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tdem122's review against another edition
4.0
[1st read from 9/5/2022 to 11/5/2022] — 4.5⭐️
— don’t exactly know what i was expecting from this but it absolutely delivered!
very well crafted and achieves wonderfully the full effect of only giving you a little peek inside each character’s life without fully immersing you to it. so dependent on the theme of female friendship and how important it is! go tell your friends you love and appreciate them <3
— don’t exactly know what i was expecting from this but it absolutely delivered!
very well crafted and achieves wonderfully the full effect of only giving you a little peek inside each character’s life without fully immersing you to it. so dependent on the theme of female friendship and how important it is! go tell your friends you love and appreciate them <3
itsy_bitsy_nitsy's review against another edition
4.5
Sally Rooney esque.
Frances Cha brings four different women with four unique and identifiable voices together. Truly masterful.
The way these women distrust one another, sometimes hurt each other, how they're intrigued by each other and yet how they're always on the lookout for one another. Captures female friendships in an honest light.
Kyuri is my favorite of the four, she is very complex and real. She is neither glorified nor vilified, when she easily could've been both. She understands her choices and warns people of going down her path, she is stern yet very supportive. I genuinely love her so much.
Frances Cha brings four different women with four unique and identifiable voices together. Truly masterful.
The way these women distrust one another, sometimes hurt each other, how they're intrigued by each other and yet how they're always on the lookout for one another. Captures female friendships in an honest light.
Kyuri is my favorite of the four, she is very complex and real. She is neither glorified nor vilified, when she easily could've been both. She understands her choices and warns people of going down her path, she is stern yet very supportive. I genuinely love her so much.
ygheather's review
emotional
reflective
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
3.5
tritown02's review
fast-paced
4.25
I really enjoyed this book! Super interesting perspectives. It was a very engaging book, I was always wondering what was going to happen next. Not that it was dramatic or huge plot twists but it was just captivating!
mbenzz's review
2.0
2.5 stars.
I have mixed feelings about this book. While it started off strong, I feel like it kind of sputtered out around the half-way point.
The book follows four young women all living in the same building, but one character (Wonna) feels completely unnecessary to the story. She interacts with the other three young ladies briefly at the end, but she ultimately has no place in the book. If you remove her entirely from the story, it would have absolutely no impact on the the lives of the other women.
The other three women are all struggling with their jobs, money, vanity and just day-to-day survival in the Gangnam District of Seoul. I started to become invested in these ladies and was looking forward to where the story would take them, but then things just got stale.
Miho’s relationships with Hanbin is completely one-dimensional. There’s some dinners and some dates (all forgettable) and her constantly turning down his request to see her work, but I never felt any real genuine warmth in their relationship. It’s like they were together out of convenience. The same feeling came across with Wonna and her husband, except the contempt she feels towards her husband is much more clear. Ara also serves little purpose in the story, and being mute, her character is pretty limited in where she can go. I felt Kyuri had the most fleshed out story, though it too was a bit thin.
The ending was a complete let-down. So much is left unanswered. How did Miho’s relationship with Hanbin progress/end? Did Kyuri ever get the job and get out of the Salon Rooms? Where exactly did Wonna’s husband go, and was he ever coming back? Did ANYTHING AT ALL change in Ara’s life, because it sure didn’t sound like it! She ends the book exactly how she starts it, having made absolutely zero growth or progress throughout the entire book, which is kind of sad now that I think about it.
Overall, I don’t get the hype surrounding this book. It wasn’t terrible, but it’s not something I’d go out of my way to recommend.
I have mixed feelings about this book. While it started off strong, I feel like it kind of sputtered out around the half-way point.
The book follows four young women all living in the same building, but one character (Wonna) feels completely unnecessary to the story. She interacts with the other three young ladies briefly at the end, but she ultimately has no place in the book. If you remove her entirely from the story, it would have absolutely no impact on the the lives of the other women.
The other three women are all struggling with their jobs, money, vanity and just day-to-day survival in the Gangnam District of Seoul. I started to become invested in these ladies and was looking forward to where the story would take them, but then things just got stale.
Miho’s relationships with Hanbin is completely one-dimensional. There’s some dinners and some dates (all forgettable) and her constantly turning down his request to see her work, but I never felt any real genuine warmth in their relationship. It’s like they were together out of convenience. The same feeling came across with Wonna and her husband, except the contempt she feels towards her husband is much more clear. Ara also serves little purpose in the story, and being mute, her character is pretty limited in where she can go. I felt Kyuri had the most fleshed out story, though it too was a bit thin.
The ending was a complete let-down. So much is left unanswered. How did Miho’s relationship with Hanbin progress/end? Did Kyuri ever get the job and get out of the Salon Rooms? Where exactly did Wonna’s husband go, and was he ever coming back? Did ANYTHING AT ALL change in Ara’s life, because it sure didn’t sound like it! She ends the book exactly how she starts it, having made absolutely zero growth or progress throughout the entire book, which is kind of sad now that I think about it.
Overall, I don’t get the hype surrounding this book. It wasn’t terrible, but it’s not something I’d go out of my way to recommend.
weirdmoth's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
katielong84's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5