This is the first time I have dipped my toe into Korean literature, and on the whole, I found <i>Lemon</i> a decent enough, well-written story, primarily in terms of its observations of human nature. It will undoubtedly appeal to YA readers looking for something unique and unconventional.
Truth be told, I was initially expecting something slightly different, having read the promotional blurb. In retrospect, I should have paid more attention to the phrase ‘loosely follows the structure of a detective novel’. That said, I soon got into the story and finished the novella within a few hours.

This is ostensibly a tale of the search for truth and inner peace. However, the anticipated exploration of trauma and life is evident as we witness Hae-on’s younger sister Da-on going through various stages of grief, including denial, retribution, and acceptance.

I found <i>some</i> of the dialogue frustrating, irritating, and arguably lacking in realism: The police station interview with an overly aggressive, bellicose detective seemed a little over the top as a strategy aimed at gaining the confidence and confession of a suspect. Likewise, a helpline telephone conversation seemed somewhat stilted and one-sided.

Although some readers may find the ending abrupt and ‘unsatisfactory’, I think more books (and movies) should be written with open endings that allow us to draw our conclusions.

Thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The focus of the novel is the murder in 2002 of Kim Hae-on and is known as the High School Beauty Murder. Hae-on wears a lemon coloured dress the day she is last seen alive, hence the book title. This novella is made up of short chapters over 19 years and examines the impact of Hae-on’s death especially on her sister Da-on, on suspect Han Manu who is treated very badly by the investigating detective, Yun Taerim a witness and we get an outsiders view from Sangui Eonni who views the effects on those involved.

This book really defies a category to place it in, it’s not suspenseful, it’s not really a mystery thriller although obviously Hae-on’s death is at the centre of the novel, it is more an examination of grief. It is extremely raw in places as you see the ripples of the trauma on all involved even if it’s peripheral. Da-on moves through a whole range of emotions from stultifying anguish to revenge to acceptance. This is done well and of all the characters she’s the easiest to visualise.

However, it’s very hard to know whose voice you are hearing through the various years and I find some are baffling. This is particularly true when one of the characters talks to a doctor on the phone and you only get one side of a very strange conversation. The book doesn’t really have any structure as such, meandering through the nineteen years and you have to piece a lot together yourself which is fine but it takes a bit of sifting through and figuring out. The short length means that apart from Da-on and to a lesser extent Han Manu you don’t really get to grips with the other characters.

Overall, this is not a simple story by any means, it may be short but it’s complex, some meanings are obtuse and unclear and I think it will divide audiences. It’s very good at conveying Da-on’s struggles and how it changes her life but other parts are confusing.

With thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the widget in return for an honest review.

Lemon spans 18 years after the murder of a beautiful teenage girl, with each chapter following either her sister, her classmate or her friend. This novella is fast paced and atmospheric and each character is so distinct that there is never any confusion as to whose narrative you are reading.

Lemon would make a brilliant book club choice as there are conversations to be had regarding the gender and privilege (and subsequently class) discussed in this novella and for a little book it packs quite a punch.

A high-school girl just 18 has been killed. The novel opens with her sister´s imaginary reconstruction of the police interrogation of the main suspect, a (dumb?) classmate... What follows is an intriguing, humorous yet poignant narrative in which three contemporaries of the victim (A conundrum herself of enigmatic, true, perhaps empty beauty) present us in alternating chapters spaced by four year intervals with first-person narratives that touch in direct or indirect ways with that foundational event that has, forever, upped their lives. The sister, the rival, the admirer, all three articulate a story which is at turns poetic, surreal, cruel in its exploration of childhood, family power relationships (motherhood, patriarchy!), rivalries and social class dynamics. There are more mysteries than just who killed beautiful Hae-on...

The translation from the Korean is fluent, and the three voices come across distinctly. Poetry and its writing or not has a role in the plot, as it is the question of identity and self-assertiveness. If on finishing reading this short novel I was somehow dissatisfied, thinking about it makes me realise the cleverness of some of the ideas, especially makes me reconsider this gallery of women at different points of disintegration.

I thank Head of Zeus via NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this interesting, quirky novel.

3 stars! (coming out Oct 7)

**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**
#Lemon #NetGalley

Pros
+ South Korean woman in translation (translated from Korean)
+ Focuses on the aftermath of a beautiful high school girl's murder and the delayed investigation by the girl's younger sister decades after the event.
+ The younger sister's decision to alter her body (her reason and goal) is creepy AF. I was like "Oh no... oh no no no. Someone get her therapy instead."
+ The character development of the younger sister and one of the murder suspects is particularly good, with their lives intertwining in interesting, heartfelt ways.
+ I personally liked how the author left the "who" of the murder a bit vague (although I definitely have my theory).

Neutral
/ The "who" did it is severely hinted at but not confirmed. So if you like a mystery that is 100% solved then this is not for you.

Cons
- Unrealistic/shallow character development of the murdered girl and her maybe-boyfriend, which I found intensely frustrating when you're trying to figure out character motive, etc.

TW: murder, grief, anorexia, bulimia, plastic surgery, cancer, amputation, death, child theft

Lemon is a short korean novel about the murder of a teenage girl, and the impact it has on the people left behind over the span of about 20 years. More about the aftermath than the murder in itself, do not expect a whodunit, but a sharp depiction of human emotions, and a commentary on gender and priviledge.

To be honest, I had a hard time getting into it at first, as it felt a bit scattered. But after a couple of chapters, I was drawn into the concept of the book, and really enjoyed the different voices and experiences. We get a glimpse of the victim's sister's life, as well as the accused, and one of the main witness.
They all have had difficulties moving on and are battling their own demons, as the event took a heavy toll on their lives. The author really did an amazing job capturing their sense of loss, grief and anguish and put it perfectly on the page.

Subtly tying some lose ends, we are given clues here and there, and with a quiet finish, are left to draw our own conclusion as to the true nature of these characters.

A short but clever and interesting read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the advance ebook copy

Honestly I wasn't at all impressed with this one.

My rating is all for the first little bit of this rather disjointed story when I thought it was going to be clever. Unfortunately it soon descended into barely comprehensible madness.

A girl is murdered and Lemon includes several points of view of those both involved in the case and on the periphery of it, including the girl's sister. Unfortunately half the time you have no idea who is telling the story all the character voices are static and the same so you find yourself getting irritated at all of them

I finished it simply because it was short in the hope that the end might justify the means but it just sort of fell off into nothing. The promise of the blurb was not met on any level for this reader and the only really good thing I can say is its over fast.

Shame. Seek out some more positive reviews. Perhaps I just didnt get it.

Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun (translated by Janet Hong) is my first Women in Translation Month read.

Long story short: a high-school beauty was killed sixteen years ago, and everyone who knew her—from her sister to a classmate nobody talked to—has been trying to make sense of what happened since. If you're expecting a typical Poirot-style detective story, don't. In the way it uses a patchwork of different voices to unravel a mystery, the book reminded me of Higashino's Malice.

It's a contained story of a grieving community rather than a thriller. The multiple POVs were definitely the strongest point of this story, as they offered insight into what those affected by this tragedy feel throughout the years, with particular focus on the victim's sister. I so hate it when people say that multiple POVs are too confusing. Grow up and read a real book.

The ending of the story felt very contained too, and it's only surprising if you had too many expectations about what a book like this should be. It ends up being a story about the meaning of life more than about a murder mystery.

There are no likable characters here, really, because they are all too human. But it's the victim's sister that stands out as the most interesting one. I don't want to sound clichéd in the way I compare one Korean book to another, but the sister was the same level of weird as the protagonist of The Vegetarian. I didn't particularly enjoy The Vegetarian (I only really liked a third of it), but if you liked it in its entire, Lemon is going to be an easy and pleasant read for you.

All in all, it was a decent read. If you expect an American-style thriller, you'll be disappointed, but if you're interested in the exploration of loss, and you're okay with watching characters get weirder and weirder as the years pass, this is the right book for you.

Fast paced and unexpected, I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked the way the action started straight away, and the characters were believable and intriguing.

If you think you will know who committed this murder, think again.

This book covers 17 years. In 2002, 18 year old Kim Hae-on was murdered and although the police had two suspects, the murder was never solved. We see the different treatment that the two suspects received, the poor boy and the privileged boy and so the author is making a comment upon class and privilege. However, that is not what the book is all about.

Kim Da-on is the younger sister of the murder victim and we hear her voice which tells us how she has coped or not coped with the aftermath of her sister's death. Two other narrators also give their perspectives, two girls who were friends of Kim Hae-on and Kim Da-on. As a reader we are never quite sure who is the reliable narrator and it is up to us to pick out the clues and try to decide for ourselves not only who committed the murder but also the motive.

This is a very interesting, very different take on a murder thriller but the book loses nothing because of that. The three voices draw us in and we discover that even though the murder was 17 years previous, no one has had any resolution. In fact, you wonder if they ever will.

A read that makes you use - as Poirot always used to say - your little grey cells.

I read Lemon only a few days ago and yet I can barely recall what it was about. Which isn’t a good sign. According to the summary, this was meant to be a suspenseful work exploring trauma, grief, and guilt but to be perfectly honest, it was anything but suspenseful and its themes felt barely touched upon. This short narrative consists of various chapters narrated by different characters connected to Kim Hae-on, a beautiful young girl killed during the summer of 2002. The story opens with Hae-on being interrogated by a detective in what seems to be a poor take on a police procedural. The remainder of Lemon consists of other characters talking about this murder. They all seem to have way too much information about the investigation and other events (events they did not witness first-hand) and that resulted in me feeling relatively disengaged and disbelieving of their words/accounts. We don’t know who’s speaking as each chapter doesn’t specify who’s pov we are reading and that quickly became annoying, especially since their voices sounded suspiciously similarly. There were two chapters that are meant to be one side of a phone conversation and these ones were so over the top. The way the person we were ‘hearing’ just happens to repeat the questions of the person at the end of the line ("Pardon me? What did you say, Doctor? What am I doing right now? Talking to you, of course.")...why just not include both ends of this conversation?
I’m afraid I found this novel’s execution lacking. The characters, if we can call them such, are barely there, the narrative more intent on impressing readers through the way these various accounts are structured than on presenting us with an intriguing mystery.
Many of the phrases struck as me clichèd (here the translation may be to blame) and/or banal "Life begins without reason and ends without reason", "her beauty seemed not of this world", "What kind of life is this? Is this living?". Then there were the odd phrases that I found really annoying in that they". Some of the descriptions also rubbed me the wrong way because they were going for an edgy tone ("the hairy black patch between my legs") or were simply a bit antiquated (call me a snowflake or whatever but i wish this expression ceased existing: "joined together like a set of Siamese twins").
If you are interested in Lemon I recommend you check out more positive reviews as I have 0 positive things to say about this.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Kwon Yeo-sun's novel 'Lemon' is less that two hundred pages long, yet it an absolutely gripping exploration of life, death, gender and privilege in modern-day Seoul. In 2002, Kim Hae-on was murdered, her endearing beauty blemished by a killer who, to this day, remains free. The novella follows Da-on, Hae-on's younger sister, as she attempts to unravel the events of Hae-on's last moments. Alongside this portrayal of a broken family, we also hear from two of Hae-on's classmates at the time and in the years which follow.

This is not a simple, chronological narrative. We discover fragments of the story in fits and starts, never knowing which is the most reliable lens from our three narrators. Many elements of this are skilfully written, the subtle revelations making it more chilling the deeper you read - it is not the identity of the murderer which drives this reading experience, rather the lasting impact this death has had on these lives as we follow them through to 2019.

Lemon is a thin and easy to read book. A 176 pages does not take me a very long time but I loved reading this in between the hours of my work day.
I enjoyed the story a lot and I look forward to read more of this author!

I really struggled to gel with Lemon, even though it's a relatively short book - it just didn't seem to flow well for me. There are three main viewpoints - Da-on - sister of the murdered Hae -On and the two male suspects and the reader often has to decipher whose viewpoint they are reading from.
It's a translated book and the events that unfold after the murder of Kim Hae leave the reader feeling a bit short-changed as there doesn't seem to be a climactic ending.

Lemon is not your run-of-the-mill crime novel. It is not about who did what, but about the meaning of each person’s life and what being alive means. There are many different forms of aliveness, although it may not seem that way to others. You have to infer from the testimonies what happened; all the narrators often think back to that one day and shed light on the events.

The voices of the narrators reflect their personalities and the situations they are in well. All those involved have had their lives changed by what happened and their family life has changed with it. They have taken a different path in life and lost what they were once very passionate about. How people deal with grief and pain is woven into the story as neatly as the color yellow. Plastic surgery, beauty ideals and privilege are important topics.

The first narrator’s thoughts in the opening chapter make you question everything that is said, turning everything over in your mind, looking for the hidden meanings, for the reason. She still knows more than we do at this point, although there are many hints given in each chapter and you probably know what happened early on.

I wonder if this novel should have been longer, or if the unmysterious implicitness of many things is precisely its strength. The story was complete, it was compelling and yet not on the scale of what perhaps a longer story could bring. This novel is sharp enough to impress, but not mesmerizing enough to wow. Lemon is a good novel, an enjoyable experience, but also one that will not leave a lasting impression in my memory.

For such a short novel (less than 200 pages), this story certainly creates an impact. It's so much more than your typical whodunnit. It's a clever, twisty exploration of grief and guilt and each of the eight chapters packs a punch. 

The switching of narrators was really well done and I found myself constantly questioning their reliability. We read from the perspective of Da-on, Hae-on's younger sister, who in many ways was always in her sister's shadow, even after her death. I found her insights particularly fascinating. We also hear from two of Hae-on's former classmates and the story stretches over the years following her murder.

The story is complicated and fragmented and the author drops hints and misdirections throughout to keep the reader guessing. I really liked that she doesn't explicitly say what happened and she leaves it to the reader to come to their own conclusions. 

I thought it was really cleverly written and quite unlike anything I have read before. I feel it's important to point out this isn't a thriller. The blurb may make readers believe it is, but it's much more than that. It's subtle and explorative and really focuses on the impact of the death on those around her. Who actually killed her is essentially a secondary story.

All in all I really enjoyed Lemon. It was clever, well written and made me think.

You can find my full review at https://mmbbookblog.com/lemon-by-kwon-yeo-sun-review/

In 2002 in South Korea whilst most of the nation were preoccupied with hosting the FiFA World Cup, High School Student Hae-on was murdered. There are two main suspects, her fellow classmates Han Manu and Shin Jeongjun but no one is ever charged. The book follows three protagonists, Da-on, the sister of Hae-on, and their classmates Taerim and Eonni for almost two decades after the murder.

The book mostly focuses on Da-on and her grief and need to find out who killed her sister and why. This is an interesting short novel that does a lot in so few pages. It is not really a thriller or even a straight up crime novel but does have elements of both, but it is mostly about how these students deal with the aftermath in their lives.

Through our protagonists we also meet the two main suspects at several points in the following decades. What is slowly built is about guilt, remorse, grief and revenge as well as small clues placed throughout the book to reveal the murderer and the motive. This is never explicitly stated by Da-on but given what she takes as a form of reparation and from whom there is much to infer.

I really enjoyed this novel. The writing was impressive and it was a good translation and I love the way clues were drip fed throughout the book, in fact I found it useful to immediately reread it. I would recommend this more to lovers of literary fiction, as it has a strong interior voice, than to fans of traditional crime fiction.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I raced through this novella, reading it in one sitting. I was gripped! I rarely award 5 stars but I have no hesitation in giving this one full marks!

The story is set in Korea, and spans the 18 years in the aftermath of the unsolved murder of a beautiful 19 year old girl.

Highly Recommended.

I want this to be made into a Netflix series or at the very least I want my book club to read this - I have so much I want to talk about but there will be no spoilers!

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 2,5 stars rounding up to 3.

If you are expecting a mystery where you eventually get to know what happened or have at least some type of closure, this book is not for you (as it wasn't for me).

The story of a high school girl found dead, disturbs the lives of her family and classmates. For some, it takes years to get over if ever. The story is narrated in multiple POVs yet the reader does not get information about who is narrating only when we get further into the chapter which added to the overall confusion together with the jump in timelines and if they were talking about the past or the present.

I understand the slightly poetic take on this one especially when a lot of things and situations were described with fruit but all in all, I cannot say it clicked with me to take that extra mile to become a memorable book which is why I am giving this rating.

I am certain this book will appeal to some, but as a niche writing this may be a hit or miss and for me personally, it was just okay.

Thank you Netagalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Following three narrators in the aftermath of a young woman’s murder, LEMON is a complex, captivating read that delves deep into the internal lives of its characters. Each narrator’s voice was so unique and it was interesting to watch their lives intersect and intertwine, especially in the context of the crime and its impact. Plus: that cover!