Hi everyone. I'm rincey and this is
rincey reads. Today i'm going to be doing
a book review on shelter by jung yun.
And this is a book that was all over
booktube around like three, four years
ago and i completely missed the boat on
it. And again, this is like another one of
those stories where I was at a used
bookstore and I saw that this was at the
bookstore and I was like oh, there are so
many people who love this book. I should
probably pick it up. And then I read it
this weekend and completely devoured it
and like absolutely loved it. So in this
book you are following this character
named Kyung. He is of Korean descent.
He is married to a white woman named
Jillian and they have a son together
named Ethan. They are currently going
through some significant financial
troubles. They're upside down on their
house and they were considering selling
their home in order to like get some
sort of money on it because they know
that they're not gonna be able to keep
up with the mortgage payment or
something along those lines. And so the
story begins with a realtor in their
house sort of assessing their home and
trying to figure out what exactly
they're going to do, when the realtor
like looks outside and sees that there
is a woman outside who is naked walking
towards the house. And she like points it
out and Kyung and Jillian realized very
quickly that that is actually Kyung's
mother. So Kyung is not on speaking terms
with his family. And at the beginning of
the book you're not really sure what
exactly is going on but, he like runs to
her with a towel like completely
embarrassed and trying to figure out
what exactly is going on. The mother is
speaking to Kyung in Korean probably
because she's traumatized and Kyung
doesn't like speak it fluently. And so
he's trying to figure out what she's
saying. And he thinks he hears her say
something along the lines of like your
father did this or your father hurt me
or something along those lines. And so
that's kind of where the story starts
off. However that's not really everything
in the story that's going on. It actually
turns out that Kyung's parents Jinn and
Mae have been robbed and when they're
found like they were violently hurt.
Their maid shows up and she ends up
getting extremely hurt as well. And so Mae
and the maid are in the hospital for a
little while. Everything basically
changes because Kyung realizes that he has
to take his parents in for a certain
period of time and it basically forces
him to reckon with his past and everything that
he has been trying to like ignore or put
behind him or, you know, not deal with for
a really long time. Because like in his
mind he's been trying really hard to
keep his distance from his parents. So
this book is kind of like a domestic
drama thriller kind of — maybe, not a thriller.
Suspense is probably a better word for
it — book because there's a lot going on
here. First of all there's a crime that
occurred at Kyung's parents house, which
the criminals are like at large. And so
that's one part of the story.
um The other part of the story is kind
of just like what exactly happened in
their house. You start to get like bits
and pieces of it as they like give
statements to the police and different
facts start to come up. And so that's
like a huge part of the story. But like
the majority of this book is about Kyung
dealing with his like anger and guilt
and him talking about things that had
happened in his past and in his history
that he never really talked to Jillian
about before. And how that's sort of
impacting his life and his family,
especially now that he's forced to take
his parents in and deal with that. And
then there's this whole other aspect of
the story that has to do with like
Korean life, Korean culture, Korean family
life and things like that, which just
also was so fascinating. So I really
enjoyed this book. I actually listen to
this on audiobook.
I almost listened to the whole thing in
one day because I was so intrigued to
see what was going to happen in this
story and what the truth was. Like it was
very clear that there was more going on
here than was being explained to the
reader at the beginning of the story. And
so like I couldn't stop reading this
book, or I couldn't stop the desire to
keep reading this book or listening to
this book because I desperately wanted
to know what was actually happening in
this family, and then therefore, like how
everything was going to turn out in the
end. This is a book with a lot of twists
that I didn't see coming.
There's also a lot of like discussion in
here about Korean church life and that
whole aspect of it and sort of like
growing up and holding on to resentments
from your childhood. Again, things about
Korean family life, which as someone
who's Indian I recognize a lot of that
as well and I feel like there are a lot
of things in here that I recognize, not
in my own family necessarily thankfully.
But just like in people that I know
around me and things like that
about pride and sort of hiding what's
actually going on in your family life
because you don't want other people to
know the shameful things that are
happening. There's just so many things in
this book that are so well done. I think
part of it is like how effortless it
feels. The author does an amazing job of
creating this tension. And like I could
feel the tension in my body as I was
listening to this book because you know
like things are gonna blow up but you
just don't know how they're gonna blow
up or when they're gonna blow up. And the
thing is is with this book is that there
are actually quite a few explosions that
happen. And I didn't really expect this
book to be as much as it is for this
short of a book that it is. There's so much
plot that happens in here that even my
synopsis is like just barely scratching
the surface of what actually is
happening in this story. It's a true
family drama that like looks at marriage
and the complications of marriage and
then sort of like the baggage that
people bring into marriage and how that
affects how things go. You know, childhood
trauma, abuse, obviously trigger warnings
for things along those lines.
It's not like explicit in the abuse but
they like talk about past abuse and
things along those lines.
So I do feel like I should mention that.
But I feel like this book just so
expertly weaves the way that people try
to hide those things in their lives and
sort of the pressure that creates and
the tension that that creates within all
of the people who are sort of holding on
to the secret and what happens when all
of that blows up. Yeah, this book is
amazing and brilliant and I thought it
was so, so well done. I've seen like a
couple of people on Goodreads, cause like I
went on Goodreads to give it my rating,
and I saw a couple of people talk about
how they couldn't really like connect
with Mae. And I think that's done on
purpose because that's kind of how, in my
experience, a lot of Asian women are
especially when it comes to things like
trauma and pain and abuse. They hold it
back and they hold it in and I think
that you're not supposed to also fully
understand Mae because it was mostly told
through Kyung's point of view, her son. And
so he doesn't completely understand his
mother either and he like blames her for
a lot of the stuff that happened in
there. But yeah he like holds his parents
at a distance so you don't really fully
get to understand them as much as you
might want to. But yeah, this
look it's like tragic but so like
beautifully written in the sense of like
I felt like you really understand where
these characters are coming from, or at
least like these three members of this
family are really coming from. Not that
you really like forgive them, but like
Kyung is such an asshole.
I usually don't swear on my channel but
there were so many times in this book
where I wanted to like punch him in the
face. But by the end of it, you'll also
kind of understand why he's like that.
It's not like excusing his behavior but
you're just like well I guess I kind of
get why you're like this now. And even
his parents and things like that, like I
feel like I got it. I think I understood
why they're like this and again maybe
that just comes from my like cultural
experience and background, having seen
this up close in real life. But I just
thought this like so beautifully
captures all of that sort of tension and
pride and anxiety and all of that so, so
well. So yeah, I love this book so much.
I was like wavering between a 4 and a 5
star rating. So I think this is more like
a four and a half star rating. I'm not
like crazy about the way things ended
but I do like the ending. But yeah, this
book completely took me by surprise.
Even though like everyone I knew who had read
this book absolutely adored it, I still
was completely surprised by how good
this book was. So if you were like me and
like heard about this book forever ago
and never picked it up, I highly
recommend picking it up. Or maybe you're
hearing about this book for the first
time, I highly recommend you pick up. So
yeah, I give this one a 4 and a half stars.
So, so good and definitely like one of the
best, if not the best, book I've read so
far this year. So those are my quick
thoughts on shelter by Jung Yun. Please
leave a comment down below letting me
know what you guys thought of this book
if you've picked it up already. Like I
said, I know a lot of people already have so
definitely come back and talk to me
about it now. Or if you've any questions
about the book, feel free to leave that
down in the comment section as well. So
yeah, that's all I have for now and
thanks for watching.
