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daniellekat's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
Graphic: Body shaming, Sexism, Alcohol, Misogyny, Classism, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Pregnancy, Grief, and Vomit
Minor: Death of parent, Miscarriage, and Suicide
sex workmarleen02's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Bullying, Medical content, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
kerrence30's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexism, Medical content, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy
slaywithsteph's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I would live my life so much better than you if I had your face.
Following the lives of four Korean women, this book is a slice-of-life without much plot. There’s little character growth but ample character exploration.
As a non-Korean, I cannot say if the author successfully details the obsessive — and sometimes surgery-heavy — world of Korean beauty standards, but it feels realistic to me.
However, what really brought it down for me was the book felt unbalanced in that I’m not sure why Wonna’s story existed in this. It’s not that she wasn’t interesting; it’s that she felt out of place with the other characters. Though, I do love the concept of a girl down the hall being included, it just felt like her entire storyline was so jarringly different, it felt like she was piece-mealed into the book. Maybe a fourth POV could have tied her in better? But I digress.
I went in with zero expectations, and so I was startled by several moments throughout the book. It took me until the final chapters to even realize this was likely a slice-of-life book, so I spent a lot of time wondering where the plot was going to come in.
Overall, I think Cha succeeded in what she wanted to do with the three main characters, and I very much appreciated how relaxing this was to read.
Graphic: Bullying, Dysphoria, Misogyny, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Classism, Body shaming, and Miscarriage
Korean beauty standards, beauty standardssangsmiles's review
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Body shaming, Misogyny, and Sexism
Moderate: Violence, Miscarriage, and Mental illness
Minor: Child abuse
leannanecdote's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Drug use, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Grief, Sexism, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Cursing, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, and Abandonment
liv_txt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Misogyny, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Bullying, and Eating disorder
nightowl22's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Moderate: Hate crime, Rape, and Misogyny
Minor: Miscarriage
typedtruths's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Sexism, Alcohol, Misogyny, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Hate crime, Child abuse, and Cursing
sakisreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
This book has a bit of a slow start so I wasn’t sure how much I’d get into it… But I’m glad I persevered!
Based around Ara (a mute woman who works at a hair salon), Kyuri (a room salon worker), Miho (an artist whose move back to Seoul is fraught with relationship complications), Sijun (Ara’s protective best friend) and Wonna (the woman who lives in the apartment above the girls), this book had the resonance of ‘Girl, Woman, Other’. We explored beauty, family, feminism, and so much more!
I gave it 3.5 stars because it was, as mentioned above, a bit of a slow burner but once you got into it you couldn’t stop 👏🏼
Some of my favourite moments included are below 👀
I am also a huge fan of Korean food so all of their descriptors of kalgukksu, KFC etc. made me hungry 😅
Content warnings included below!
Thank you ✨
Graphic: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Grief, Miscarriage, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Death, and Fatphobia