Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Almendra

a very catcher in the rye-esque story. its super fast paced, and sohn has a command for tone and characterization. i especially love the use of metaphors with the almonds and the plum candies. i just wanted more almond metaphor in the end to tie it all up.

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noshinbean's review against another edition

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dark reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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veronica214's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The story follows a teenager who was born with almond-sized amygdala (the part of the brain that processes emotions.) He doesn't feel fear, anger, sadness, or happiness. However, a series of life changing events may be changing that.

I liked the story enough, but wasn't a huge fan of the ending. Almost everything magically worked out ok and resulted in a happy ending. That part just didn't feel super realistic. Also, the translation was a little off at times.

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ada_elisabeth's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

"...neither you nor I nor anyone can ever really know whether a story is happy or tragic."

I picked this book up in New York while I was there for a school Broadway trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Translated from Korean by Sandy Joosun Lee, Almond tells the story of a boy, Yunjae, who can't feel emotions. Originally, I didn't love the writing style and the way the story was told. (I do realize that a lot of my issues were likely caused by the translation, not the original writing.) But by the end of the novel, I had really begun to appreciate the simplistic yet emotional writing choices and syntax. The incredibly simple language allowed for so much emotional depth, even though Yunjae couldn't feel the emotions himself. This book is incredibly quotable and beautiful, especially on a very micro level.

My one real issue upon concluding this book is the incredibly sad lack of Gon x Yunjae. It was going so well... I could feel the tension between them, and the Dora had to show up? Nobody cares about Dora. She's annoying. She's boring. She's keeping Gon x Yunjae from being a thing, and that's basically a crime. I also felt like although Gon and Yunjae were kind of oblivious, it seemed like even they knew they would get together at some point. Like, Gon, Yunjae... come on. This thing you have going on is clearly not purely platonic anymore. Alas.

In any case, I'm giving this a 4.5/5, rounded up, because I hated Dora but I loved everything else. (It would've been a million times better if Gon and Yunjae had become a couple, but oh well.)

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vira92's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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dahud's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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aespaldon24's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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333amreen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense 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

Such an easy read year covers such complex topics. Only goes on to show how great the writing is! So philosophical and psychological all at once. LOVED HIS CONNECTION WITH GON but the Dora part felt forced and incomplete & that's the ONLY reason I took off the .5

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