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A review by selfbybee
Violets by Kyung-sook Shin
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Cw: abandonment, childhood neglect, domestic violence?, depression, sexual assault & —ape (on page), hallucinations, self harm
“In her heart, whenever she returns home late at night, there’s always the hope that when she looks up from the street, someone will have turned in the lights for her. This has never once come to pass.”
The best way to describe this book is watching your ice cream slowly melt off the cone with absolutely no way to stop it. This incredibly slow burn exploration of grief and childhood trauma around rejection, abandonment, and insecurity.
The short beats of clarity and hope make San’s inevitable spiral into disparity and disillusion that much more heartbreaking.
I cannot fathom reading this in Hangul and can only just barely see I am missing so much of the richness and vivid storytelling in this translation but what a beautiful job nontheless the ending was both grating and also deeply unsettling simple because I wanted her to come out on top at the end. Wow.
“In her heart, whenever she returns home late at night, there’s always the hope that when she looks up from the street, someone will have turned in the lights for her. This has never once come to pass.”
The best way to describe this book is watching your ice cream slowly melt off the cone with absolutely no way to stop it. This incredibly slow burn exploration of grief and childhood trauma around rejection, abandonment, and insecurity.
The short beats of clarity and hope make San’s inevitable spiral into disparity and disillusion that much more heartbreaking.
I cannot fathom reading this in Hangul and can only just barely see I am missing so much of the richness and vivid storytelling in this translation but what a beautiful job nontheless the ending was both grating and also deeply unsettling simple because I wanted her to come out on top at the end. Wow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Mental illness, Self harm, and Abandonment