A review by jentang
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

4.0

this book was a really captivating read for me. it was nice to follow around a group of women for once; in addition, this story was an excellent commentary on the many societal issues which women today face, although of course through a largely korean lens, at least beauty standard-wise. there are 4 main characters, but readers get to know the entire group of 5 women all pretty well, i would say. it's a rare feat for characters to not annoy me, but i did find all of the characters to be likeable, and the friendship dynamics were realistic and even endearing. although the women are all connected, i also enjoyed the great variation in each of their lives, as it kept them from blending together. i found that i disliked ara's narrative the most. i missed the fact that she was randomly obsessed with a celebrity going into the book, and it definitely caught me off-guard. i was expecting it to become some sort of crazy obsession in the storyline with the way her internal monologue pertaining to him sounded. in addition, i felt that the reveal of how she lost her voice was very anticlimactic. the way in which she lost it and the lack of zeroing in on the immediate effects of the incident disappointed me. on the other hand, i was pleasantly surprised by the plot, which skillfully incorporated slice-of-life elements while simultaneously cultivating an air of suspense and tension which kept me heavily engaged in the book, eager to discover the newest developments for each character with every additional page turned. the only thing i really took issue with was the ending - although cute, i felt it would have been more appropriate for a book that was 10x more slice-of-life-ish. the book left off with so much unfinished business for all of the characters without employing nearly enough character development that it would have balanced out and made up for the rest of the plot which readers did not receive.