Yolk
“Sneaks up on you with its insight and poignancy.” —Entertainment WeeklyFrom
New York Times bestselling author Mary H.K. Choi comes a funny and emotional story about two estranged sisters and how far they’ll go to save one of their lives—even if it means swapping identities.
Jayne and June Baek are nothing alike. June’s three years older, a classic first-born, know-it-all narc with a problematic finance job and an equally soulless apartment (according to Jayne). Jayne is an emotionally stunted, self-obsessed basket case who lives in squalor, has egregious taste in men, and needs to get to class and stop wasting Mom and Dad’s money (if you ask June). Once thick as thieves, these sisters who moved from Seoul to San Antonio to New York together now don’t want anything to do with each other.
That is, until June gets cancer. And Jayne becomes the only one who can help her.
Flung together by circumstance, housing woes, and family secrets, will the sisters learn more about each other than they’re willing to confront? And what if while helping June, Jayne has to confront the fact that maybe she’s sick, too?
New York Times bestselling author Mary H.K. Choi comes a funny and emotional story about two estranged sisters and how far they’ll go to save one of their lives—even if it means swapping identities.
Jayne and June Baek are nothing alike. June’s three years older, a classic first-born, know-it-all narc with a problematic finance job and an equally soulless apartment (according to Jayne). Jayne is an emotionally stunted, self-obsessed basket case who lives in squalor, has egregious taste in men, and needs to get to class and stop wasting Mom and Dad’s money (if you ask June). Once thick as thieves, these sisters who moved from Seoul to San Antonio to New York together now don’t want anything to do with each other.
That is, until June gets cancer. And Jayne becomes the only one who can help her.
Flung together by circumstance, housing woes, and family secrets, will the sisters learn more about each other than they’re willing to confront? And what if while helping June, Jayne has to confront the fact that maybe she’s sick, too?
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Community Reviews
While 'Yolk' was a intriguing to read as it was highly rated, it lacked character depth and development of all characters, except Jayne Baek who is the protagonist. Even then, her character development was lacking. The author put a lot of creative work depicting gestures in June or their mother, the sensual scenes seemed merely mechanical with no detailed expression or take away. The book tended to be weighed down by shallow saga development and syntax.
It seems that Choi was merely expressing her own shallow approaches to life.
It’s always so so hard to read about eating disorders, but this book made it worth it. I genuinely kept feeling like I was reading a real person’s thoughts because of how real Jayne felt to me. My relationship with my sisters is a lot less complicated (and we’re significantly and consistently nicer to each other lol), but it still felt real and full of love. The writing was beautiful and made me want to read more of Mary H.K. Choi’s work.
This was an interesting read for me. It took a long time to get to any redeeming qualities of the characters. While I do feel like the ending nicely set up Jayne for after, it all felt so rushed at the end. I think I would have connected with the book more if the character development was more present throughout the story. The reader is left in the dark about decisions and emotions that the characters are feeling, which is purposeful, it just wasn't the best writing style for me. I also struggled with how chaotic Jayne is. It is hard to be in her brain and bounce so fast from decision to decision without waiting to see the resolution of her first decision.
I feel so "seen" reading this book. It is so much how I feel and act and it makes me want to make changes. GREAT book.
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