koreanlinda's reviews
165 reviews

Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

It was such a nice read. It is lighthearted enough so that I could read it before bed. The target reader seems to be children and YA, but I enjoyed reading it as an adult reader as well. It is written in the view of a child whose family suffers from a member's substance abuse. It was lovely to see how she finds comfort from kindness from people around her and an introduction to comics by an unexpected friend. 

Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in April 2024
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
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Palimpsest: Documents From a Korean Adoption by Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

This was a difficult read. Don't get me wrong. The writer makes it very easy to follow the story, but the story itself is very hard to digest. It sits on your chest like a chunk of meat that won't go down. 

The atrocity committed against numerous adoptees infuriated me. If the writer had not shown the love she was surrounded by from her family members, friends, and strangers, I might have given up in the middle of the book. So many people committed irreversible damage to babies and children for their own interests: jobs, money, politics, etc. 

I loved Wool-Rim's drawing and writing style. It's comforting and down-to-earth. There are some pages where she shares the whole document from her adoption process. There are some pages where she uses excerpts. Those pages slow you down, but if you pay attention, you will understand why the writer made such choices. Every detail matters when you are searching for truth amid a hidden past. 

I was not adopted, but I grew up in one of the biggest baby-exporting countries in the world: South Korea. So I keep reading, listening to, and watching adoptees' stories. (One documentary I recommend is Return to Seoul, directed by Davy Chou.) I empathize with their suffering, and I wish they get a fair share of healing from people they connect with, including Koreans like me. I also want to remind all the adoptees that growing up with your birth parents is often not ideal. As I grew up in my abusive mother's care and with several teachers' violent treatment in Korea, I wished that I lived in another country with different parents. Although we experienced different hardships with our upbringings, I look forward to connecting with more Korean adoptees in my life.

Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in April 2024
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
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Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo

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challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was a hugely famous and popular book in Korea when it was published. Reading it a decade later, I understood why. It tells the story of all women having lived, are living, and will live in South Korea. Of course, it is not all-encompassing, but women-presenting people in Korea cannot escape the sexism and misogyny described in this book, perhaps partially but not entirely.

I grew up in South Korea until my high school year. While reading this book, I finally realized that every minute of my childhood was filled with experiences of sexism and misogyny. Through counseling therapy, I have already realized that the physical punishment (along with verbal and psychological abuse) by my mother and teachers was indeed violence and child abuse. (It was so normalized that I thought it was acceptable for most of my life.) However, I did not realize until now that the oppression and abuse I experienced were much bigger than my small circle of personal relationships. 

I am now living in the USA, where they have a considerable portion of sexism and misogyny. However, I deem that there is a better awareness around it here, compared to South Korea. The frustration I experienced in Korea (during my residence in childhood and my visits in adulthood) and what I read in the book largely originates from the normalization of sexism and misogyny. There are small pockets of feminist groups speaking up for women's rights, but they are brutally demonized by mainstream society. Fighting for women's rights quickly feels like screaming into a void, unheard and disregarded. Even people who seem to care fail to understand women's struggles. For example, Jung, TaeHyun, a loving and supportive husband of Kim, JiYoung still considers his domestic role as "helping" her housework." JiYoung's therapist empathizes with her struggles as well as his wife's, who had also lost her career due to childbirth and parenting. However, at the end of his self-reflection, he concludes that it'd be wiser to hire unmarried female employees at his doctor's office so he doesn't lose their workforce due to their family obligations. 

My heart goes out to all Kim, JiYoungs of South Korea and to my younger self, who lived in deep confusion and hurt for a long time. 

Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in April 2024
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
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Daytripper by Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Among many unique values of this book, one of them is a new look at the meaning of life and death. By repeating life and death in many different ways, we get to reflect on why we live and how to live. It is also fun to trace the underlying commonality between chapters (AKA different universes). I love how Bras's dog stayed with him from the cover til the end, another beauty of the story. Although I felt saddened by some of the stories, I did not cry. However, it will be a great cleansing tearjerker for someone experiencing bulging grief and sorrow.

Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in April 2024
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
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Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis

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challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

This was my first book by Angela Y Davis, and I learned a lot. Because it is a collection of her speeches and interviews, some information is repeated, but it rather helped me remember it. I liked the chapters with speeches much better than the interviews. Her speeches are quite easy to follow.

Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2024
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
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Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook, Ryan Estrada

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense fast-paced

4.0

It's a fast read about a portion of South Korean history of the democracy movement. Although it does not provide a lot of details, it shares a good summary through a fictional story. The briefness and cartoon format allowed me to learn about very violent and painful events without being too triggered. I would recommend this book to anyone who believes in the power of books and the power of collective movement.

Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2024
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
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Suzume by Makoto Shinkai, Makoto Shinkai

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I ended up reading this book during my recovery from surgery, and it was a perfect pickup. The world where Suzume lives took me away from my reality for a much-needed mental respite. The storyline is quite YA; it's all about a teenage girl growing up and finding the truth about her childhood. However, the fantasy side of the story was fascinating, and knowing that this story also exists in animation, it was easy for me to visualize the whole way through the book. What moved me the most was the author's ingenious way of imagining the backstory of Japan's experiences of frequent and detrimental earthquakes. I look forward to watching the animation.

Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2024
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
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Hungry Ghost by Victoria Ying

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

This was such a fortunate find in the library. Victoria Ying tells her own story of an eating disorder through a teenage protagonist Val. She is a Vietnamese American with a mother who micromanages her daughter's eating. I have a mother who obsesses over other's judgment of appearance and eating, so I related to Val's struggle. It took me a long time to love my body, stop dieting, and focus on more important parts of my life. 

I hope this book and similar stories are read widely among young people. I think the pressure to look good on social media is ever so high. It takes a lot of self-care and community support to fight off that pressure.

Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2024
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
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Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson, Marina Budhos

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challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring tense slow-paced

4.0

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100°C: South Korea's 1987 Democracy Movement by Choi Kyu-sok

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I really enjoyed reading this book. Of course, it is not all happy feelings, and in fact, the first half of the book made me feel quite depressed. However, it gets more hopeful afterward. People who were fed government propaganda later learned the truth about the dictatorship and joined the democracy movement. The ending made me cry a lot. It was moving to witness so many people coming together for a common cause. 

Review by Linda (Any Pronouns) in March 2024
Personal essays on DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Artwork on Instagram @KoreanLinda
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