A review by meeklovestoread
Almond by Won-pyung Sohn

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

3.5

Man, I've been wanting to read this book for a LONG time. It's been on my tbr for soooo long. Funny enough I actually started this in August of last year, but for some odd reason after like 3% I put it down and never touched it till now. I don't know what was going through my mind then because this is literally such a quick read. But anyway, I finally got to it and it was good don't get me wrong, but I feel like it could've been GREAT and it missed the ball for me.

I'd like to note that I didn't know this was a piece of translated fiction so maybe certain concepts that were supposed to be more prominent were lost in translation.

Okay, I'd like to say the first half was promising and then it just went "downhill" for me. Which is not to say the story was bad, but I just felt like it could've been more emotional, more impactful, more promising.

The friendship between Yunjae and Gon felt so lackluster to me which renders Yunjae's gesture towards Gon idiotic to me
Him taking a knife to the gut for Gon just felt so stupid to me because I honestly didn't feel that Gon deserved Yunjae's grace. But that's just me.
because I didn't feel this deep connection that the author was trying to establish between them. I personally did not connect to Gon's character at all. I understood what the author was trying to go for with the two monsters thing. Yunjae, being the kid who feels nothing paired with Gon, the kid who feels too much. But in my opinion, it was hard to sympathize with Gon because he never got the details of his captivity or much that happened to him, really. He was just a dickhead to everyone including the main character (especially toward the main character) and I was just expected to believe in this larger than life friendship between them just because the author wants me to. No way. It just didn't work for me.

Also, Dora's characterization also felt lackluster to me as well. I understand her purpose but in my opinion, her presence was very much so unimpactful and didn't bring much to the story at all. Honestly, because I've consumed a decent amount of ya coming of age stories, I honestly thought there was going to be something between Gon and Yunjae. It's fine that there wasn't, but I was just expecting more.

The way Yunjae introduced Gon and Dora I thought they were going to impact the main character in a life-altering way and it was going to be this epic, emotional story about the binds of friendship and family and illness and sadly it all just fell so flat for me. And the ending. I hate reusing adjectives, but again, lackluster and felt kinda like a cop-out. And felt like a forced "HEA".

I know I keep harping on about my qualms about this book, but it honestly wasn't a bad book by any stretch of the phrase. I really enjoyed learning about alexithymia and the way the main character thinks and views things. It was nice to get a glimpse into another type of human experience that I didn't even know existed so learning about Yunjae and his struggles was nice. And getting to witness the relationship between his mother and his grandmother and their past lives. As well as Yunjae's relationship with Dr. Shim.
Although it's still not explained why Yunjae's mother would just place Dr. Shim in his care. Their relationship is barely explained and I'm just supposed to believe this overprotective mother would just relay the care of her son on some virtual stranger. I was lowkey hoping that he was like an uncle or something from Yunjae's father, but nope.


Overall, again this is not a bad book. It has so many 4 and 5 stars ratings. It sadly just didn't hit for me and that's okay!
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