Reviews

Excellent book. What I would call a non-nonsense story--fully realized characters, compelling storyline but not an ounce of over-flowery language or sentimentality. Reminded me of The Piano Teacher in the sense that this book highlighted all of the thing that I hated about the Piano Teacher, if that makes sense. Recommend.

eerupps's review against another edition

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3.0

I had never really read about the Korean War before, so that part of the book was interesting, but otherwise, this book was quite a let-down. Both of the main characters went through a multitude of difficulties that made them very flawed and twisted individuals. I think I may have enjoyed this book more if someone else would have been reading it with me so that I could discuss it, but overall, I thought that it did not live up to my expectations, and either I missed some major symbolism at the end or it just fell flat.

helenephoebe's review against another edition

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Review - I felt that the storyline was lacking - it felt like two different novels in places as she remembered what happened. It would probably have been better to have followed her story from the beginnings in Korea without looking backwards on it. It didn't feel real at times, as the characters felt 2D and I felt I couldn't really connect to them at all. I didn't really get far enough into the novel to understand most of the characters.

Genre? - Mystery / Romance / Historical / Drama

Characters? - June Han / Nicholas Han / Ames Tanner / Hector Brennan / Sylvie Tanner

Setting? - Korea & New York (U.S.A.)

Series? - N/A

Recommend? - No

Rating - 8/20

shiradest's review

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Although this book had an interesting premise, .. Although this book had one very interesting main for protagonist, this book just didn't grab and hold my attention unfortunately.

sephranix's review

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4.0

This book is powerful, yet depressing. The stories of June, Hector, and Sylvie are woven together beautifully, and they all have their own ghosts. The novel wavers between present day and the past - both their individual pasts and their shared one. It wasn't a happy ending, but it was fitting.

ruthie_the_librarian's review

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3.0

I found this extremely hard to rate since I spent most of my reading time feeling disturbed and depressed. Yet it is a well-written book (mostly...it would have benefited from some harsher editing in places). It's certainly no happy bedtime story, and obviously as a war story I expected that, but parts really turned my stomach and lingered on in my mind long after I put the book down. I can't really say I liked it, but it was certainly an interesting reading experience.

black_girl_reading's review

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5.0

What an absolutely calamitous book. About two individuals, a Korean War orphan and an American GI, both borne from their own tragedies into a collective one, and again, years later, drawn together in impending, unending loss, this book has not one joyful moment. It is raw. It is horrific. It is darkly erotic. It is packed with so much intensity and horror, my reading was significantly slowed to be able to absorb everything that was contained in each sentence. The book requires all of your attention. I don’t know how a book so hopelessly brutal could also be so complete and perfect, but it was. It was a perfect sum of all of it’s parts, and nothing was missing or altered to tell a happier story.

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