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katiemcgregor's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
<I>Winter in Sokcho</I> is a shockingly quick read. I picked it up and was finished within an hour and a half. The atmospheric writing sucked me in and I couldn't tear myself away from the words on the pages, which is amazing because not much of anything happens.
At it's essence <I>Winter in Sokcho</I> is a character study and exploration of people. This book is more about the feeling it portrays rather than any plot points or events unfolding in a traditional manner. In all honesty, I'm not sure I can describe what this book is about, but it made me feel.
At it's essence <I>Winter in Sokcho</I> is a character study and exploration of people. This book is more about the feeling it portrays rather than any plot points or events unfolding in a traditional manner. In all honesty, I'm not sure I can describe what this book is about, but it made me feel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming and Eating disorder
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Vomit and War
thereaderfriend's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Idk how to feel about this.. mainly because I’ve only read a few books with this style of writing. I think that it’s good because of the expression of the atmosphere and cultures of South Korea/Sokcho. I often felt I was there and that was very cool. It was also really intriguing to see the portrayal of women in South Korea with eating disorders. Also liked the portrayal of the emotional distances between the characters and the town. The way the author seemed to write matter of fact but leave areas to interpretation was really nice too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Eating disorder, and Body shaming
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Vomit
blainereads's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This book accomplished something incredibly impressive in such a short amount of time so I have no choice but to round up and give it four stars. Though not much happens by way of the plot, the atmosphere created is so visceral, so immediate, the characters somehow so precisely carved out of sea stone and ink wells that their lives become immersive and inescapable—even in the absence of story and with prose as sparse as I've ever read.
I've never been to South Korea nor have I ever consumed any of the dishes described, and yet I was transported to the shores of Sokcho and felt the isolation and frigidness—both of temperature and temperament—in my bones. There were many moments that made me physically ill (the descriptions of eating and existing as the ugly, unrefined creatures that we are might keep you reeling) that I felt dubiously tethered to the character and her tight rope of sanity. It all leaves you feeling a bit dazed, really.
Content Warning: implicit descriptions of disordered eating
I've never been to South Korea nor have I ever consumed any of the dishes described, and yet I was transported to the shores of Sokcho and felt the isolation and frigidness—both of temperature and temperament—in my bones. There were many moments that made me physically ill (the descriptions of eating and existing as the ugly, unrefined creatures that we are might keep you reeling) that I felt dubiously tethered to the character and her tight rope of sanity. It all leaves you feeling a bit dazed, really.
Content Warning: implicit descriptions of disordered eating
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder, Animal death, and Vomit
mjgarcia193's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Very baroque and at the same time reminded me of 60s French New Wave films. Could have done without the fish preparation/cooking scenes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
garynoplastie's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Animal death, and Body shaming
Moderate: Sexual content
wikikapusta's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Animal death, and Eating disorder
Minor: Alcohol and Infidelity
lottie123's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Gore
Moderate: Sexual content
shrutislibrary's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
"I didn’t want to be his eyes on my world. I wanted to be seen. I wanted him to see me with his own eyes. I wanted him to draw me."
There are times when you finish reading a book and you willingly let it engulf you, let it immerse you in its words, its entirety, its cruelty, its beauty and its in-between spaces that are empty and cold. Bathe in its uncomfortable silences and glory in its lack of closures. Because life is absurd and wild and lacks any inherent meaning or has answers to comfort you.
"Winter in Sokcho" is one such work of art that demands you to surrender yourself wilfully and let yourself be submerged in the weight of the crashing waves. Let it drown you and set you free.
Set amidst the dead of winter in an otherwise touristy small seaside town called Sokcho in South Korea, "Winter in Sokcho" begins with a new resident checking in one of its many guesthouses- an impatient French artist Yan Kerrand, as cold and impassive as the very landscape around him. Working at this dilapidated guesthouse is our nameless narrator, receptionist, cook, laundrywoman - all in one - a 24-year-old half-Korean half-French woman - the one struggling to carve out a space for herself in this in-betweenness of her identity.
What drew Kerrand to this remote and insignificant town half the world away from his home in Normandy that too in the middle of winter when there is nothing to do ever and things are just slow, unmoving and freezing? Struggling to finish the last book in his 10 book comic series, Kerrand landed aimlessly at Sokcho. Looking for inspiration for his comic hero to end his journey and letting go is proving to be the hardest challenge for him. What he needs is a fresh pair of eyes, someone to show him the sights of Sokcho, the real Sokcho- not the one glistening and camouflaged to draw the tourists, but the one that is hidden in plain sight, the less-frequented lanes, beaches and mountaintops- where not even our narrator has been.
The novel is all about the gaze: both within and without, both gazing at oneself from someone else's eyes and seeing the world through that someone's eyes and finding (or losing) yourself in this struggle. Throughout the 100 pages, right from the start the narrator and Kerrand constantly pervade each other's spaces- snatching glances, cutting stares- him entering her kitchen and subjecting her to his strong gaze while she cooks and does laundry, her furtively watching him when he is drawing till the long hours at night in his room. At first, she says "He looked straight through me, without seeing me." But in the end, he sees her for who she is and has to lose himself to do so. Sartre said "Hell is other people": to the nameless narrator, Kerrand is her Hell and she his Muse.
There are times when you finish reading a book and you willingly let it engulf you, let it immerse you in its words, its entirety, its cruelty, its beauty and its in-between spaces that are empty and cold. Bathe in its uncomfortable silences and glory in its lack of closures. Because life is absurd and wild and lacks any inherent meaning or has answers to comfort you.
"Winter in Sokcho" is one such work of art that demands you to surrender yourself wilfully and let yourself be submerged in the weight of the crashing waves. Let it drown you and set you free.
Set amidst the dead of winter in an otherwise touristy small seaside town called Sokcho in South Korea, "Winter in Sokcho" begins with a new resident checking in one of its many guesthouses- an impatient French artist Yan Kerrand, as cold and impassive as the very landscape around him. Working at this dilapidated guesthouse is our nameless narrator, receptionist, cook, laundrywoman - all in one - a 24-year-old half-Korean half-French woman - the one struggling to carve out a space for herself in this in-betweenness of her identity.
What drew Kerrand to this remote and insignificant town half the world away from his home in Normandy that too in the middle of winter when there is nothing to do ever and things are just slow, unmoving and freezing? Struggling to finish the last book in his 10 book comic series, Kerrand landed aimlessly at Sokcho. Looking for inspiration for his comic hero to end his journey and letting go is proving to be the hardest challenge for him. What he needs is a fresh pair of eyes, someone to show him the sights of Sokcho, the real Sokcho- not the one glistening and camouflaged to draw the tourists, but the one that is hidden in plain sight, the less-frequented lanes, beaches and mountaintops- where not even our narrator has been.
The novel is all about the gaze: both within and without, both gazing at oneself from someone else's eyes and seeing the world through that someone's eyes and finding (or losing) yourself in this struggle. Throughout the 100 pages, right from the start the narrator and Kerrand constantly pervade each other's spaces- snatching glances, cutting stares- him entering her kitchen and subjecting her to his strong gaze while she cooks and does laundry, her furtively watching him when he is drawing till the long hours at night in his room. At first, she says "He looked straight through me, without seeing me." But in the end, he sees her for who she is and has to lose himself to do so. Sartre said "Hell is other people": to the nameless narrator, Kerrand is her Hell and she his Muse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, and Body shaming
sarah984's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I wanted to like this book but it was so boring and all of the characters were so unpleasant and all of their interactions were bad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming and Medical content
Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship
Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, and Vomit
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