Reviews and Comments

This was a surprisingly short read and it shouldn’t have taken me as long as it did to finish it. The beginning of the book didn’t pull me in at all so I struggled until after around the thirty-percent mark when it picked up the pace.

This book is a feminist spin on a classic fairy tale and I think it was done okay but from a rather white feminist perspective. I think what misled me was that majority of reviewers labelled this as “diverse” on StoryGraph. To an extent, that’s true—the protagonist is terminally ill, and the other two prominent characters are lesbians. But there are no significant characters of colour. I guess people of colour can’t exist in fairy tales or Ohio?

Anyway, that was quite disappointing. White people need to remember that diversity doesn’t and shouldn’t just end at LGBT representation.

The writing also came off as too frivolous and juvenile at times. Like, what the hell is this:

I wonder if I look hot, sprawled limp and lifeless among the roses.

I read this book as part of a book club (shout out to #HoloReads) and I think I couldn’t have chosen a better time in my life to read this book. I found the central theme of burnout and trying to heal within a capitalist system very relevant and relatable. The writing was easy to digest too.

Quote from the author's note:

In other words, I wanted to write what I want to read. Stories of people who find their own pace and direction, of people who believe in others and wait by their side as they go through difficult times, lost in worry. Stories of those who support others, who celebrate small efforts and resolve in a society that puts people—and everything about them—down once they take a fall. Stories that bring comfort, providing a pat on the shoulder for those who’ve lost the joy in life, having pushed themselves too hard to do well.

One minor thing: the translator uses a lot of Korean terms as is without any translation throughout the book, and I imagine that if you don’t speak Korean you might have to spend some time searching up the meaning of those terms. That can be frustrating and I wish the translation wasn’t done like this.

i found this book to be very fascinating, given my interests in both history and human biology. granted, the average person may already be aware of most of the concepts touched on in the book, but i appreciate that the author went more in-depth and also provided extra historical context that i, personally, was not aware of.

overall, i enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it to anyone who's interested in how world history has been influenced by human biology.

listen, i love the found family trope as much as the next person, and this book delivered just that. but every time the story veered into the romance i found myself cringing a lot because the dialogue was too cheesy for my liking.

i also wish the book touched more on what it's like to be a transracial adoptee living in britain and not having a direct connection to their heritage and culture. it did mention the struggle of being a brown witch in a white-dominated society like britain, but it never went beyond surface level and i really think that's a missed opportunity.