Name: Hello, I Love You
Rating: 2.454545454545455 (11 reviews)
ISBN: 9781250052599

Katie M. Stout

Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start. She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie's twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame.

A Novel

Hello, I Love You

Jill

Hello, I Love You is about a young American woman, Grace who travels to Korea to escape some shit back home. I can’t believe how appalled I am by her cultural insensitivity and constant putdowns of the Korean culture. She was painted to be a flawed character and we all need that especially in YA but her cultural ignorance throughout the book with a huge heap of being judgmental did not make her endearing at all. No one even forced her to go to Korea, it was her freaking choice and yet she was dismissive of anything that was unfamiliar to her and reluctant to embrace a culture she chose for herself. Case in point: “𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦? 𝘐 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯, 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘱-𝘩𝘰𝘱 𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘬? 𝘖𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘒𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧?” 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘣𝘯𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘌𝘈𝘋𝘠 𝘛𝘖 𝘞𝘏𝘌𝘙𝘌 𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘧 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘻𝘦𝘳𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦. “𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺?” 𝘐 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘑𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯, 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴. “𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘵.” “𝘐𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵.” 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴, 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦. “𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶.” “𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺, 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴? 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺?” This is not a book that represented diversity well. This is not a book for KPop lovers. This is a huge MOCKERY to the Korean culture, it’s appalling. And the only reason this is getting a two-star from me is because of the side characters.

Ella Zegarra

Original de: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

Soy amante y admiradora de la cultura asiática. Mi país, Perú, tiene un gran influencia sobre todo por China y Japón. Pero es gracias a los doramas y KPOP que mi amor por el continente asiático y en especial Korea nace. Por lo que un libro que me diga que tendrá no solo KPOP sino que estará desarrollado en Korea, me pareció un regalo caído del cielo. ¡Cuántas posibilidades! ¡Cuántas maneras de enamorarme más de este país! Ya, bueno, no fue así.

No voy a negar que empecé el libro con gran entusiasmo, algo no tan habitual en mí porque tiendo a iniciar libros sin saber de qué van. Cada libro que leo es una cita a ciegas. Pero no con Hello, I Love You, al menos sabía que hablaría de KPOP, al menos eso me daba esperanza. El gran problema fue que está narrada por una típica norteaméricana: aires de superioridad, necesidad de desmerecer el lugar en donde está incluso si no es SU PAÍS NATAL, intentar norteamericanizar todo lo que está a su paso.

Al pasar los primeros capítulos, estaba segura que lo odiaría e incluso lo dejaría sin terminar, no mejoró, pero fue usando los típicos clichés de las novelas young adult, lo que le dio cierta fluidez a la lectura. Lo que a pasado, es que luego de terminar el libro, minutos después, estaba considerando seriamente darle 3 o cuatro estrellas, pero mientras más lo pensaba, mientras escribo esta reseña me descubro renegando más y más con el libro. El hecho de leer más reseñas donde resaltan la falta de koreanidad en el libro, me dice que no fueron solo imaginaciones mías todo este disgusto.

Lo que me ha dado mucho más rabia, es como Grace desmerece el KPOP una y otra y otra vez, como resalta que lo escrito en inglés es mucho mejor. Para ser un libro que me dice tendrá KPOP, no hay ninguna canción de KPOP, ninguna. Solo promoción a las típicas bandas clásicas de rock.

Si eres amante del KPOP y la cultura asiática y ¿te emocionaba encontrar una escritora que pudiera darnos algo de el amor por el país en un libro? Vas a salir decepcionado.

¿Es entretenido? Sí, lo terminé en menos de 24 horas, sólo que no es nada del otro mundo, lo único de especial que tiene es que está en Korea, lamentablemente no ha sido bien utilizada esa herramienta. No es el primer libro que leo desarrollado en un país asiático, el libro de Amanda Sun, INK, lo leí hace un par de años y se nota completamente la diferencia cuando un autor respeta y admira una cultura. Hello, I Love You pudo ser muchas cosas, pero al final no fue nada del otro mundo. Incluso el título era completamente sobre norteamérica.

YA ME CALMO, YA.

Twitter || Blog || Pinterest || Tumblr || Instagram || Facebook

Yoomi

So disappointed. I'll write a review when I've had some time to think about it more rationally. I want to be clear why this book bothered me so much.

Stephanie Haynes

Jessica 

Blog | Twitter | Instagram | DNF @ 34%

So, I don't know if this is a controversial take or not, but I couldn't get into this book at all. Which is very sad and frustrating and trust me, I'm annoyed with myself. It's not that the writing was bad or the story was dumb. The writing WASN'T bad. The story line had a sticky sweet promise to it. It's just that I had a lot of issues connecting with Hello, I Love You and I think I may have let myself down with it by expecting it to be something it wasn't. 

Which is, obviously, on me and not on the book or its author. 

Ah, I just couldn't get into it! And I'd been waiting two or three years to read it when I finally did, so it was all very much so a letdown for me. 

That being said, as usual: taste is subjective and what isn't my cup of tea could very well be yours. Always give a book the chance if it's appealing to you.

Sofia Bautista 

Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who's topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother's breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start. She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie's twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can't stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can't deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol. Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she'll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, Katie M. Stout's Hello, I Love You explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

Hello, I Love You A Novel

Reviews

Highlights