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A review by jrl6809
Pavane for a Dead Princess by Min-Gyu Park
emotional
reflective
sad
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
3.0
I started out really enjoying this story. I liked the quiet atmosphere and appreciated the contemplation of beauty standards and misogyny in Korean society. The book quickly devolved, however, into an overly simplistic and immature meditation on the topic. I did not love the implication by the author that basically the only reason the main female character has a personality is because she is ugly and therefore had no choice but to develop one. And that pretty girls are all boring, vapid, and incapable of holding a conversation about anything other than their own beauty. I thought maybe the author would subvert this towards the end with the arrival of the beautiful character "dumplings" and was deeply disappointed that he did not take that opportunity. I did appreciate some of the commentary on class, education, and general "outsider-ness", but didn't like the stylistic choice to offer up most of this commentary in the form of highly forced monlogues during conversations between characters. None of it rang true to how young people speak to each other. I do KIND OF get it in the context of the final twist, but I dont know if that's enough to fully justify it for me. Park Min-Gyu also uses excessive, repetitive metaphors and similes in this book which often didn't really make sense (maybe that was because of the translation?) and ultimately became quite tedious and annoying to read.
There were things I enjoyed about this book, though. I was interested in the characters and the storyline. I thought that the love story itself was well done (if a little melodramatic, I'll forgive that since the characters were so young) and packed a genuine emotional punch. The meta-elements and the ending revelation added an extra layer to this that was sad and interesting-although it's been done before and while reading I immediately thought of one particular very well-known book/movie with a very similar twist. Overall, this book isn't doing anything particularly new or nuanced but there were enough interesting moments and passages to keep me going.
There were things I enjoyed about this book, though. I was interested in the characters and the storyline. I thought that the love story itself was well done (if a little melodramatic, I'll forgive that since the characters were so young) and packed a genuine emotional punch. The meta-elements and the ending revelation added an extra layer to this that was sad and interesting-although it's been done before and while reading I immediately thought of one particular very well-known book/movie with a very similar twist. Overall, this book isn't doing anything particularly new or nuanced but there were enough interesting moments and passages to keep me going.