A review by oatmilktea
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing 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? Yes

4.25

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop is a fantastic read. It’s cosy, warm, reflective, highly quotable and easily devoured. All the characters, even the ones that only occur once and remain unnamed, feel like real people. There’s a bit of a romance but the friendships take centre-stage, which I find refreshing.

The first half/two thirds of the book I absolutely adored. On top of the above, there is great insight into reading and bookshops, but also big topics like burn-out, work under capitalism, and changing one’s life trajectory (at times radically). The writing is solid and straightforward, without much embellishment, which I prefer over overly adorned and wordy narratives. Since I don’t speak Korean I can’t be sure, but at times it felt like some things might have been a little lost in translation.

There was too much telling instead of showing towards the end, for my taste. The book kind of just fizzled out with each of the important characters talking about how they’ve changed. But I couldn’t always relate a character’s spelled out change or growth to their previous flaws or backstory. It felt a little directionless. I also think that we got Yeongju’s full backstory too late. I read closely, I do not skim books, so I don’t know why I struggled with following along in the final third, but I did.

All that aside, I loved this book—this cosy anti-capitalist treatise—and I’d definitely recommend it. It’s a new favourite despite it not being perfect in my eyes.