sarahclaire's Reviews (209)

Crimson Rivers

bizarrestars

adventurous emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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Almond

Won-pyung Sohn

4.0

emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

"𝑳𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒍𝒚, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝑰 𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄."

This story is first and foremost about empathy and about being human.

We follow the young Yunjae who has a alexithymia, a brain condition leading to an inability to feel and identify emotions. We get so see him navigating through his childhood into his early adulthood while wondering if feeling nothing might be a curse or a blessing.

As a psychology major I'm obviously extremely interested in human behaviour and the big 'why' behind it.
While following Yunjae as he learns about life and the (mostly unspoken) rules of society, I found myself wondering about the complexity of emotions and the etiquette of expressing them.

It seems impossible to have a story being told through the eyes of an emotionless narrator and it still being absolutely full of tenderness and emotion but this book did exactly that.
I'm sure it's because of the soft but direct writing style of Sohn Won-Pyung and the english translator Sandy Joosun Lee.

I really enjoyed stepping into this story and although Yunjea has to deal with many extremely devastating incidents (please look up trigger warnings!) I couldn't help but feel hopeful after finishing it.

Content Warnings