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A review by saucy_bookdragon
Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I picked this up because someone on TikTok said it was like if Lorde's Melodrama album were a novel and a fun fact about me is that Melodrama literally owns my ass. Though I'm not sure if I would've come to that comparison on my own, I can definitely see where it comes from. Like Melodrama, Love In the Big City deals with passionate yet disastrous relationships written in a cynical, self aware, and snarky voice.
This novel is less a single story, and more a loosely connected collection of four stories detailing the relationships (mainly romantic) of a gay Korean man in his 20s and early 30s named Young who's seeking success and love but failing on both of those. I found it to be surprisingly relatable due to the issues Young deals with around his boy problems, his pessimism, and his experience as a gay man and writer. Despite it having a relatively mundane plot, the melodrama of it all kept me invested.
This novel is less a single story, and more a loosely connected collection of four stories detailing the relationships (mainly romantic) of a gay Korean man in his 20s and early 30s named Young who's seeking success and love but failing on both of those. I found it to be surprisingly relatable due to the issues Young deals with around his boy problems, his pessimism, and his experience as a gay man and writer. Despite it having a relatively mundane plot, the melodrama of it all kept me invested.
Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Drug use, Homophobia, and Alcohol