No no no! Read the book. The audiobook was a tough one to get through. The narrator made the little girl so annoying, there was no way to even try to empathize with the characters. It was that overwhelming. It has "A Man Called Ovee." vibe to it. It was predictable too.

I typically really enjoy translated works from bestselling Asian authors. Books like the Before the coffee gets cold usually deliver cozy, feel-good interconnected stories so I was looking forward to this one being similar. Sadly, I couldn't get into it. The stories felt disjointed, I didn't like the narration and overall it was a struggle for me to keep listening right to the end. Maybe it would be have translated better as a print read? Anyways this one was a miss for me. On to the next. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This was a beautiful and moving story, and the narrator did an awesome job of bringing it to life. This story was like wrapping a warm blanket around myself, absolutely cozy and safe. While it does have a "self-help" type of truth, it is not at all preachy and touches on very serious topics: suicide, loneliness, money worries just to name a few. The epilogue to the story was the laundromat being restocked and I loved that it was never ascribed to a being, it was just happening which made it magical as opposed to mundane.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author Kim Jiyun, translator Shanna Tan, narrator Winson Ting, and Tantor Audio for my advance copy of this audiobook.

✨ PUB DAY REVIEW ✨

Yeonnam-dong’s Smiley Laundromat by Kim Jiyun

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was in the mood for something different - perhaps even a little cozy with a bit of magic! So when I stumbled upon this galley I knew I had to request it IMMEDIATELY… 🥰

Yeonnam-dong’s Smiley Laundromat is just that, a story about a community laundromat located in a heavily gentrified area of Seoul, Korea. This may not sound like a very interesting premise but it is really the every day people who regular this spot and the connection they make to each other through anonymous entries in a lost journal that create such magic.

In the first half of the book we are introduced to the patrons, each brought to the laundromat with a different challenge to overcome and a unique story to tell. Feeling lost and alone in the world each of them writes an entry in the unclaimed journal expressing their thoughts, frustrations and hopes. Connections blossom when others start responding to these entries - we get love, friendship, found family and even crime fighting teams as a result!

A truly heartwarming story about people, kindness and connection. ❤️ If you are in the mood for something cozy and slower paced or are looking to have your faith restored in humanity after a long week… give this one a shot.

Thanks to the author, @tantoraudio and @netgalley for the opportunity to review this ALC! Yeonnam-dong’s Smiley Laundromat is available everywhere today, January 7th, 2025!

What a cute slice of life. I will say it started off slow but the characters were interesting from the beginning. I loved the middle with the cute love story about "fairy" but then it started to drag again. I still enjoyed it as a whole and found it to be a quick read which are always fun to make time for.

Yeonam-dong Smiley Laundromat is a heartwarming and deeply touching story that beautifully weaves together the lives of its characters, showing how they're all interconnected in meaningful ways. The author masterfully creates an 'everything happens for a reason' atmosphere, making each character's journey feel profoundly relatable and uplifting. This book is a poignant reminder that we are never as alone as we think, and it left me feeling comforted and inspired. I'm filled with admiration for the author’s talent and can't wait to see more of their work in the future!

I found Yeonnam-Dong’s Smiley Laundromat to be a cozy yet generic read. I liked the concept of the journal, but wished there was more plot development in the actual laundromat. Throughout the story, there are heartfelt moments, but also very cringy ones. Overall, the book wasn’t bad, just nothing new or exciting. I also have mixed feelings about the audiobook narrator. He read the narrative completely fine, but some of the character voices were questionable and took me out of the story. 2.5 stars. Thanks NetGalley and publishers for this audio ARC!

A very cute, healing fiction. It’s similar to other translated healing fiction books. You get to meet multiple characters and see how they all mix together.

So this is strictly a review of the audiobook version, and not a reflection of the story itself . I was excited to read this because the premise sounded like the perfect kind of wholesome Kdrama to start the year with, and I have enjoyed previous works by this translator. However, the narrator's choice to use exaggerated accents for all characters, as if they're speaking to each other in English (they're not, they're IN KOREA, speaking jn Korean) was deeply jarring and borderline incomprehensible. That paired with the fact that the non-accented non-dialogue narration was entirely flat with no emotive or storytelling quality made it extremely painful for me to finish the audiobook. It's such a shame, especially for a debut author, because I'm sure the actual content is probably quite good. Perhaps I will seek out a print/ebook version in the future. I really hope this terrible audiobook narration does not detract from the English translation's success. The idea of telling stories about average Koreans and their daily struggles, living at the edge of a glamorously gentrified Seoul district, would otherwise be a wonderful contemporary urban Asian narrative.