If I Had Your Face

This is a good book. It gives an interesting insight into the lives of different Korean women, and their perspective on life and Korean society. Go for it.

This book is confusing. I want to give it four star but it has long narrative and ended with cliffhanger or was it end? I liked reading it but got frustrated at some points.

Here is another book from South Korea that I had been hearing a lot about, for its stunning writing and gripping narrative.This novel plunges us into the mesmerizing world of contemporary Seoul – a place where plastic surgery is as routine as getting a haircut, where women compete for spots in secret 'room salons' to entertain wealthy businessmen after hours, and where ruthless social hierarchies dictate your every move.Navigating this cut-throat city are four young women balanced on the razor-edge of survival:Kyuri, a breathtakingly beautiful woman whose hard-won status at an exclusive room salon is threatened by an impulsive mistake with a client;Miho, an orphan who wins a scholarship to a prestigious art school in New York, where her life becomes tragically enmeshed with the super-wealthy offspring of the Korean ‘chaebol’ elite;Wonna, a newlywed whose childhood in the care of an abusive grandmother comes back to haunt her when she discovers she's pregnant;and Ara, a mute hair stylist whose infatuation with a fresh-faced K-Pop star drives her to violent extremes.This is an exploration of brutal competitiveness in a world dictated by standards of beauty. Each of the four womens’ stories are driven by their aspirations for a better life and how far they are willing to go for it. The author writes each character with an individuality that is uniquely their own. She expertly carries them forward as they struggle to get ahead, their lives inevitably entwined.Dramatically honest, emotionally taunting, and shockingly cynical, If I Had Your Face is a compelling story of female friendships, their strength, resilience, and undying spirit.This ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Viking Books UK - an imprint of Penguin UK.

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha 4🌟"I would live your life so much better than you, if i had your face."If I had your face is a story of four young Korean women, living in Seoul, South Korea. A country that has drawn a lot of attention in the past few years for its music, culture and heart warming dramas. Ara, Kyuri, Sujin, Miho and Wonna live in an officetel situated in the thriving streets of Gangnam. Ara lost her voice when she was in middle school, currently works as a hair dresser and is obsessed with a K-pop idol. Kyuri works in a top room salon and is one of the most famous girls because of her beauty achieved through various surgeries. Miho has come back to Seoul after completing her art degree from NYC and Wonna has recently conceived, she is nervous because of her history of miscarriages and afraid to raise her child in this competitive economy."For all its millions of people, Korea is the size of a fishbowl and someone is always looking down on someone else. That's just the way it is in this country, and the reason why people ask a series of rapid-fire questions the minute they meet you. Which neighborhood do you live in? Where did you go to school? Where do you work? Do you know so-and-so? They pinpoint where you are on the national scale of status, then spit you out in a heartbeat."Like every country has its own share of dirty laundry, a lot of things didn't come as surprise. Most of the time, what we see on camera is only the 10% of the reality, then again who is vouching for it! A truer account comes from those who have grown up in that country or has had a first hand experience to things. We all have been familiar with the extensive Korean skincare regime, and for a long time I believed it came from a place of extreme self care. However this book sheds light on the toxic beauty standards that not only exists in the country, but also flourishing!Why would someone undergo so much of pain due to the plastic surgeries? Why would someone want to change their appearance entirely? When did double eyelids, large eyes, pointed nose and narrows chins become the beauty trademarks?As an outsider this all seems preposterous and it's easy to pass a judgement, but growing up in a country where your looks define your future/social status and help you excel in your career, where the celebrities that you look up to have flawless skin and features, where people are brutally honest about appearances and unapologetically vocal about what's "beautiful" and "ugly", it's definitely hard to stay away from the vicious cycle of Korean beauty industry.It also talks about the obsession for Korean idols which turns toxic, a male dominant society, where women are often looked down and are disposable. High literacy rate leading to high expectations, competition and pressure, causing financial problems in order to meet those demands, ultimately leading young couples to decide against conception. Marriages that are meant only to improve ones position in the social hierarchy, often encouraging infidelity. And the constant looking down on people as per their socioeconomic status. In the middle of all this, we have our four flawed characters, living through each day and trying to make the most of it.What distressed me was to see those similarities in our own culture. I would definitely recommend this book if you like character-driven plots and would love to read more about South Korea. I loved the writing and it is such a solid debut! I am looking forward to read more from Frances Cha.

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha follows the daily lives of four friends in modern-day Seoul.In this contemporary novel, we meet four friends who take us through their daily lives in today’s South Korea. There is Ara, who is a hairstylist and has a crush on a K-Pop idol, Miho who is an artist that returned to Seoul after a semester in New York City, and Kyuri a room salon girl obsessed with plastic surgery. In the same building lives Wonna, a married woman trying to have a baby in the harsh economic climate. At first glance, this seemed to be an intriguing story and I was looking forward to delving deeper into the world behind BTS and glass skin and discover the country behind the stereotypes and cliches. The book turned out to be a fast-paced and fun read, and I especially liked Miho, whose character was well described and developed. I thought her life and her decision were very well portrayed and reasonable. She was the one truly outstanding character in the book. Kyuri, and Ara’s stories on the other hand unfortunately never go past the cliche. Their characters remain one dimensional, and neither seems to have a personality that reaches beyond a K-Pop crush (that would be more suitable for a teenager) and a too keen interest in plastic surgery. Wonna seemed to be an interesting cast member, and I was hoping to explore and gain an understanding of the working environment and structures, but instead, I found a whiny character who spends most of the novel feeling sorry for herself. I felt that all of those characters had strong potential and an intriguing back story, which would have been great assets to the story, but instead, Cha seems to be content without context. There is no deep digging into their personalities. Why is Ara’s life revolving around a pop star crush, and how is this affecting her daily life? Why is Kyuri so obsessed with looks? What are the exact hurdles Wonna is facing? Why is money so tight? All of those questions remain unanswered. I would not recommend the novel to someone interested in learning about social structures or gaining an understanding of Korean society, however, if someone is looking for a fun read about four women living their lives in a big city, this may just be the right book.

This is a fascinating exploration of beauty and women in Korean culture. The book introduces us to four different women with overlapping lives, and explores their lives both individually and together. It is brilliant at exploring the lesser known (to me at least) beauty culture in Korea. Korean beauty has influenced the western beauty market for a while now, including the sheet mask phenomenon and the 10 step skin care routine. Naively I never explored more of the beauty phenomenon and so this book was an interesting dive into the more extreme side.It isn't only about beauty, it is also about the class system, sex working and sexism. Which makes for a book rich in themes and topics to digest. For this reason I so wanted this book to be double the size, I feel we only just scratched the surface, I was fascinated with each character but as I came to the end of the book I hadn't been able to get deep enough and understand each of the characters enough especially to explore some of their motives to their choices and actions.I ended up being most invested in Kyuri, her journey, her surgeries, her relationships. She was a really intriguing character and I could have happily read a book all about her. Wonna felt like a bit of an obscure addition considering the background and friendships of the other three. I really enjoyed her and her story, it felt like an important one to tell, but I felt the book ended just where were about to understand why she was the fourth character in the book. Ara was so different to read, and I just wanted more depth to her, I don't know that I liked her but I wanted to know more. I did form an attachment to Miho - there was something special about her.There were so many interesting themes to this book but greedily I wanted more. This book was impressive, left me thinking for a long time afterwards and even doing further research ... part two please, pretty please.

This debut novel follows four women living in the same apartment building in Seoul. It depicts a society that is technologically advanced and sophisticated, but also deeply conservative in social values. Women have access to education and work, but are far from equal to men. Meanwhile snobbery is rife and social mobility low. It is an interesting insight into the culture of an Asian country that tends to be less written about than its neighbours China and Japan.The four point of view characters all have different backgrounds and stories. Ara is a hairdresser and mute since an incident in her childhood. Her neighbour Kyuri is a 'room girl' - a high class prostitute whose apparently enviable lifestyle is really anything but. Kyuri's flatmate Miko is an artist with a wealthy boyfriend and an American education, despite having grown up in the same orphanage as Ara. Meanwhile downstairs lives Wonna, damaged by her own unhappy childhood and pregnant again after a string of miscarriages. Wonna's terror for the health of her baby is gradually replaced by equal worry about the prohibitive expense of raising a child.There's a lot that is good here. Four sympathetic characters with interesting backgrounds, and a setting in a society that European/American readers may not have read much about. The writing style flows well and is unpretentious. The characters and their thought processes are believable. In fact throughout the first half I was happy, settled into the story and looking forwards to the pay off to the various plot lines.Unfortunately, that pay off never really comes. After a promising set up, the second half continues to meander on, and ultimately I was left disappointed. I kept waiting for the pace to pick up and something significant to happen, but then suddenly the end was reached and it hadn't. The lack of real delivery in the second half somehow invalidates the first. It feels like a real shame that these good characters and plots have gone to waste. I know that in a few weeks I won't really remember the story or anything about it. Which is a real pity.If you don't mind novels that don't go anywhere and that stick closely to real life - a bit too closely - then the way this novel plays out won't bother you as much as it has me. And you may well really enjoy it, because the writing and characters are good. But if you look for novels with a more compelling plot, that you can lose yourself in, I can't really recommend this book.

Like a lot of novels I’ve read recently the first third is captivating, but then it fizzles out into a bit of a slog. A very interesting insight into Korean lives and standards. However it also made me despair for the shallow nonsense that seeps into first world economies. I just hope this is a satirical rather than realistic look at the lives of young urban Korean women. It kept me interested but I'd have liked something to happen occasionally. Maybe that's the point?

Sadly not what I was expecting, very depressing stories and hard to follow with each chapter flitting between characters although loosely linked. I was expecting to find out more about the culture or even a bit dystopian lifestyle but was disappointed. Wouldn’t recommend