lillimoore 's review for:

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

4.0

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The pacing of this book made it addicting—I had a hard time putting it down and longed for more at the end, because I was so interested in each of the characters and the chain of events through which they found themselves connected. I found them to be immediately well-developed and complex, and especially enjoyed reading their perspectives and opinions of one another as they interact over time. I also always love a narrative that doesn't focus on any main plot points—it really is the lessons learned over longer stretches of time that shape character, anyhow. There is plenty of commentary on the beauty standards and social hierarchies of modern South Korea that blended the culture we share (young twenty-somethings in small apartments giving it our best) with the parts of culture we don't, taking me from my own Colorado apartment into one in the very Seoul office-tel in which they were making their best attempts. I might as well have been living right downstairs from them and wondering what their lives would equate to in the same way I wonder about my own. I loved this book so much and am pleased to have found it on Libby before it gained too much traction. I'll be following Frances Cha closely and cannot wait to hear more from her!