I received this as an advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions my own.

CW: death of a parent, abuse, mental health, drowning, racism

I don’t know if this is the right way of putting this into words but I absolutely adored how this book condensed so many ideas into one. When everything surrounding a character is so complex that it bring them alive before your eyes. It makes it more difficult to describe but at the same time it delivers such a wholesome read that I will pretend it does not make my life as a reviewer more difficult.

This was part family saga, part magical realism, part myth and part social problems of the descendants of immigrants in their native “but not really native” countries. I absolutely adored how it combines science and myth, reality and folklore to intertwine a story that is both those things at the same time, creating something that by all accounts should be impossible but alas is not. And all of it absolutely beautifully narrated in the most compelling way.

I do have to say though, I can see how her style may not be for everyone. This novel has a very slow pace, and it is very heavily focused on the characters and their introspection. It relies heavily on the past and on describing inner thoughts. Sometimes, there seem to be no plot line or well outlined direction that is going to take, just like life itself. But this may be off putting to people who are looking for a more plot driven novel.

If I had to describe this book with just one word it would be “contrasts” as it is full of them and it uses them to build up the story, but also the characters and their lives. It is with both siblings that you can see what would happen if, as they lead pretty opposite lives. I really enjoyed this from a reading point of view, as one could see the result of having made opposite decisions or not having been able to overcome certain happening in life.

The main story of the book starts with the death of the main characters mother, so a lot of the book has to do with dealing with grief and contained emotions in different ways and how different people, in her family in this instance, react to it and try to deal with it.

It is usually not a very common topic when it is well integrated in the story and not only something commented in passing. This central success leads to very raw scenes and decisions that will affect the family throughout the whole book. In this case, the contrast to deal with something as real as a death in the family are the myths that surround them through their life and have shaped in many ways that mother-daughter relationship. In this story, those myths end up being characters as real as the ones in the family. It lead us to how real a myth can become and how non tangible stories, the base of one culture and one of the many thins that conform us as individuals, belong to a specific culture.

I was very impressed by how beautifully the book is written, how much care was put into the language, into every scene, into every small detail. How everything was measured with exact precision for the reader to make the right connections and bring up the raw emotions at the exact times. With some difficult topics and this lyrical style, I would say it was not an easy read that I would choose to disconnect and have a good time but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes, it needed some effort from my part to become involved with it, and to get into the style, but at the end the result was well worth it.

Folklorn is a complex intricately constructed story of a Korean American family, author Angela Hur Mi Young calls it her 'true literary/spiritual debut.' I can definitely appreciate the rich overlays, whorls and interlocking elements of Korean folktales, intergenerational trauma, diaspora alienation, mental health, ghosts that Ms Hur has crafted with such detail and skill. Thanks to Erewhon and Netgalley for kindly providing an eARC, apologies for the lateness of the review. While I'm normally a fairly speedy reader, I found it overwhelming to read all in one go. Barbs, hurts and trauma make it a heart-wrenching read.

Elsa Park is a postdoc experimental physicist studying the 'ghost particles' neutrinos invisible to the naked eye and measurable only by their effects post collision. When we encounter her, she's just finished a cool research stint in Antarctica and returning to Sweden. Recently, Elsa has started 'seeing'/hallucinating another invisible ghost from her childhood, a Korean girl dressed in white with a long braid tied with a red ribbon. This childhood imaginary friend is her cryptic guide to the fatalistic Korean folktales that her mother passed on to her, do they prophesize the fate of the Korean women in the family or give a clue to the mysterious 'other girl' that her mother gave birth to in Korea years ago? The Park family members have a difficult relationship. Elsa's father was in the Korean civil war; scarred by that, his father's polygamy and racism in the United States, took it out by physically abusing his wife and son. Elsa's mother had a wooden chest of hanboks that she never wore and has been in a comatose state since Elsa's teen years. Elsa's brother Chris was supposed to be the golden son but suffered from epilepsy and depression, he seems resentful at being under Mr Park's thumb at their autobody business in California and of Elsa's freedom. Then there are the family ghosts, her maternal grandmother and aunt who died during the war, her paternal aunts who were lost in the wartime pandemonium. Are the Korean women doomed to be sacrificed and martyred just like in the folktales and mythology?

The metaphysical elements that make up Folklorn result in a potent mix. The disorienting snow white blindness of Antarctica, the shocking violence that the Parks experienced in the United States, the fairytale fable stone settings of a remote Swedish island, the displacement and alienation that Korean transnational adoptees feel, the surreal appearances of this ghostly Korean girl, the palimpest Korean folklore, the universal scientific mystery of the neutrinos and anti-neutrinos - in the hands of a less skilled writer, it would all have gone haywire but in Ms Hur's capable hands, it all came together into a satisfying brilliant well-rounded work. Normally, a POC woman in advanced STEM academia plus folklore and mythology would be catnip to me anyway but Folklorn exceeded my expectations.

Highly recommend.

I love fiction that incorporates fairytales and/or folklore, so it's no surprise the Korean folktales in this novel were one of my favorite parts. I appreciated the way the author used the folktales to explore the main character's relationship with her mother, and her mother's relationship with life. If you're looking for a fast-paced novel, this is probably not the book for you at the moment (I felt it really picked up toward the end), but if you enjoy mother-daughter stories, immigrant tales and/or folklore-inspired stories, I hope you'll enjoy this one.

loved the use of Korean mythology, this was a beautifully done work of fiction with interesting characters. The fantasy elements were so well done and kept me interested in this book. It was so well done.

This is a compelling and unique story. The main character is intriguing with a dysfunctional and troubled family history and an interesting professional and personal life. Dialogue and situations (other than the supernatural elements) feel highly realistic. The supernatural elements work well with the story. Of particular interest to readers who like folklore and supernatural elements in a story as well as stories involving characters' Korean ethnic heritage

Little Magical Realism, a little mythological, a little science.. I wish I had connected more to the reality of this book..

I struggled with the tone of this one but have a lot of respect for the questions it's tackling and found it a theoretically interesting way of going about it even if it's not up my alley specifically.

DNF @ 72%

I started reading this in May, but ended up in a huge reading slump. I can’t say if this is why I’ve lost interest or not, but here are my thoughts:

- There’s a LOT of focus and conversation about race, but it’s done in a way that doesn’t sit well with me.

- Also a weird comment about bodies - mention of middle-aged women having heavy thighs’ and ‘droopy breasts’ and them looking ‘alien’. Pretty careless comments imo

- MC is manipulative and kind of a bitch. She gets turned down twice by a guy, has an internal monologue about how annoyed she is that she got rejected, then manipulated him into allowing her back to his place! (By appealing to his ‘gentlemanly protective instincts’)

- I got a little bit lost in the magical realism + the suggestiveness of the writing. You’re never sure if something is in the characters head, or if it’s really happening. This isn’t a bad thing if you like that, but for me personally I prefer my fantasy to be believable, with a hard magic system.

Rep;
- Korean lead, depression (incl medication), gay

TW;
- Racism (particularly, an East Asian slur and other racist remarks), child abuse, domestic abuse, sexism, misogyny, depression, ageism, Still-born birth, suicide, abortion

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thank you to Erewhon books for providing me this arc via Netgalley!
This book was honestly so weird, but not in a good way.

I did not enjoy this book and couldn't finish it. I found it exceptionally long and drawn out. Thanks for the option, but it wasn't for me.

Although I liked the premise of the book and I think it’s well written, sometimes I was very confused, mostly about how magic works.
But I loved how the book explores mythology.

📚 Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur 📚 thank you erewhon books for the eARC.

"You and I—we are descended from women whose lives have been degraded into common folktales. We live their lives, echoing their stories, but not their greatness—only their stupid tragedies because that is all we remember of them.”

This is a very special book. It's got that magic that is hard to describe, and also makes the book defy most genres.

The main character, Elsa, is an experimentalist physicist. She went into science to be far, far away from her mother's folktale theories, but in this book she finds that they connect with each other in more ways than they are different. 

Elsa reckons with so many things in this story - growing up a child of Korean parents who experienced the Korean War, family mental illness, familial abuse and violence, secrets and stories. Her mother believed that she and Elsa were living out Korean folktales and couldn't escape the ending of their story.

While at the end of the earth in Antarctica, Elsa sees and hears something nobody else can. It's sound from a Korean folktale about a girl in a bell. Then she sees her childhood "imaginary" friend.  This starts her journey to digging deep into her past and what her mother meant with the folktales, and what the meaning is for her. On this journey she alienates friends and coworkers, leaves work, possibly has a serious depressive episode, and wrestles with family secrets. 

The writing is done so well, and treats the various family members' mental illnesses with respect, and also gives it a different perspective as it weaves that together with the folklore.

The final pages were beautiful and I cried for Elsa and her friend.

It was an okay book. I liked the ending but during most of the book I was confused and could not really connect with the story. I didn't connect with the characters but I liked the science in the book and I liked that it talked about the fear of talking about race in Sweden. As someone who is very swedish it's interesting to see Sweden from an immigrants point of view.
But I don't think it was for me, I just couldn't follow the story and still don't really get it.

A fun and soulful read. The exploration of generational mythology is rich and gives the reader a lot to appreciate about immigrant storytelling.

This book started off super intriguing. Hints of folklore and some mystery within Elsa's past was my favourite plot point to this novel and this helped keep the pages turning.

Unfortunately, this book took me forever to read - honestly it's quite a slog. The main character Elsa is such a dick and her family are also a bit of a nightmare. Okay, I get it (kinda), the past has been hard and there's a lot of racism, fine. But do you have to be such a narcy b? If I was Oskar (Elsa's potential love interest) I'd have ran a mile and then ran a few more. Yikes.

If you like science, specifically physics, you might be a fan of this one. Honestly to me it felt like thee most complicated metaphor you could possibly use to make things fit and explain and yeah...

Some random folk tales interrupt our usual chapters plus some sections of emails and letters, it breaks up and gives a bit of a change to the chapters, although the emails are one sided, they help to pass some time.

Thanks to NetGalley, Erewhon Books and Angela Mi Young Hur for an eArc copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful and profound. A little slow, but unique in its style of storytelling. The character development and flashbacks work well to weave fantasy into the narrative.

Folklorn was beautifully written! The narrative and protagonist are unique and the flashbacks are well interwoven. This is definitely for the more mature reader, touching on important themes while incorporating fantasy in a really unique way. Despite this, I had a difficult time finishing the book because of its slower pace.

I really wanted to love this book, but I was left super confused and frustrated. There was too much world building and not enough moving forward with the plot.

I couldn't finish this book. I think the world building was too complex and it left me really confused. I had really high hopes for this book because the cover is stunning and the premise seemed really interesting. I'm really disappointed.

This book was just too disjointed for me. So much test that just didn’t seem to fit together. The main character was unlikeable and just...constantly making stupid decisions. Overall the story just didn’t work. It reads like one long whiny rant.

I kept reading in the hopes that the ending would reveal something profoundly but it just fizzled out.