Name: lucia's review of If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
Item: If I Had Your Face
Rating: 4.5
Author: lucia

Frances Cha

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.

'Assured, Bold, and Electrifying' Taylor Jenkins Reid, Bestselling Author of DAISY JONES and the SIX

If I Had Your Face

"Kyuri is a heartbreakingly beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a "room salon," an exclusive bar where she entertains businessmen while they drink. Though she prides herself on her cold, clear-eyed approach to life, an impulsive mistake with a client may come to threaten her livelihood. Her roomate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in a precarious relationship with the super-wealthy heir to one of Korea's biggest companies. Down the hall in their apartment building lives Ara, a hair stylist for whom two preoccupations sustain her: obsession with a boy-band pop star, and a best friend who is saving up for the extreme plastic surgery that is commonplance. And Wonna, one floor below, is a newlywed trying to get pregnant with a child that she and her husband have no idea how they can afford to raise and educate in the cutthroat economy. Together, their stories tell a gripping tale that's seemingly unfamiliar, yet unmistakably universal in the way that their tentative friendships may have to be their saving grace"--

Lindy

I’m not sure who’s worse, them or the men. Just kidding, the men are always worse.

deniz

All I can offer her is proof she haunts me still, every day.

no amount of money can buy you genuine, everlasting happiness, all it can buy you is ease and comfort. that's why people with money try to convince themselves they are supposed to be happier because they have it, and they expect the ones who have less to be miserable. but they're not miserable. 

I could have looked hurt or angry, I know, but I settled on chirpy as my default state a while ago, because I remembered something Ruby said to me once back in New York.

“Rich people are fascinated by happiness,” she said. “It’s something they find maddening.”

Most people have no capacity for comprehending true darkness, and then they try to fix it anyway.

sina (she/her) 

I will build myself up so high in such a short time that when he leaves me, I will become a lightning storm, a nuclear apocalypse.

In a way, I will be glad when we are almost home and the scenery will turn into rice fields and farm plots, and I will be reminded of how far I have come, instead of what I cannot reach.

It's basic human nature, this need to look down on someone to feel better about yourself. There is no point in getting upset about it.

But I grew up not knowing the diference between a bearable life and an unbearable life, and by the time I discovered there was such a thing, it was too late.

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

'Absolutely stunning. . . Assured, bold, and electrifying' Taylor Jenkins Reid, Sunday Times bestselling author of DAISY JONES & THE SIX 'One of the buzziest debuts of the year, If I Had Your Face transports readers to glittering, futuristic Seoul... Essential reading' Vogue 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. 'A brilliant debut' Pandora Sykes, The High Low Podcast 'Culturally fascinating, emotionally layered, gripping and smart' Curtis Sittenfeld, bestselling author of PREP and AMERICAN WIFE 'A stunning debut' Sunday Times 'Glittering, engrossing' Helen Oyeyemi, author of GINGERBREAD 'Remarkable, brilliantly crafted and devastatingly exquisite' Kevin Kwan, bestselling author of CRAZY RICH ASIANS

'Assured, bold, and electrifying' Taylor Jenkins Reid, bestselling author of DAISY JONES & THE SIX

Keya Markham

Sophie Cullingworth

A Novel

really really really loved this. these girls are all fully fleshed and all quite different from each other, except for the part where they feel isolated in society. this last bit is so strong that this entire book is about them slowly finding their way to community together with each other. loved explorations of the ways they view each other — where it looks like miho has everything in comparison to kyuri, yet ara and her friend envy kyuri and her financial savviness and looks. wonna yearns for ara and her friend’s closeness, yet the other girls look at her doting husband and think she’s set. i love how none of these yearnings for the other girls’ situations really feel malicious, and they’re all there for each other and come to understand each other (and see each other as real full people with full lives?) by the end.

i think wonna and kyuri’s chapters interested me the most, and kyuri in particular was so easy to root for. i also think, based on a quick google search, many reviews focus on this book’s takeaways in relation to beauty standards and plastic surgery… while those are a part of the story, i think it’s more abt  disposability of women +  economic hardships in korea. women in korea are often only discussed in the west in terms of korean beauty, plastic surgery, and male violence, so i really appreciated this book for opening conversation abt korean women beyond those topics. 

[SPOILER] i always love representations of a community of people taking care of a baby / child, bc that shit cannot be done in isolation lol, so i loved the ending of this book 🥹 [/SPOILER] if i were to criticize anything, i would say i think ara’s idol obsession is slightly pointless just bc it doesn’t really go anywhere? tho maybe that’s just bc im not thinking abt it hard enough ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ love this book but hate to think! will have to ruminate some more another time!

lucia

really really really loved this. these girls are all fully fleshed and all quite different from each other, except for the part where they feel isolated in society. this last bit is so strong that this entire book is about them slowly finding their way to community together with each other. loved explorations of the ways they view each other — where it looks like miho has everything in comparison to kyuri, yet ara and her friend envy kyuri and her financial savviness and looks. wonna yearns for ara and her friend’s closeness, yet the other girls look at her doting husband and think she’s set. i love how none of these yearnings for the other girls’ situations really feel malicious, and they’re all there for each other and come to understand each other (and see each other as real full people with full lives?) by the end.

i think wonna and kyuri’s chapters interested me the most, and kyuri in particular was so easy to root for. i also think, based on a quick google search, many reviews focus on this book’s takeaways in relation to beauty standards and plastic surgery… while those are a part of the story, i think it’s more abt  disposability of women +  economic hardships in korea. women in korea are often only discussed in the west in terms of korean beauty, plastic surgery, and male violence, so i really appreciated this book for opening conversation abt korean women beyond those topics. 

[SPOILER] i always love representations of a community of people taking care of a baby / child, bc that shit cannot be done in isolation lol, so i loved the ending of this book 🥹 [/SPOILER] if i were to criticize anything, i would say i think ara’s idol obsession is slightly pointless just bc it doesn’t really go anywhere? tho maybe that’s just bc im not thinking abt it hard enough ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ love this book but hate to think! will have to ruminate some more another time!

started this because i was stalking my friend's reviews. then finished it in probably 10 hours. good night to me now.

AAAARGGGHHH I love each and one of these girls T__T

left me in awe and hoping for the girls to have a bright future. it shows the reality for a lot of women in korea and how they try so hard to achieve success while bearing the unbelievably high standards for beauty and expectations. a lot of times i felt sympathy for the characters but also proud at how they are still doing their best despite all the problems coming their way.

ayoni

Eva Ströberg

This book tells the story of four girls + a married woman who live in the same building (called office-tel in South Korea, a combination of office and hotel) in fancy Gangnam district in Seoul

Kyuri, a room-salon girl (think of a high-end hostess) who has undergone so many facial surgery because her livelihood depends on it.
Ara, a mute girl from Cheongju who works in a hair salon and a die-hard K-pop fans.
Sujin, Ara's BFF, who used to live in an orphanage in Cheongju and now works in a nail salon
Miho, a sculpter and a painter, who recently moved back after a scholarship stint at NYC
Wonna, a married woman, also an office worker, lived under, who was desperately wanting a daughter.

The books gives an insight on how facial surgery is so common in South Korea that Kyuri actually wonders why people "stay ugly" when they have the money to do the surgery. She thinks it's a moral obligation to be pretty that prompts Sujin to do multiple surgery to fix her jaws in order to follow her step, while Ara is drowning in her obsession to Taein, and she lives and breathes from the gossip from the K-pop world. Miho, who is in relationship with a rich boy, a relationship legacy during their stay in New York City had her own complicated problems while Wonna has a long dark history of family abuse from her grandmother.

These girls tell the story of how obsessed the society with beauty, money and status. Although Kyuri is beautiful thanks to the multiple surgery, and she has a lot of money (and fancy gifts) from her "guests", she's still considered the bottom feeder of the society due to her status as a "room salon girl". The book is very interesting for outsiders who want to have a glimpse on how the society works in South Korea, at least in the capital city of Seoul.

I took one star down because of the open ending of the book. I need a closure! LOL

A riveting, feminist debut about four women navigating contemporary South Korea, a world of strict social hierarchies, extreme plastic surgery and K-pop fan mania. "Even as a girl, I knew the only chance I had was to change my face. When I looked into the mirror, I knew everything in it had to change, even before a fortune-teller told me so." This utterly compelling novel follows the interconnected lives of four young women balancing on the edge of survival in contemporary Seoul, Korea. Kyuri is a heartbreakingly beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a "room salon," an exclusive bar where she entertains wealthy businessmen while they drink. Though she prides herself on her cold, clear-eyed approach to life, an impulsive mistake with a client one evening suddenly threatens her livelihood. Her roomate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in an impossible relationship with the super-wealthy heir to one of Korea's biggest companies. Down the hall from their apartment building lives Ara, a hair stylist whose obsession with a boy-band pop star drives her to desperate extremes. And Wonna, on the floor just below, is a newlywed trying to get pregnant with a child that she and her husband will not be able to afford to raise and educate in the cutthroat economy of Seoul. Together, they give us a gripping picture of their unfamiliar world of cultural hierarchies, yet unmistakably universal in the ways their tentative friendships will prove their saving grace.

Gelaine Trinidad

Steps into the lives of modern-day South-Koreans and really expresses the pain and inevitable future of never-ending unachievable beauty standards. 

kayla 

Isabella 

reminds me so much of hello, my twenties (kdrama). there is no plot to the book but it explores the lives of a group of women. it tackles plastic surgery, prostitution, miscarriage, sexism, and more. it was realistic in a sense that i could definitely see women, in real life, experiencing the lives of the characters that was shown in the book. i wish it was more longer!! i enjoyed it a lot!!

A brilliant read on womanhood, struggles of women in Asian communities, and the friendships and camaraderie that bounds them together. A book that will make you relate with every single women in it, no matter how different the perspectives. And oh how i love being a woman.

Kendall McClain

Friendship<3 interesting commentary on beauty standards and plastic surgery. This one’s difficult because I adore a character driven book, which this definitely was, though I think the amount of main characters is a bit too ambitious. In having so many main characters and subsequent plot points each one felt a bit underdeveloped to leave room for the others. BUTTT I loved it and definitely regret letting it sit on my shelf for a year unread.

I'm in awe. This has got to be a new favorite.

I feel like this is a book about women written for women. It tackled a lot about feminism and its intersectionality. That, in some ways, we are all oppressed by the system and we really go through shit.

And, also, it gave light and dimensions as if to say that women does this, that etc. That we are our own persons and we have these sides that we don't let others see. 

I loved how this book shown each character as flawed which makes them, idk, very human and real. Someone that I could pass through the streets.

Anyway, I can totally feel it. The things tackled in this book will linger around me for a long time. 5/5 ⭐

Belle

There was never a boring page in the book. my favorites were definitely Ara and Wonna.

lea.

no words can explain how much i adore this book.

it follows four young women, who each has their own struggles and challenges in life, upon living in a stereotypical and misogynistic society. the book starts with kyuri, who works as a 'room-salon' girl at an exclusive bar in seoul, south korea. ara, a hairstylist who is obsessed with k-pop and is also, trying to navigate her journey through life in her own special way. miho, a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage and had won a scholarship to pursue her studies in new york. but, her love life? tragic. 👎🏻 and last but not least, wonna, who dreams of having a child, but, is confused on how to maintain the future of her family, due to being in a financially challenging married life. their stories were realistically horrifying but fascinating, at the same time.

my favourite character is kyuri. i enjoyed reading her perspectives about life and just, society, in general. her words cut through like a knife, but, you cannot deny the truth behind them.

“𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤, 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒. 𝐻𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑝𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐼 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑖𝑚.”

i have to acknowledge that this book may not be for everyone as it focuses more on the characters' storylines instead of a proper plot. it was leaning more towards the 'slice-of-life' approach. all in all, if you are looking for a book that is quite fast paced and easy to consume, packed with touching elements and female friendshipsㅡthis may be the book for you 💛

this was my drug for the month of december 2023, everytime i pick it up i inhale it and i would try not to pick it up for days because if i did i would not be able to do my things. i loved the shifting of POVs, the characters are vastly different from each other that reading from one perspective to another is always a treat. i enjoy strong, opinionated female characters so everytime i read a chapter with Kyuri's perspective i rejoice.

rain

jess larry

dnfed at 8%

the narration feels disjointed, and i don't feel interested in the characters at all

i honestly thought i was 
  really
 going to like this book but i felt like the author was trying to tell so many different stories at once and i'm not really fond of that 😢

i did like the friendship between the girls though, they're very precious to me (even though they're all a lil bit insane) and miho, specifically, was my favourite (view spoiler)[(fawk u hanbin!) (hide spoiler)]

Lamia Hajani

Quick read! Very interesting book but I had an ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach but nothing really happens. In a way, the book’s events have too quick of resolutions. A good book but far from a favorite.

altlovesbooks

"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) (view 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 (hide spoiler)]. 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 (view spoiler)[I could never grasp if she loved her boyfriend or was annoyed by him (hide spoiler)]. Wonna’s story basically doesn’t even need to exist for the rest of the book to happen. She also comes off as being (view spoiler)[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 (hide spoiler)]. 

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.

charisa

really visceral book about the misogyny and extreme societal pressures that plague modern south korea (and especially the female experience). minus points for some disjointed storytelling, but generally, it was a really harrowing and achingly realistic portrayal of some of korea’s most deep-rooted problems lived out.

marti

oh i loved this :( especially the last chapters. i would’ve loved reading more about wonna and kyuri, they were the most interesting characters to me, it has probably to do with the fact their sadness was the most violent out of all the characters so i felt like it needed to me explored more. the only character that left me a bit unsure of what to think of her is miho, i felt like there was a need for more backstory to really understand her behaviors.
i think this is a book that does an amazing job at showing female friendships, the dynamics showed exactly how they work: there’s always a sense of unity and understanding when it comes to them. also topics such as plastic surgery, sex work and such were talked about in a very great way for a book that isn’t very long

A riveting debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, about four young women making their way in a world defined by impossible standards of beauty, after-hours room salons catering to wealthy men, ruthless social hierarchies, and K-pop mania "Powerful and provocative . . . a novel about female strength, spirit, resilience--and the solace that friendship can sometimes provide."--The Washington Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time - NPR - Esquire - Bustle - BBC - New York Post - InStyle Kyuri is an achingly beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a Seoul "room salon," an exclusive underground bar where she entertains businessmen while they drink. Though she prides herself on her cold, clear-eyed approach to life, an impulsive mistake threatens her livelihood. Kyuri's roommate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in a precarious relationship with the heir to one of the country's biggest conglomerates. Down the hall in their building lives Ara, a hairstylist whose two preoccupations sustain her: an obsession with a boy-band pop star, and a best friend who is saving up for the extreme plastic surgery that she hopes will change her life. And Wonna, one floor below, is a newlywed trying to have a baby that she and her husband have no idea how they can afford to raise in Korea's brutal economy. Together, their stories tell a gripping tale at once unfamiliar and unmistakably universal, in which their tentative friendships may turn out to be the thing that ultimately saves them.

(finished january 9th of 2023) frances cha's easy-to-read prose will immediately captivate you for hours on end. a fantastic novel about four flawed women tackling (and struggling in) the crazy society of seoul. i will recommend this to anyone who asks me for a book rec.

farah

wow, the story is so enthralling, I finished the book in just a few days! I listening to the audiobook which was fantastically produced (the main characters have different voice actors and chapters are from different characters POV)

This book covers a few segments of korean society (socialites, dirt poor country kids, sex workers) and while while I'm not sure about its accuracy, the stories were incredibly compelling.

The structure of the narrative and the timing of the how information is revealed was a masterclass of a novel slowly unwrapping each character's history and how they came to be as they are.

Sophie Cullingworth &
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

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Sophie Cullingworth &If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

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Sophie Cullingworth &
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha