Yolk

Mary H. K. Choi does three things impeccably that makes her one of my favorite writers:1) Craft immensely flawed yet easy to like main characters. You sit with them while they make bad decisions, while they deal with their traumas, the baggage, the internal struggle, and you hope with bated breath that they make it out on the other side a little happier. They feel like friends. They feel real. They feel like they could have been you, had you been in their shoes.2) Complement her characters with emotionally layered relationships, especially family dynamics. Relationships are messy, whether it's a daughter's relationship with her mother or a sister's relationship with her sister. Relationships are hard work, and they're not neat, and they certainly don't get resolved perfectly, packaged with a neat little bow. But it's the mess that makes these relationships real. Worth fighting for. I'll also say that with each book, Choi gets better at writing the romantic relationships as well.3) Breathes life into New York City. So often, books glamorize this city, choosing to laser-focus on the glittering buildings and the opportunity, while brushing off the grime and the dust. Once again, Choi writes a book frankly discussing things like finances, like how lonely a city as big and busy as NYC can feel for young people who are still looking for themselves. How it can eat you alive. While still balancing all the darkness with the light, all the struggle with the hope.I loved this book. I love how Choi writes about 20-somethings, struggling in their lives, struggling with themselves, in a world that seems too big for them. I love that her books aren't tidy, and that you're still left with some questions at the end, but that's just life.Also, this is not YA. I'm sick of books being categorized as YA just because. This is a book about a 20-something college student and her 23-year old sister. There are no teenagers in this book. This book is frank in its discussion of eating disorders and sex and infidelity and sickness. If you're going into this book expecting a YA, you will not find it.Content warnings for: Eating disorder, binge eating, fatphobia, body dysmorphia, cancer, blood, cheating.

This book is heartbreaking, tender, funny, and so raw...I read it twice just to soak up all its goodness.

Omg, this book! I picked it up because it was on RO Kwons list of 43 books by women of color in 2020. I also absolutely loved the beautifully unique cover.This book follows Jayne, a Korean-American living in New York, as she navigates emerging adulthood. She has a history of disordered eating, and self destructive behavior with men and with herself. Struggling through fashion school, and life in general, Jayne is forced to deal with reality when her sister, June, is diagnosed with uterine cancer. They weren’t very close to begin with, but Jayne finds herself living with June and being her support system.This book touches on so many things that just cut so deep. My 20 year old self needed this book. Jayne is a mess, there’s no denying that. But she is also in that time in life where you make all kinds of bad decisions and you learn about yourself and others. I can empathize with this time period because I struggled through it as well. Jayne and June’s relationship was pretty strained, but like sisters, they were able to come together when it was needed. Their dynamic was actually pretty hilarious, especially with June. The dialogue between them was gold. I just felt such a connection between these characters, and they jumped off the page for me.Choi wrote a freaking masterpiece with Yolk. I loved all the characters. They all had their flaws, but they were all lovable. I loved the aspects of Korean culture that Choi wrote about. The relationship between Jayne and her family, the way the love is mixed with pain, the desire to know, but also the distance between her and her mother. The reality of being an Asian American woman in a very white world.There is so much about this book I don’t even have the space to talk about. I absolutely loved it. Choi is a genius and I already bought her first and second books cause I just wanted more.

It is an okay book

content warning: cancer, eating disorder.This book is about two estranged Korean American sisters who are brought together by painful circumstances. June has just found out that she has cancer and Jayne has had an eating disorder for years, additionally, she is a bit lost in her early adulthood while she views her older sister as so much better than she is.This story is less plot driven than it is character driven, but honestly, I think that's what makes it so personal. When you read this, it feels like reading every ugly and beautiful thought that a real early 20's girl would have. Living in Jayne's head made me feel sick, sad, and then finally relieved. This girl goes THROUGH IT.I thought that the in depth exploration of the family dynamics between each of the girls and their parents was so good. I ate those chapters up even as they made me cry so much that I couldn't see properly. At the end of the day though, the most iconic dynamic is June and Jayne. As Jayne notes in the last few chapters, even when June hates her, she loves her the most. If that isn't what a true sibling relationship is, I don't know what is. Mary HK Choi has gone and obliterated my heart again. I need a nap.Also shout out to the full page of Gilmore Girls opinions that the girls have.. that was everything to me. J told Mary on Twitter and got an RT 🙏🥺This is my favorite book of the year so far and also it has the best cover so far this year hands down.

Mary H.K. Choi writes young adult books in a style or tone akin to how Clueless and Romeo and Juliet and Mean Girls are teenagery films, smart and witty and just well good. Give me Cher and Dionne as an option and it’ll win 90% of the time. Although give me Sister Act as an option and it’ll win 100% of the time. I LOVE Sister Act, but I’ll expound on the extensive joy that is Delores some other day.Yolk, is the story of two sisters, Jayne and June, of Korean descent (I don't think that’s what I’m supposed to say, heritage maybe, first generation immigrants?) they live in New York and they aren’t at all besties but June gets sick and melodrama ensues, except it doesn’t, well maybe a little. It’s a nuanced portrayal of at least 4 important things. We have race, the everyday things you wouldn’t even think to consider if you are in the predominate ethnic category, all the tiny micro aggressions faced by those who aren’t of the default setting. Eating disorders, specifically bulimia which is not merely alluded to but weaved into the very fibres of this novel, Choi’s depiction of this isn’t like any I’ve seen written about before. It’s not the cliched portrayal you tend to get and I doubt you’d find a more brutally honest rendering. Really. Much like the eating disorder it’s insidious. Choi doesn’t just throw it in all of a sudden. Rather it’s hidden and gradually you see all the little signs, you’ll see it if you know what your looking for and it gets harder to miss as the novel progresses. It’s worth reading just for that, for the understanding of the ramifications of a disorder that really isn't talked about, at least not with the comparative ease that anorexia is often addressed. And I’m not saying anorexia is a walk in a park AT ALL, I’m just saying there is often a little more shame attached to bulimia. And don’t be throwing The Crown at me, I’d bet all my kidneys that Princess Diana’s battle with bulimia didn't run such a tidy arc, and she certainly didn’t just decide to stop one day and that was it. That sort of shite is damaging and wrong and they lose their participation points for reinforcing false notions that these things are as simply resolved as by the exertion of will. And now I'm getting off my soap box. Other items of woe contained in this book; there is cancer of a specifically female form along with other things in that neck of the woods. Family, how things can be perceived incorrectly, and how lots of little things can shape a person, affect their self worth, bullying in any number of forms and the lasting effects of that, healthcare and affordability. All of that sounds properly grim right? Like really why would you read a book that sounds that miserable. But the thing is, it isnt miserable. I dont know what Jedi mind trick Choi pulled but you don’t come away as bereft as you might think considering the content here is at quite the juxtaposition with the chipper yellow cover. Instead you’re left with that slightly warm feeling you get from certain alcoholic beverages and I’d like to hope an understanding of things that are very rarely spoken openly of. So fetch.

This book explores the complicated relationship of sisters, eating disorders, family and stupid boys. I think the moment I loved it was the entire page dedicated to a Gilmore Girls discussion. I LOVE very specific references in books.I wouldn't call this a YA novel, although her last two were. But it does follow Jayne on a coming-of-age journey of sorts. The book starts when she finds out her sister June (2.5 years older and everything Jayne envies, loves, and loathes) has cancer. The revelation sends shockwaves through the life Jayne has made for herself in New York City and forces her to connect with her past.I really loved this book. I love Mary Choi's writing and her messy characters who feel very real. It deals with some very heavy subjects but it does so in a way that gives you a window into the character's world, rather than wrapping things in a neat bow. A really good read.

The book is really good. It was a really great read. However the relationship between Patrick and Jayne doesn't really feel very developed, in my opinion. I like his apartment tho. If the story doesn't appeal to you buy it for the cover. This book is so pretty. I regret not getting a hardback.

Ok

The book had such a calming immersive atmosphere, it made me really interested in New York. I loved Jayne, she’s so relatable and you’re heart just bleeds for her.