This book follows the lives of a group of Korean girls working in the beauty and escort industry and an older neighbour. The characters have interesting back stories, but it only gives a glimpse of them. The plot does not really seem to go into much direction but is more like a slice of life. I felt it could have been better and held promise.

This is a striking debut novel. It follows the lives of a group of young women in South Korea as they navigate the beauty industry, cosmetic surgery, classism, ageism, able-ism and sexism. The characters were all engaging and well-drawn, they were not all "like-able" which was refreshing. And they did not always make the most obvious decisions.
I devoured this novel, it was so easy to read and I could feel all the threads would come together in the end. It did feel as though it could have been double the length and I would have enjoyed getting to know the characters even better. But if you can leave them wanting more in a debut, that's pretty good going.

If I Had Your Face takes a long, hard look at the harsh beauty standards that South Korean women face, and how so often they resort to invasive surgery to maintain these ideals. The book itself doesn’t hold back, following the story of four different young women as they try to navigate a complicated society driven by wealth and beauty.

The book is a difficult read. It boldly tackles so many different societal issues from cosmetic surgery, prostitution, sexism, and classism all jammed into three hundred pages. I could never have imagined the sort of cosmetic surgery the girls consider in this book, and the pressure on them to conform to these beauty standards is immense. It also deals with what happens after the invasive surgeries, the loss of feeling in their faces was particularly shocking, and how far so many of these women would go just to achieve these impossible beauty standards.

If I Had Your Face is more of a character study and feel a lot like a slice-of-life rather than a plot driven story, and in typical slice-of-life style nothing is truly resolved by the end; the girls will continue onwards, trying to exist in this complicated hierarchical world. The girls are all in different situations, some happier than others, but all are compelling and deal with the different pressures of being a woman in Korea. I especially enjoyed Kiryu and Miho’s story-lines, they really showed how difficult it is to escape where you come from. All of the characters are definitely morally grey and can be cruel, even to each other, it makes them feel so, so human and the book had more impact because of it

I do wish that the book was either longer, or followed less characters. The three hundred pages really limited the plot, and stretched the story-lines a little thin. Wonna, especially suffered from this, and I had very little interest in her parts of the novel because she didn’t feel fleshed out. It’s definitely difficult to balance page count with the need to deep-dive into characters stories, but this book definitely could have been longer. If I Had Your Face touches on so many issues without really dealing with any, and I would have loved a deeper look at so many of the situations that the characters dealt with. I think this is incredibly important as the book is so character driven, but no one really gets enough time to fully tackle any of the issues they come up against.

This is a fascinating look at Korean society driven by some wonderfully human characters, but I think it could have been so much more if the book had been a little longer.

Recommend: If you love character driven stories following complex characters, trying navigate a complicated society driven by wealth and beauty!

A smart and compelling debut.

If I Had Your Face is an ambitious and affecting debut novel.

In a Korean setting of contemporary Seoul it explores universal themes of womanhood - navigating work, relationships, money, men, beauty, friendship and motherhood.

Usually I find books which shift narrative frustrating but here it is handled superbly. Each of the four main characters gets their own chapters, with clearly distinct voices, but their lives and stories are interlinked and completely compelling.

If you want a smart, funny, distracting read you can’t do much better than this.

I’ve already recommended it to people. Have reviewed on Waterstones website, Twitter & Instagram and will review when able on Amazon.

"I was still learning the appropriate levels of reaction in this world. Things I should not express shock or delight at. Things I should be overjoyed about. I was not supposed to be amazed by the unusual beauty of the apartment, but thick-crust pizza called for riots."

Four young Korean women struggle to find their place in life in contemporary Seul and navigate the intricacies of its social hierarchies with heartbreaking understanding of its oppressiveness.

Kyuri, Wanna, Ara and Miho, each equally unique, determined and damaged, arm themselves with extreme plastic surgery, emotional numbness and art in order to extend their lives past just the surviving. We observe just a short passage of their rebellious journey with an occasional glimpse of their past but I found myself growing surprisingly close to each of them, and warmed by the comfort they found in their sisterly bond.

It is my favourite kind of a page turner of a book, where psychological insight intertwined with raw emotion and humour make you want to crawl inside the pages and never get out again. Which is ironic really, as I couldn't help but read it in under 24 hours.

I love anything South Korea orientated and this book gave me it all. Skin care, kpop, plastic surgery. The perspective of the 4 girls was done very well with a solid story interlinking them all. The writing is beautiful and vivid and I can’t wait to see what comes next!

I inhaled this book - it's unlike anything I've read in a long time. Gorgeous, funny and tender, with brilliant, deeply memorable characters... I adored it. Thank you so much for the proof!

I had trouble getting into this, but I think that's because I needed a prolonged period of reading to really get my teeth into it.

Following the lives of 5 women living in Seoul; a salon girl, a hairdresser, an artist, a girl with dreams of becoming a salon girl, and a young women trapped in an unhappy marriage, this is a character study of incredibly compelling women. Initially starting out as a tale of deep insecurities and envy it is a wonderful coming of age tale with a strong focus on female friendship.

Absolutely loved this. Engaging, dark and visceral. I just couldn't put it down. Can't wait to read more from Frances Cha!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for a free ebook copy of this publication in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this book it gave an interesting insight into the the lives of women in Korea.

I don't think saying I enjoyed this book would be the correct word but to me it was exactly a happy book. In fact it made me quite sad and depressed but also grateful.

I think the 4 characters in this were well written in a sense that they were all very different to each other enough to be able to tell them apart.

All of them facing different struggles, having different backgrounds but living in the same apartment block made for an interesting read.

There is so dark topics in here and like I said alot of it made me sad. Sad about society and the pressures put on women and then the korean standard is a whole other level on top of that!

I learned alot about Korea in this book though so that was a major plus and their culture and history. I would most definitely be keen to pick up another frances cha book!

Absolutely stunning; a totally absorbing book! I've recommended it to everyone I know. The writing is so gorgeous, I raced through it.

Frances Cha's debut novel, If I Had Your Face, is narrated in first person by four women in their late twenties and early thirties living precarious lives in contemporary Seoul (they actually live in the Gangnam district, which is a good education for those of us who have only heard of Gangnam from the K-pop single 'Gangnam Style'). Despite only having four narrators, it has five significant female characters, all of whom live in the same apartment building. Ara, a mute hair stylist obsessed with a K-pop icon, shares her flat with school friend Sujin, who is saving up for plastic surgery so she can be a top 'room salon' girl like Kyuri, who makes money by entertaining men every night. Kyuri's flatmate, Miho, seems to have broken away from her deprived upbringing in an orphanage when she wins a scholarship to an art school in New York, but is still at the mercy of the classist judgments of other Koreans when she returns; finally, Wonna, who lives with her husband in the downstairs flat, is desperate to become a mother even though she doesn't know how she'll be able to make ends meet. If I Had Your Face is significantly, if not wholly, concerned with how all of these women struggle to meet conventional standards of femininity and sexuality. In this, it has something in common with Cheryl Lu-Lien's Singapore-set Sarong Party Girls; however, the latter has a much more satirical tone, depicting women who party hard and are much more willing to break the rules in their search for the perfect husband, whereas the Korean characters in If I Had Your Face live more constrained lives.

There are flashes of memorable originality in this debut novel, but the bits that stuck with me most vividly - like Wonna accidentally blinding her cousin as a child or Ara beating up an assistant hair stylist who's sabotaging her at work - were the incidents that didn't really connect to the story as a whole. The novel feels a little meandering and confusing, and this is amplified by how difficult it is to tell its four narrators apart and how all four of them tend to skip backwards and forwards in time when telling their stories. I was perhaps more bothered than I ought to have been by the fact that Sujin doesn't get to narrate, whereas Wonna doesn't seem to fit into many of the key themes of the book and so felt like an unnecessary addition. I understand that Cha wanted to explore the fate of women who do achieve marriage to a respectable man as a counterpoint to the rest of her characters trying to survive on their own, but I felt like I'd read this story many times before. If I Had Your Face had so much potential, but it never quite pulled it together. 3.5 stars.

I will cross-post this review to Goodreads and my blog closer to publication date.

Here is another book from South Korea that I had been hearing a lot about, for its stunning writing and gripping narrative.

This novel plunges us into the mesmerizing world of contemporary Seoul – a place where plastic surgery is as routine as getting a haircut, where women compete for spots in secret 'room salons' to entertain wealthy businessmen after hours, and where ruthless social hierarchies dictate your every move.

Navigating this cut-throat city are four young women balanced on the razor-edge of survival:
Kyuri, a breathtakingly beautiful woman whose hard-won status at an exclusive room salon is threatened by an impulsive mistake with a client;
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 ‘chaebol’ elite;
Wonna, a newlywed whose childhood in the care of an abusive grandmother comes back to haunt her when she discovers she's pregnant;
and Ara, a mute hair stylist whose infatuation with a fresh-faced K-Pop star drives her to violent extremes.

This is an exploration of brutal competitiveness in a world dictated by standards of beauty. Each of the four womens’ stories are driven by their aspirations for a better life and how far they are willing to go for it. The author writes each character with an individuality that is uniquely their own. She expertly carries them forward as they struggle to get ahead, their lives inevitably entwined.

Dramatically honest, emotionally taunting, and shockingly cynical, If I Had Your Face is a compelling story of female friendships, their strength, resilience, and undying spirit.

This ARC courtesy of Netgalley and Viking Books UK - an imprint of Penguin UK.

We've all heard about the extreme culture of cosmetic surgery that has boomed over recent years, fueled in part by instagrammers and influencers. While it may feel quite far away from reality for many of us, imagine a world where everyone is doing it. Where you need to change your face to get a job, where you rack up debt following the latest trends.

That's the basis of Frances Cha's debut novel which focuses on the experiences of four interconnected women in South Korea. Through this extraordinary book, Cha explores the world of cosmetic surgery, K-Pop, 'room salons' and modern Seoul.

Cha presents us four very different, complex young women all with different perspectives, experiences of the world and different goals. We see how difficult it is for young women to make their way in a highly competitive city where their options are limited to low paid jobs in hair salons, or becoming entrapped in debt in a 'room salon' which values beauty above everything. Meanwhile, the competitive culture is not limited to jobs but also relationships, with pressure on these young women to marry, and marry well.

What is so striking is that throughout everything these women face, they stick together and support each other, picking each other up and are always there, not just for established friends, but are willing to embrace new one too. Female friendship is the crux that holds this book together, and makes it a beautiful, heartwarming read. You know that no matter what happens, good or bad, they'll be ok, because they have each other and that isn't something you often see represented in books. If her first novel is anything to go by Cha is going to be one to watch.

This novel is narrated by four women in contemporary Seoul, South Korea. I found each of the women’s narration to be immersive and compelling and their interactions are definitely one of the novel’s strengths. The way they relate to each other, the secrets they keep and the ways they protect each other felt completely authentic and I was deeply invested in their stories. They are all quite different, with varying outlooks and experiences, yet they share many of the same aspirations and anxieties. Ultimately their kindness and compassion towards each other felt empowering and relatable.
The novel touches on several fascinating themes including sexism, family culture, female beauty standards, wealth inequality, social mobility and motherhood. The two things that stood out for me were the normalisation of plastic surgery and the hyper-awareness of female beauty as a commodity.
The author nimbly navigates all these themes and reading this novel was a completely immersive experience. I loved that all the women are three-dimensional characters and there isn’t any moralising about whose behaviour is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Although the focus on beauty standards inevitably evokes the male gaze, I liked that this didn’t dominate the novel. Instead, each of the women has their own voice and it was as much about the female gaze and how women are taught to look at themselves and at each other.
The novel is a powerful examination of what it means to be a woman, specifically in South Korea but it also much more universal. It is smart and challenging and I really enjoyed reading.

I liked this in places and thought it was interesting with how it dealt with the various viewpoints of the women. This was done well and i liked the general idea but i just don't think it was for me overall.

This was a really interesting, dark read which dealt with some important topics. I wasn't sure what to expect going in but I loved the writing and my attention was held throughout. The plot was a little slow at times, hence the 4 star rating, but it did not greatly affect my enjoyment.

I will be recommending this book to friends and family.

If I Had Your Face sounded like a very interesting book,and it was, but the ending just wasn't ' it ' for me.
It tells of 5 young women's lives in South Korea: Ara-a mute hairdresser, Kyuri-a room salon girl,Suyin,who really wants to be a room salon girl,Miho-an artist,and Wonna who is dealing with a pregnancy she doesn't have a lot of hope for.
We are introduced to the world of plastic beauty that means absolutely everything in Korea which is something I had no idea about. Everything revolves around one's looks ,how many plastic surgeries one had,the shape of their chin,eyes,nose,forehead-absolutely everything.If you're not born beautiful and don't have money for plastic surgeries,you're basically doomed.It was very interesting getting to know about this side of things, and very eye-opening.
I was loving this book in the beginning but as I was nearing the end,I felt like there was so much left unsaid. I would've liked to see if Kyuri got the job at the clinic,what happened to Suyin in her first room salon,what happened with Miho and her boyfriend,how Wonna was dealing with raising her child without a husband...It was like the book was cut short before we got to find out everything. I just wish there were at least 60 or 70 more pages so I'd be able to get some closure because now I feel like I've read 80% of the book and just left it on the shelf and never picked it up again.

5* Beauty is Deep Stars


This fascinating book is set in South Korea which is the plastic surgery capital of the world. The story revolves around five young woman who all live in the same apartment building and are desperately trying to make a living for themselves.

Four of the women are friends, Ara who is a mute hair stylist and has a K-Pop obsession, her roommate Sujin who dreams of working in a 10 percent room salon (supposed to be the top 10% of the prettiest girls in the industry) just like the beautiful Kyuri but will have to undergo some serious plastic surgery and Kyuri’s roommate, Miho who is an up and coming talented artist. All of them are damaged because of their pasts where they suffered, loss, cruelty and abandonment. The fifth woman is Wonna who is newly married and lives downstairs and is struggling to make ends meet, added to this she has had a few miscarriages and is desperately trying to fall pregnant again.

We get to see how they live their lives in a misogynistic world, how beauty reigns supreme and what lengths they go to for perfection. What is apparent is the strong friendship formed between them and how they depend and reply on each other for support and strength. I enjoyed the authors writing style, it felt real and was insightful.

I highly recommend this amazing and thought-provoking book.