If I Had Your Face - Gatti Ninja

paperback, 304 pages

Published April 13, 2021 by Ballantine Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-12948-7

(1 review)

If I Had Your Face plunges us into the mesmerising world of contemporary Seoul - a place where extreme plastic surgery is as routine as getting a haircut, where women compete for spots in secret 'room salons' to entertain wealthy businessmen after hours, where K-Pop stars are the object of all-consuming obsession and ruthless social hierarchies dictate your every move.

Navigating this cutthroat city are four young women balancing on the razor edge of survival: Kyuri, an exquisitely beautiful woman whose hard-won status at an exclusive 'room salon' is threatened by an impulsive mistake with a client; her flatmate, 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 elite; Wonna, their neighbour, pregnant with a child that she and her husband have no idea how they will afford to raise in …

If I Had Your Face plunges us into the mesmerising world of contemporary Seoul - a place where extreme plastic surgery is as routine as getting a haircut, where women compete for spots in secret 'room salons' to entertain wealthy businessmen after hours, where K-Pop stars are the object of all-consuming obsession and ruthless social hierarchies dictate your every move.

Navigating this cutthroat city are four young women balancing on the razor edge of survival: Kyuri, an exquisitely beautiful woman whose hard-won status at an exclusive 'room salon' is threatened by an impulsive mistake with a client; her flatmate, 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 elite; Wonna, their neighbour, pregnant with a child that she and her husband have no idea how they will afford to raise in a fiercely competitive economy; and Ara, a hair stylist living down the hall, whose infatuation with a fresh-faced K-Pop star drives her to violent extremes.

6 editions

altlovesbooks reviewed If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

Review of 'If I Had Your Face' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

"I would live your life so much better than you, if I had your face."

An interesting story about four women living in the same officetel (a style of housing in Korea with mixed purpose units available for rent). Each has their own different background and life story, but because of their living situation in the same building, all four know each other very well. We learn each woman’s story through their different chapters, each one taking a different woman’s point of view. Ara is a hair stylist who, because of a traumatic injury when she was in high school, cannot speak, and has a crush on the lead singer of a K-pop band. Kyuri is a “room salon girl”, like a high class prostitute, who works for a madam and wines and dines expensive clients. Miho is an artist who grew up poor, earned a scholarship to a prestigious …

"I would live your life so much better than you, if I had your face."

An interesting story about four women living in the same officetel (a style of housing in Korea with mixed purpose units available for rent). Each has their own different background and life story, but because of their living situation in the same building, all four know each other very well. We learn each woman’s story through their different chapters, each one taking a different woman’s point of view. Ara is a hair stylist who, because of a traumatic injury when she was in high school, cannot speak, and has a crush on the lead singer of a K-pop band. Kyuri is a “room salon girl”, like a high class prostitute, who works for a madam and wines and dines expensive clients. Miho is an artist who grew up poor, earned a scholarship to a prestigious art school in America, and returned to Korea with her boyfriend, an incredibly wealthy heir to a corporation. Finally, Wonna….exists. She’s pregnant with a child after a series of miscarriages, is in an unhappy relationship with a man she doesn’t love, and desperately wants to carry her current child to term despite not being able to afford to care for it.

This is definitely a character-driven story; we follow each girl’s story arc to a conclusion, satisfying or not. Kyuri’s story I think was the strongest here, and it’s from her that I learned a lot about Korean culture in the cracks of society. Ara potentially had a great point of view, but it felt like the author couldn’t decide in which direction to take her. She also (spoiler) snaps and beats up a co-worker after workplace toxicity gets the better of her in a pretty epic fight scene, but nothing ever comes of it. Miho’s point of view is the most sympathetic to me; she feels inadequate and like she doesn’t fit in because of her poor upbringing for a lot of the story. But I could never grasp if she loved her boyfriend or was annoyed by him. Wonna’s story basically doesn’t even need to exist for the rest of the book to happen. She also comes off as being weirdly crazy in the end scene with Ara, and I was sort of expecting a more tragic end, like a bathtub drowning or a murder/suicide or something.

So, kind of a mixed bag as most multiple POV, character-driven stories tend to be. I still really enjoyed the book though, as it gave me a look at Korean culture in a way I hadn’t read about before.

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