Book Review of Y/N by Esther Yi

 

Name of Book: Y/N

Author: Esther Yi 

ISBN: 978-1-6626-0153-8

Publisher: Astra House 

Type of book: literary, obsession, love, South Korea, fandom, parasocial relationships, mental illness, stalking, dream, challenges 

Year it was published: 2023 

Summary:

Y/N, a novel about a Korean American woman living in Berlin whose obsession with a K-pop idol sends her to Seoul on a journey of literary self-destruction.

It’s as if her life only began once Moon appeared in it. The desultory copywriting work, the boyfriend, and the want of anything not-Moon quickly fall away when she beholds the idol in concert, where Moon dances as if his movements are creating their own gravitational field; on live streams, as fans from around the world comment in dozens of languages; even on skincare products endorsed by the wildly popular Korean boyband, of which Moon is the youngest, most luminous member. Seized by ineffable desire, our unnamed narrator begins writing Y/N fanfic—in which you, the reader, insert [Your/Name] and play out an intimate relationship with the unattainable star.

Then Moon suddenly retires, vanishing from the public eye. As Y/N flies from Berlin to Seoul to be with Moon, our narrator, too, journeys to Korea in search of the object of her love. An escalating series of mistranslations and misidentifications lands her at the headquarters of the Kafkaesque entertainment company that manages the boyband until, at a secret location, together with Moon at last, art and real life approach their final convergence.

Characters:

So the two main characters are the unnamed female character and Moon. The unnamed female character has hints of intriguing past, but all she does is focus and obsess with moon as well as show the readers different degrees that obsession plays out. Moon is a charismatic ethereal youngest member of the K pop band who inspires more than he can handle. At the same time, he seems to be sane and understanding, especially when comparing him to the unnamed female narrator. The secondary character would be Oseul, a woman who designs shoes and sends the female narrator to find her true love (Moon) and Liese and Masterson, whom the female narrator knew back in Germany before her Moon obsession. (Liese is also as obsessed with Moon just as female narrator while Masterson is either an adopted brother or boyfriend or both?) 

Theme:

There is a fine line between love and obsession

Plot:

The story is in first person narrative from anonymous Korean-American woman's point of view. In perhaps a true style to the Y/N (YOUR NAME stories,) almost no background information is given on her, which means its difficult to imagine her as a living breathing human that is all too real. The whole novel felt like some sort of dream or better yet, a fanfiction of sorts. The author heavily focuses on love/obsession rather than fleshing out her characters, yet the novel does work and is enjoyable for me. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

N/A

Opinion:

I definitely need to re-read it sometime soon, mainly because I feel as if I didn't understand the novel all too well. From what I understood, I believe, is that it begins with an unnamed Korean or Korean-American woman living in Germany learning to become obsessed with a K-pop Idol band who have names after solar systems (Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon and Jupiter.) When she and a friend attend a concert, she becomes, well, consumed by Moon, even going so far as traveling back to South Korea upon learning that Moon retired. The novel examines love, consummation as well as desire and the need for humans to create something beyond human. The whole novel, it can be argued, can either be seen as a dream, or half dream half reality. 

This was given for review

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)