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A review by deamisu
The Red Palace by June Hur
5.0
“Palace secrets must never get out, or else inevitably there will be blood.”
^}^}}*~###+<<£|????? i’m so thankful this book is the one that finally dragged me out of my reading slump because holy shitttt i loved it. so many thoughts right now and these are only a few.
“She said you are like a crane among wolves.”
hyeon my beloved… <3 my fave facet of her character has gotta be how tightly bound she is to her morals and scruples. it’s fitting that she’s a nurse;
she’d have had to become accustomed to sights that most others would have reacted squeamishly to (& w the detail given to said sights in the prose, ik for SURE i would), and this reflects on her personality. when she sees something horrific, she looks back at it head on, says fuck it, and finds it in herself to do something about it, regardless of the risk. i really really admire that about her, seeing such a self-actualized female protagonist was super refreshing <3
“I need you to trust me,” he said slowly, steadily. “We are quite alone in this investigation. I need to know that I can rely on you. One lie, and everything unravels.”
SPEAKING OF REFRESHING. i really loved eojin and hyeon’s relationship and im just like jieun for the the number of times they had me kicking my feet and giggling and screaming at their interactions fr. how do you manage to make solving a brutal murder case together romantic??? i have no idea but the red palace does that somehow.
“Revenge begets revenge; the anger is unquenchable. We become the monsters we are trying to punish. Justice, however, brings closure, and that is what I want.”
another thing i also really really liked (spoiler here!!!) was the clear cut parallels between the protagonists and “antagonists”?? nurse inyeong and eojin are bound in that their parental figure was taken from them by somebody untouchable; but that’s the moment their paths diverge, one choosing a life of serving justice while the other chooses to drown herself in her desire for revenge. hyeon and the crown prince are similar in that their parental figures willingly distanced themselves from them, and they both grow up basting in the shame of that rejection — more so, the anger of it. obviously the heinous crimes the both of them commit aren’t negated by these revelations, complex as they are, but it does make you hesitant to label either one a monster.
“My mother was the only one who loved me. She always told me how she loved me since the very moment I was born. And I keep thinking about how no one else in the world loves me as she did.”
the familial relationships in this book were… well. something. to say i got choked up a few times would be a gross understatement!!! from eojin’s grief being the driving force for the beginning of his investigation, to the palpability of hyeon’s desperate for acceptance from either parent and the quiet, nearly untold tragedy of inyeong and her mother, i was… in shambles to say the least. inyeong’s story in particular struck me the most; the viciousness of her grief consuming her so much as to drive her to a point of losing her humanity, and having to suffer all alone at that… man. stares at ceiling.
“Of our fragile existence, yet our determination to survive. Of secret pains, and the yearning for love. This was the story of all lives, and I felt its dearness so deeply, so painfully, as one faded beneath my touch.”
the red palace is a story that, beneath its presentation as a historical murder mystery-esque novel, is ultimately about human nature; for a book in which death plays such a major role, it pays us back in kind with what it means to live — regardless of the brutality we as humans are often steeped in, while also delivering the full body chills and cold sweats that come with reading about a palace nurse and a royal inspector solving a murder case together. so… perhaps the real murder mystery was the what it means to be human we learned along the way?
“They would live life, grow old together, and this time—please, just this once—they would choose a different path.
The path that did not lead into the palace.”
simply put, it was lovely, and i enjoyed it in a way i haven’t enjoyed a book in a long while!! (code for i pulled an all nighter finishing it and writing this while blinking sleep out of my eyes). read it!!!
^}^}}*~###+<<£|????? i’m so thankful this book is the one that finally dragged me out of my reading slump because holy shitttt i loved it. so many thoughts right now and these are only a few.
“She said you are like a crane among wolves.”
hyeon my beloved… <3 my fave facet of her character has gotta be how tightly bound she is to her morals and scruples. it’s fitting that she’s a nurse;
she’d have had to become accustomed to sights that most others would have reacted squeamishly to (& w the detail given to said sights in the prose, ik for SURE i would), and this reflects on her personality. when she sees something horrific, she looks back at it head on, says fuck it, and finds it in herself to do something about it, regardless of the risk. i really really admire that about her, seeing such a self-actualized female protagonist was super refreshing <3
“I need you to trust me,” he said slowly, steadily. “We are quite alone in this investigation. I need to know that I can rely on you. One lie, and everything unravels.”
SPEAKING OF REFRESHING. i really loved eojin and hyeon’s relationship and im just like jieun for the the number of times they had me kicking my feet and giggling and screaming at their interactions fr. how do you manage to make solving a brutal murder case together romantic??? i have no idea but the red palace does that somehow.
“Revenge begets revenge; the anger is unquenchable. We become the monsters we are trying to punish. Justice, however, brings closure, and that is what I want.”
another thing i also really really liked (spoiler here!!!) was the clear cut parallels between the protagonists and “antagonists”?? nurse inyeong and eojin are bound in that their parental figure was taken from them by somebody untouchable; but that’s the moment their paths diverge, one choosing a life of serving justice while the other chooses to drown herself in her desire for revenge. hyeon and the crown prince are similar in that their parental figures willingly distanced themselves from them, and they both grow up basting in the shame of that rejection — more so, the anger of it. obviously the heinous crimes the both of them commit aren’t negated by these revelations, complex as they are, but it does make you hesitant to label either one a monster.
“My mother was the only one who loved me. She always told me how she loved me since the very moment I was born. And I keep thinking about how no one else in the world loves me as she did.”
the familial relationships in this book were… well. something. to say i got choked up a few times would be a gross understatement!!! from eojin’s grief being the driving force for the beginning of his investigation, to the palpability of hyeon’s desperate for acceptance from either parent and the quiet, nearly untold tragedy of inyeong and her mother, i was… in shambles to say the least. inyeong’s story in particular struck me the most; the viciousness of her grief consuming her so much as to drive her to a point of losing her humanity, and having to suffer all alone at that… man. stares at ceiling.
“Of our fragile existence, yet our determination to survive. Of secret pains, and the yearning for love. This was the story of all lives, and I felt its dearness so deeply, so painfully, as one faded beneath my touch.”
the red palace is a story that, beneath its presentation as a historical murder mystery-esque novel, is ultimately about human nature; for a book in which death plays such a major role, it pays us back in kind with what it means to live — regardless of the brutality we as humans are often steeped in, while also delivering the full body chills and cold sweats that come with reading about a palace nurse and a royal inspector solving a murder case together. so… perhaps the real murder mystery was the what it means to be human we learned along the way?
“They would live life, grow old together, and this time—please, just this once—they would choose a different path.
The path that did not lead into the palace.”
simply put, it was lovely, and i enjoyed it in a way i haven’t enjoyed a book in a long while!! (code for i pulled an all nighter finishing it and writing this while blinking sleep out of my eyes). read it!!!