Reviews with content warning for Suicide - If I Had Your Face

This book is a multi-POV story set in Korea (mainly Seoul). It revolves around four women; Kyuri, Miho, Ara, and Wonna and the common themes of misogyny, beauty standards and rigorous gender norms for women in Korea. While this book was very insightful, and I was particularly taken with Kyuri's story of the 'room salons' of Seoul and an obsession with plastic surgery in order to achieve a desirable beauty standard, it is quite short and tries to cover a lot of issues without having the time and space to go into great enough depth on any one in particular. I think perhaps if Wonna's perspective (an expectant mother living in the same building as the other three protagonists) was removed, it might have made room for Cha to properly sink her teeth into the other three stories and expand on the themes they just barely touch on in the book's current format eg. ableism and disability, mental health struggles etc.

All in all, this book is very well written but it doesn't dive deep enough to build a fully fleshed story arc for most of our characters and therefore ends without you feeling like it has been a satisfying story.

Content Warnings

pvid's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.5

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leah_j's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

some parts of this book i absolutely loved and other parts i wasn’t so keen on. it felt both too long and too short, and the ending felt so sudden and vague to me.

however, i will say it was an interesting read and the characters, flawed as they were, were entertaining and i found myself somehow rooting for all of these women.

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damn_marina's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Content Warnings

bluejayreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

Literary and contemporary are two genres I don't often enjoy, but I very much enjoyed this book. Not so much that it was entertaining, but more like it was a door showing me modern South Korea and the concerns of women there. Each of the four protagonists had her own worries, her own dreams, her own history, and her own way of coping with the challenges of South Korean life, from the brutal economy to the female beauty obsession to the tension between personal desires and traditional values. It's dark and it's sad and it doesn't wrap up neatly - real life never does, either - but it's engrossing and emotional and ultimately finds hope in the power of female friendships.

Content Warnings

laurenpage's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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