My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mesmerizing!
Snowglobe is a young adult dystopian tale by author Korean author Soyoung Park, recently translated into English by Joungmin Lee Comfort. It is book one of a duology, so readers need to be prepared to hold on when all their questions are not answered in this volume. But, with its intriguing premise, engagingly relatable main characters, and nimble execution, Snowglobe is pure entertainment.
The main character is Jeon Chobahm, a sixteen-year-old twin living in the frigid "open" world with her mother, twin brother, Ongi, and grandmother, who is firmly within the grasp of dementia. Since graduating from school ten months earlier, she and Ongi have been working 10-hour days at the power plant with their mother.Chobahm's dream is to become a director of reality show-styled programming in the domed city of Snowglobe, where it is all created and filmed. She is conflicted when her idol, director Cha Seol, offers her the opportunity to "help" her on her most famous show, Goh Around, by secretly replacing the star, an amazing lookalike named Haeri. With this harsh background and difficult bleakness looming, Chobahm is amazingly hopeful for her future, and it was easy to understand her agreeing to Director Cha's scheme. Her innocent beliefs are quickly challenged.
While Chobahm struggles with the ethics of the impersonation, the unsettling dynamics in the Goh family, and the actions and agenda of the intimidating and dangerous Cha Seol, she sinks into her role as Haeri more easily than I would have expected. Her long attention to the show prepares her well. But what happens off-camera is tense and stressful, and Chobahm has no one she can trust. As her masquerade continues, she uncovers startling revelations that the viewers at home are completely unaware of.The setting of the domed city of Snowglobe is one of the things that drew me to this story, but with Chobahm's hectic, supervised life, we only get a narrow glimpse of what it's like. She's in a very restricted niche, and her life stays pretty much in that lane except for a couple of wrong moves on her part. We have a much more robust vision of the open world than the physical nature of Snowglobe proper.
The story is well-told and nicely paced, with some eye-opening twists and turns to keep me glued to its pages. I read almost the entirety of the book in one reading session without even a thought for a break. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any information about the sequel.I recommend SNOWGLOBE to readers of young adult fiction and dystopian stories.
I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy through TBR and Beyond Book Tours.