If I Had Your Face plunges us into the mesmerizing 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 hyper-competitive 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.
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Sujin is hell-bent on becoming a room salon girl. ARA
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(@VikingBooks, 23 April 2020, 252 pages, paperback, copy from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 25 July)
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I couldn't make up my mind if this book was supposed to be set now or in some future time because society's obsession with beauty and plastic surgery felt so unrealistic to me. Surely the book is set in some image-obsessed dystopian world? Anyway, I digress. I loved the book. I enjoyed it so much I devoured it one sitting because I absolutely did not want to put it down. It's very different than books I tend to read which made me enjoy it even more. It can be good to try something outside your comfort zone. I loved the setting. Cha brings Seoul to vivid, memorable life. I felt I really understand the society occupied by the four women in the book. The chapters alternate between the POV of each women and this works really well. The women are different and they all struggle with the roles gives to them and what they really want. I loved them all. This is a great book, very different than anything I've read in a while.
