Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Mina Lee is a well rounded and relatable protagonist, struggling with the expectations of her Korean American family, grief following death of loved ones (family and friend), wondering about what's next in life, difficult feedback from friends, and of course love. I love the love between the female friends in this book where we get to see Mina receive a truth that hurts in a loving way (her initial attempt at a web comic is SO boring, BUT beautiful) because her friends want her to succeed. This is the launching off point for a web comic no one can get enough of. Mina's second attempt incorporates a piece of herself and the things she loves and by getting sucked into the very world she's created she is forced to take on the part of a main character, something she's been avoiding in her real life. I think this is a fairly unique YA book with a lot of strong messages for readers who will be sucked into Mina's story (although hopefully less literally than Mina herself).

3.75

This is a difficult book for me to review, because I have a couple of conflicting feelings about it.

The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee is described in my tour packet as being a YA contemporary, but it was really a kind of genre-bending contemporary sci-fi romance. The overall story follows a teenager named Mina who somehow ends up being sucked into her own superhero webcomic and is forced to figure out how to get back out. Because there’s a bit of breaking the fourth wall in this novel, the novel actually calls itself a fantasy, but in no world would I consider this a fantasy. For me, superheroes are pretty solidly in the sci-fi category, and the addition of alternate timelines and time jumps only further solidifies my belief that this is more of a science fiction.

Anyways, on to the review.

I absolutely adored the overall plot idea of this novel. Although there are some villain characters incorporated into the story, the main conflict is actually one within Mina herself. Namely, she’s forced to choose between her own happiness and the happiness of everyone else. As you can imagine, this means that the story is pretty devastating at times, but it was also what got me so invested in knowing what was going to happen next.

My main qualm about this book was simply that I felt the author didn’t commit as much as she could have when writing it. There were a lot of scenes that felt rushed and not quite thought out as much as I would have wanted. Mina’s character in her own comic was one that was somehow both vastly overpowered during scenes with a lot of conflict, yet pretty helpless at basically any other time. This resulted in me feeling a kind of whiplash between scenes as there were times where things were getting solved too quickly and times where things were dragging on longer than I would have liked.

On top of that, due to the nature of the plot, the novel is self-aware of basically all of the tropes of plot devices that it’s using. While I think this is something readers will find amusing, I did think it erased some of the mystery in what was going to happen next.

Overall, this book is one that I think has amazing potential and it pulled on my heart strings multiple times. I rated it 4 stars above, but a more accurate rating would be 3.75 because of the things I mentioned in this review.

If Ellen Oh plans on continuing Mina’s story with a sequel, you can 100% count me in.

Mina Lee is interested in art and working on a web comic when she finds herself in the web comic's world that she had drawn. In her own world, she's been struggling with the death of her mother and her father's insistence that art is not a viable path, but in the web comic world her dad is missing and there's something going on with the powers people suddenly have. Mina must determine how she ended up in her own comic and how to make things right in both worlds. Overall, a quick read dealing with the multiverse, grief, and finding one's path. This leans towards the younger side of YA and fans of the drama W - Two Worlds will enjoy this one.

4.5⭐️ rounded up.

When Mina Lee created her web comic, the last thing she expected was to wake up as the hero of her own story—literally. But she wakes up on Saturday morning to realize the fictional world she created is now the world she is living in and it is not following the story she had planned. Now she has to figure out what went wrong and how she can fix it in order to save everyone her errant story has put in danger—even if that means giving up the boy of her dreams.

I’m starting to realize that I really enjoy speculative fiction and this story absolutely holds true to that feeling. Who among us hasn’t wanted to live in a fictional world before? Oh takes that idea and turns it on its head when the main character finds herself in the story she created—or so she thinks. Not only does Oh bring to life something that so many of us dream about, but she also brings to life the struggle of wanting to be a creative while suffering pushback from a parent, something I think children of immigrants (like myself) can particularly relate to.

While there were some plot points that I found easy to figure out, it felt like these were purposefully placed in order to lull the reader into a false sense of security for the harder to solve surprises to come. I found myself loosening up and starting to feel like I knew what would happen at the end of the story only to be surprised when something comes along that I never would have predicted. The best stories keep you guessing, but I absolutely loved that this one made me think that I had it figured it out sometimes.

And while this story is very contemporary, there was still a bit of world-building that needed to happen and Oh managed that masterfully. Little moments that seem insignificant actually play a bigger part in the overall plot of the story and it's not until it's revealed that the reader is able to put two and two together. Not only was the world-building top notch, but the characters really jumped off the page, feeling like people that I could actually meet and become friends (or enemies!) with. I don't think there was a single character that felt flat in this entire story and there were quite a few characters to bring together. Oh's ability to not only create the world but create the people really stands out.

A coming-of-age story that dives into the intricacies of grief and how we utilize fictional worlds to cope, THE COLLIDING WORLDS OF MINA LEE by Ellen Oh brings to life a beautiful story that I keep thinking about even weeks after I’ve turned the last page.

Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher for free and have voluntarily written this review.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (or ~4 Stars)

Ellen Oh’s new young adult novel, The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee took me (and main character Mina) on a wild ride full of twists and turns and conflicting emotions. Mina is a young artist who’s been working on sharing her work with the world in the form of webcomics, but when a freak occurrence sends her into the world of her creation her arrival leaves her scrambling to get home and dealing with unforeseen consequences.

The premise of this book is crazy. Poor Mina has been dealing with a lot in life lately. Her dream is to attend art school and pursue her passion (which connects her to late mother), but her father is not interested in helping her prepare for anything but what he considers a more “practical” future. Frustrated by her father’s constant absence for work and lack of understanding, she throws herself into creating a webcomic (which quickly becomes more than she anticipated) and gets transported into an alternate universe.

I love anything having to do with a multiverse, and Ms. Oh did a great job with the execution of that story element. Admittedly, the first part of the book before the introduction of the alternate universe dragged a bit and I wasn’t sure I was going to continue reading the book. However, once the major event where Mina crosses over occurs I was sold. All of the technical elements are made really easy to understand. I really loved the different personalities and backstories some of the major characters in Mina’s life had in the alternate universe, and how it contrasted with their usual demeanor and true origin story, if you will. I also loved the introduction of the magical powers for various characters (not quite superpowers, but serving the same function) and of course, the love interest Jin (who has quite the intriguing backstory of his own).

Overall, this was a hectic story but definitely one I considered worth the time spent reading. Ami Park did a great job with her performance in the audiobook narration of the story. It’s a bit unclear at this point, but I really hope that this book gets a sequel otherwise that ending was even more brutal and borderline cruel. I would recommend this book to those who are fans of fantasy fiction novels or any book with a multiverse element to the story.

Thank you to the author, the publisher Random House Children’s Books, the team at TBR and Beyond Tours, and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary review copy of the book as part of my participation in the tour. I appreciate the opportunity to read and review The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee immensely. Please note - I voluntarily read and reviewed the book. All opinions expressed in the review are my own and not influenced in any way.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Death of a Parent (Historical References), Death of a Child (Historical References), Child Abandonment (Circumstances/Emotional Impact discussed in depth on page)

I unfort DNFed because this was really surface level. I love when a character has like… a life outside of what is happening to them in a story, and I did not feel that represented in this book at all. Mina was just there to deal with the comic book stuff and didn’t feel fleshed out at all.

This was a little too all over the place for me. Following the story involved too much suspension of belief for my tastes.

My Rating: 3.5

I can see webtoon or Kdrama lovers finding this book appealing.

I picked this book because the synopsis reminded me of the K-drama W: Two Worlds. It was similar to the show to some extent. The story was true to its synopsis and delivered an immersive speculative fiction that refused to let me take a break.

If you are a fan of that drama and are looking for something similar and less sinister, this book would be a good escape.

I found myself struggling with the first-half of the book. The insta connection and few repetitive elements slowed my reading progress but the second-half picked up the pace.

An absolutely beautiful and creative read!

Top 5 Reasons to Read The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee:

The perfect blend of friendship and love 💕
Beautiful and true appreciation of art 🎨
Honest narrative of grief 🕊️
Accidentally becoming the villain in your own superhero story 🦹‍♀️
A dazzling blend of reality and fantasy 🪄

Overall: a cute story and a fun read.

My gripes:
-The characters are supposed to be on the older end of YA, 16-17 years old, but they are characterized in a way that makes them feel like they this was meant for 14 year olds.
-Lots of telling and not enough showing

Loves:
- The way Ellen Oh handles grief. Oh my, I was so blown away by the way it is written that it is probably the main reason that I gave this book such a high rating.

I'm back and forth on this book. I like the concept and the way that it plays out. More than just " the thing I created came to life" this is more "I find out my art has impact on an alternate universe". There's some messaging here about the responsibility we have over the things we create, but ultimately it's hard to take away an applicable lesson for a reader.

I don't get to read many books where the main character ends up in her own story. Even more so when her own story ends up with a life of its own. Which is probably I fell down this rabbit hole and was sucked into watching how and what Mina would do in order to save her story and her characters from villains she created. If that doesn't catch your attention this just might.... The main character of her story is suddenly a bad guy. The love interest is someone from Mina's past. And Mina begins to understand her father just a little bit more.
I would easily reread this book again as a first go around just to feel the emotions I felt.

While the author claims that the inspiration comes from the infamous A-ha's "Take on Me" music video, the plot seemingly leans more toward the typical tropes of isekai genre animes, such as Log Horizon or the recent release The Rising of the Shield Hero, where the protagonist must go on a quest or solve an improbable mystery as the term and condition to return to the real world. And such isekai anime has the tendency to use quests as a metaphor for the coming-of-age journey of the protagonist, as what Ellen Oh does with Mina Lee in her adventure; a rediscovery of self-worth, the things she has lost and can get back, and the things she has to let go—paralleling most key events that Mina experiences in her comic to the reality that she lives in, which makes Ellen succeeding in pushing the narrative to be the metafiction that it aims to be.

This is my first book by Ellen Oh and it's so fun and cute, combining my love for YA fiction and webcomics. The story is told in the point of view of the main character Mina and has a story within a story which is always fun -- if sometimes confusing. The concept is really cool and the story is fast paced once Mina is sucked into the webcomic world. I like that it's a fun adventure story but with deeper themes of grief, belonging, self-discovery and identity -- both in terms of how you see yourself and how you see others. We see Mina become stronger and more confident when she starts her webcomic and it's definitely the motivator for her changing the direction of her life towards what she truly wants.

Jin is the sweetest of sweethearts but I felt a sense of impending doom for the entirety of their relationship since Mina's Jin is no longer alive in her real world. He's considerate and protective of Mina right off the bat. I found myself hoping for a happy ending between the two of them despite knowing it would be pretty much impossible but it ends on a hopeful note if not necessarily a happily ever after. The ending is a cliffhanger which is fine as long as we'll be getting a sequel! Or even a short story if there are no plans for a full length sequel. Please!!

Read if you like: superheroes, webcomics, rooting for the underdog, teen friendship, second chances, friendship to romance, girl power, self-discovery, portal fantasy.

Content warnings: death of child and parent - both referenced frequently, experimentation on teens - both referenced and taking place on page, some bullying.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced digital copy of this book from NetGalley and Crown Books for Young Readers. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Book Name: The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee
Author: Ellen Oh

ARC
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's, Crown Books for Young Readers for an ARC of Ellen Oh’s

Stars: 5
Spice: 0 YA

Cliffhanger:
Fast Paced
FMC POV:
Portal Fantasy

- CLIFFHANGER (Satisfying thought) - Need a Book 2
- WebComics
- Very YA in the Best YA
- Second Chance Romance Vibes
- Friends to More
- Super Heroes
- Just Plain Fun
- Explores Greif and Belonging and Agency

ok my only quip with this book is that the MMC and FMC were childhood friends who were separated at a young age and then feel fated to be together after… the age they were separated (6) feels too young to have these powerful feelings at 17. mentally I aged that up to 10. That might be a sticking point for some but overall I loved this. It explores grief and eternal feelings of love. The portal fantasy element was just perfectly done. I loved this. This is solidly YA but it is easily enjoyable by older audiences.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book via TBR and Beyond Tours in exchange for an honest review!

The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee follows Mina in her senior year. Her dream is to study art, but her father won’t let her. So, she creates a webtoon in the hope it will convince him. But while creating the story, she somehow gets sucked into it.

<blockquote> “Every face tells a story. Find the story that you want to share with the world.” </blockquote>

I was super intrigued when reading the synopsis for this one and really wanted to dive into the story! I have read a lot of webtoons over the years and really enjoy reading them, so I was curious to see how this story would play out. It also really reminded me of the K-drama W, which also centres around the real world and the alternate universe of a webtoon!

The story starts the first day of senior year, and I have to be honest, I wasn’t blown away by the beginning. I found Mina to be a bit pessimistic and it didn’t really draw me in. Once Mina started with creating the webtoon, both she and the story came alive.

I really liked the idea of being inside the webtoon of your own creation and how Mina still could manipulate it at a certain level. At the same time, I found myself a bit confused and left wanting more information as to how it came to be and how it was possible. Even at the end, I found that an explanation still lacked which left me a bit confused.
I liked Mina, I liked how she tried to do the right thing and how much she loves art. She is determined and tried to right her wrongs. Jin is the one who really stole my heart! I really liked his personality a lot.

The romance and chemistry between Mina and Jin were really well written! From the first time they met you could feel the chemistry between the two and they fitted perfectly. I especially enjoyed the banter between the two a lot!

The story is fast paced and predictable to me. As it is in a webtoon, the mentions of tropes that happened was funny, but at the same time the story was very cliché. I would’ve liked it if there was just that one thing that made it somehow stand out more. I also think that is why I wasn’t blown away by the story in general.

The story also ends with a hopeful ending, instead of a true happily ever after, which I really had hoped it would have had. While it does fit within the world created by the author, it does feel a bit bittersweet for me.

Overall, I enjoyed reading The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee, I was invested in it and really liked the chemistry between the main characters but also feel like it could’ve been better explained and fleshed out at times.

[The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee contains scenes describing human medical experimentation that, while not graphic, could be unsettling for some readers. Grief is also a present theme, as Mina’s mother’s died three years ago, and the Jin in the webcomic is based on a childhood friend who died of cancer.]

If you’ve ever enjoyed a webcomic where a “real world” person ends up in a fantasy world, you should give The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee a chance. It’s a solid example of the genre while still being able to have a bit of fun with the medium itself through meta moments like Mina realizing that something big will almost definitely happen at a school dance—just because it’s a school dance, and she’s in webcomic set at a high school. A lot of tropes, events, and characters get played straight or played around with in entertaining ways, and I enjoyed Mina’s lampshading throughout.

Mina and Jin were the stars of the book, and they had a sweet, sincere webcomic romance. I enjoyed their banter and their teamwork, and Mina was a lot of fun as a narrator. I liked watching her figure out how her powers worked as the webcomic’s creator, and her commentary on genre conventions and other meta gave the story a lot of flavor. Much of the supporting cast was fairly simple, though, and I do wish there had been more time to flesh them out—especially the character that was supposed to be the hero before Mina arrived in the webcomic world.

I would consider The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee to fall on the younger end of the YA spectrum due to its writing style and breezy pace. Some of the horror isn’t as deeply explored as I would expect in an older YA, like Mina’s powers to (accidentally) force the webcomic people to conform to her storyline or the medical/body horror inherent in the villain’s schemes. That said, the book doesn’t shy away from the heavier topics of parental loss—Mina’s mother’s death is still a significant influence on Mina and her father’s lives. I also appreciated the juxtaposition of Mina’s parents’ absences: her mother to death, but present in her art; and her father to work, but present in his worry about Mina’s future.

Recommendation: Get it soon if the premise appeals to you. Ellen Oh’s The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee is a fun, comfortable high school adventure with a dose of entertaining meta on top. There are some places I wish had been explored more, but the novel is a solid entry in this genre. I finished the novel wanting to read more stories like it, and that’s a sign of a satisfying story.

Cute story. Would be great for lovers of web comics. I enjoyed the super hero aspect as well. The relationship between Mina and Jin is a very well fleshed out.

Inspired by the groundbreaking A-Ha! Music video for “Take on Me”, this book combines webcomics, art, teen romance, loss, physics, and multiverse theory, simultaneously mocking and embracing the tropes.

Mina, a Korean-American girl whose mother died a few years ago, is struggling as her senior year begins. Her father doesn’t want her to go into art—her mother’s profession—and seems to be erasing her mother’s memories from their lives. To prove that she has what it takes to be a successful artist, Mina decides to publish a webcomic. Her first attempt is boring. She doesn’t want to embrace the typical tropes—like love triangles—and her friends give her some tough love.

Her second attempt is…inspired. The characters jump into her mind, including a grown-up version of a childhood friend who died.

And this is where the multiverse comes in.

Oh gives us just enough scientific explanation for us to willingly go along for the ride, without sciencing us to death.

What I really enjoyed about this story is that the alternate universe characters know that they are not who they were before the comic started. They don’t know why they are suddenly compelled to do things that are outside their previous norm. Mina, shocked that she is responsible for their unhappy circumstances, helps them to fight against the compulsions that she created, while trying to fix the problem and allow them to be themselves again. By doing this, she learns the lesson herself—she needs to stand up to her father about her choices for her future.

The solution to the problem is maybe a little frustrating. Mina is able to bring the tools she needs to fight her bad guys to life just by drawing them. It does make the eventual escape from them a bit too simple. On the other hand, Mina is also called on to make a great sacrifice—an understandable and needed one, but heartbreaking nonetheless.

The final solution toward getting her back to her own reality was a little to close to The Wizard of Oz for my comfort.

There were a few continuity errors in my ARC. Mina is lactose intolerant, but she eats cheese sticks and things with butter. On the other hand, when she orders a milkshake, she only dips her French fries in it because “that’s the only way I can have a milkshake.”

Overall, I felt like the story was engaging, the dialogue and description were solid, and the characters who were supposed to be believable, were believable.
And…did Oh leave the door open for a sequel?

Possible Objectionable Material:
Some violence of a comic-book nature. An over-the-top villain who does medical procedures on teens. Teenage cursing—mild. Teenage making out, also mild. No sex. A same-gender couple.

Who Might Like This Book:
Fans of webcomics and comics in general will probably find this an enjoyable read. Although the protagonist is female, I think it will be equally engaging to boys.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.


This book is also reviewed at https://biblioquacious.blogspot.com/2024/01/a-multiverse-of-possibilities.html