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

✨ Thrifted ✨

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 👀

When Ara shoved that assistant Cherry’s head down the toilet, I somehow felt vindication for her 😂

I loved when Miho finally realised Hanbin was not the prince she needed and she was able to find power in her ‘cliché’ moments (e.g. Cutting off some of her hair, deciding to leak photos to the paps…) 🙊

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 ✨

Content Warnings

kellyofcali's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed this novel, which used a group of a few young women to paint a picture of existing as a young woman in modern-day Korea...a world of inequality, plastic surgery, but also moments to hope and strength. I quickly became invested in the characters' lives, and my main gripe was that the ending fell a bit flat, leaving it more of a vignette than a full narrative.

Content Warnings

arieslofi's review

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

risemini's review

Go to review page

dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

alicelalicon's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark medium-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

4.0

Content Warnings

jrisants's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I started this book having been warned that “it is not happy.” Overall I am struck by the scrappiness, confusion, and community that are born out of struggle. Even though on the whole the book is not happy, as it ended I could not help but reflect on how grateful I am for the ways that women will show up for each other, care for each other, and blend their lives together when the rest of the world fails them.

There is no true conflict or resolution in the book and it reads as vignettes from the lives of five women in South Korea, all of them with unfortunate childhoods. Their experiences can serve as cautionary tales for the ills born of sexism and classism, and the characters themselves sway between upholding these ideals, criticizing them, and suffering from them.

In one of the stories Miho is in New York navigating a world full of new cultural norms and surrounded by acquaintances who have already lived abroad and come from rich families. At a party she compliments the pink walls which were decorated by a Portuguese designer, and the compliment is brushed off and treated as against custom to speak about. Later Papa John’s is ordered for the guests and everyone responds excitedly to the food. Miho reflects to herself that she is learning you cannot compliment beautiful decor, but you can make a fuss over takeout food and that these are the things she is still trying to learn and navigate.

Miho also later discussed her experiences with other artists and how she assumes coming from a wealthy family means that you must be happy—but when she looks on the art of the wealthy students she sees deep despair, almost indicating that their suffering has been worse than hers.

At various points in the book there are deep comparisons between men’s experience compared to women, and the wealthy compared to those in poverty. Wrapped in these comparisons are the changed expectations and challenges of the young generation. We see this when Ara finally meets Tain and her idol is cruel abs ruins her perception of him. This plays out again with Kyuri and Bruce who is so nice to her at AJax and then violent when he sees her in his world. Wonna with her aunt and uncle, and even her husband who all have lives that she cannot touch and she seems to both idolize and resent them for it. Soogin is the only one who seems completely removed from these comparisons, seemingly having had a live that never invited her to mingle with those systemically better off than her. She also seems to be the force that knits these women together. She protects and sees power in each of the women, and she creates scenarios for them to pursue it. It is almost as if full acceptance of her position is what enables her to joyfully expect better and rebel against it.

Content Warnings

More...