bibliothecla 's review for:

The Red Palace by June Hur

4.0

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

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"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴...”

➡️ Pan over to me giggling and kicking my feet ☺️🤧

The Red Palace reads like a cute historical Korean drama. It’s a YA Asian murder mystery, and yes, the mystery is intriguing. But we’re really here for our cute little FL and ML who are baddies but also the cuties 🥹 We have a young palace nurse just trying to prove her worth to her family when her mentor is implicated in the murders of several nurses. She decides to try and find the real culprit when she meets a prodigy police inspector who has also decided to take on this case. She’s got the forensics, and he’s got detective experience - BAM what a great team 😭🙌

They decide to work together to solve the mystery, but things get complicated as they realize the crown prince might be involved. How do things turn out? You’ll just have to read to find out 🤭

I only have one issue with this book, which is that the crown prince’s part in this story felt a bit underwhelming.

June Hur claims in the author’s note that she wanted the crown prince to be a focal point of this novel, given her interest in the real historical figure’s tragic story. Though he was meant to be a significant character, he felt pretty loosely connected to the overall plot. Yes, his actions trigger important events and are the center of the mystery, but his character doesn’t intersect much with the main characters. He felt like a side story within the main story.

Personally, I would have preferred A LOT more focus on the crown prince. I kind of wish he was the main character because his story is simultaneously fascinating and heartbreaking. But I guess that would entail a complete change in genre because his story gets pretty dark and twisted.