anything about them, but things quickly got heavy once more of their background was explored.
Choi does an exceptional job of fleshing out Jayne and June. Once their individual struggles and mindsets were fleshed out further as the story went on, my view on them changed. All of the dialogue between them came off as eerily similar to real conversations—the casual slang and disjointedness of casual bickering with friends or siblings was captured almost perfectly. I suspect it was for this same reason that I found the audiobook ten times better; I was so enraptured by the effortless stream-of-conscious interspersed with bits of such natural feeling dialogue. The first person narrative paired with Choi's writing style combined to form my favourite aspect of this book, easily.
I wasn't as emotional over Yolk as I expected to be after reading the blurb. My expectations were partially subverted, with a pretty big chunk of the story being about eating disorders rather than June's cancer. Regardless, Yolk covered a broad range of heavy topics through the lense of very flawed characters. Everything felt objectively well done, though I just didn't connect with this story as deeply as I wanted to. This is my first Choi book, so I'm definitely interested in reading more of what she has to offer considering her strong writing style.
Whoever categorized this as YA.... I have so many questions. This book felt messy in a distinctly adult way—both the protagonist and her sister immediately striking me as unlikeable because of their seemingly petty attitude and angry way of viewing the world and each other. It was easy to dislike them before being made to know anything about them, but things quickly got heavy once more of their background was explored.
Choi does an exceptional job of fleshing out Jayne and June. Once their individual struggles and mindsets were fleshed out further as the story went on, my view on them changed. All of the dialogue between them came off as eerily similar to real conversations—the casual slang and disjointedness of casual bickering with friends or siblings was captured almost perfectly. I suspect it was for this same reason that I found the audiobook ten times better; I was so enraptured by the effortless stream-of-conscious interspersed with bits of such natural feeling dialogue. The first person narrative paired with Choi's writing style combined to form my favourite aspect of this book, easily.
I wasn't as emotional over Yolk as I expected to be after reading the blurb. My expectations were partially subverted, with a pretty big chunk of the story being about eating disorders
Spoiler
(TW: bulimia)
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
stunning and heart shattering…. some parts called me out so bad it felt like a punch in the gut
Oooooffff. You got me Mary H. K. Choi. You did it. You reeled me in the later half of the book, and it was gooood. So good, I totally disregarded my book club reading schedule and blazed through it.
I couldn’t get into the book at first because I just couldn’t get invested with the two sisters. I thought their bickering was annoying. But as you get to know more about the sisters and their family dynamic, it all made sense. And the book left me feeling like teary-eyed warm and understood. Like Jayne, I get that there are people out there going through what I am going through, and I am not truly alone.
I couldn’t get into the book at first because I just couldn’t get invested with the two sisters. I thought their bickering was annoying. But as you get to know more about the sisters and their family dynamic, it all made sense. And the book left me feeling like teary-eyed warm and understood. Like Jayne, I get that there are people out there going through what I am going through, and I am not truly alone.
dnf @i don't know not even a hundred pages in. this is too boring to fathom i read a line and skip the next 5 chapters even the mere sight of this book makes me hate the color yellow thanks good bye