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K-Fiction Series #16
The summer
The Summer is about two 18-year-old girls unexpectedly falling in love. It is a novel that captures the small cracks in their daily life in a clear and transparent watercolor-like landscape of a summer when they are shaken by the emotion of love that has come to them.
In the novel, the two girls, Yi-greong and Suyi, share a rare love and have to be careful about the gaze of others, and they start to become less afraid of the gaze and judgment of themselves as they used to. At the age of 20, they move to Seoul, where one attends college and the other learns auto mechanics at a vocational school. New joys and trivial misunderstandings that arise as each has a different radius of activity, and changes in feelings between the two of them come flooding in.
In the novel, the two girls, Yi-greong and Suyi, share a rare love and have to be careful about the gaze of others, and they start to become less afraid of the gaze and judgment of themselves as they used to. At the age of 20, they move to Seoul, where one attends college and the other learns auto mechanics at a vocational school. New joys and trivial misunderstandings that arise as each has a different radius of activity, and changes in feelings between the two of them come flooding in.
- GenresLGBT
Paperback
Published April 17, 2017
3 people are currently reading
247 people want to read
About the author
Choi Eunyoung
57 books149 followersChoi Eun-young ( 최은영) is a South Korean writer. She began her literary career in 2013, when her short story “Shokoui miso” (쇼코의 미소; Shoko's Smile) was selected for the quarterly literary magazine Writer's World's New Writer's Award. With the same work, she received the 5th Munhakdongne Young Writer's Award in 2014. She was awarded the 8th Heo Gyun Writer's Award in 2016, and was awarded the 8th Munhakdongne Young Writer's award in 2017.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 12, 2025
Short slice of life novella about two Korean girls who fall in love at 18 and try to navigate their lives together. As it is a bilingual edition, I know I will be using it a lot to practice my language skills :)
July 5, 2023
Kocham Choi dosłownie MOTHER
April 22, 2020
'The Summer' begins with a touching love story, which happen to be a story of lesbian love in smalltown Korea. As its protagonists move to Seoul, become adult, experience life's sometimes most frustrating twists, it grows into a tough, delicate, timeless and universal story of life, and a sincere, true literary feat.
August 19, 2025
Watch my review on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECS_...
November 27, 2021
i really loved this
December 20, 2024
"The body of their selves, the 'self' itself, even the distinction between 'you' and 'me' lost their meaning in these moments when their bodies were like petals and water. Yi-gyeong thought: We are no more than the breath we drink in and breathe out. One breath that rises infinitely but falls to the depths at the same time."
I love this page <3
I reread this a few weeks after posting this review and its so much more golden, although my critiques still stand, I would still recommend!
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
I loved this book. However I was not ready for I'm in the feels right now, nobody talk to me.
For some of my criticism I am not sure if the quality of the writing is dependent on the translation or the original story before the translation since although all of the left pages were in Korean, I, in fact, cannot understand Korean. So. The only true purpose of those pages was to feel smart while I was reading in public. But anyway, I am going to go into this review without specification to the author or translator(s) because quite obviously, I have no idea. I do not know how to break down what is error of translation or translation process versus a subjective flaw in the story itself. I may simply use the word writer whether or not any reason for critique is a result of translation.
At first I had judged this book pretty harshly. I still hold some of the same criticism. Firstly, the writing style seems quite inconsistent throughout the book, as well as the story in itself being a bit jumpy. In the I had to forcibly blink twice and do a double take to make sure I has just flipped the page from the to in what seems like a different timeline. Lets just say I did NOT expect that. Mind you I was reading this on campus so I was definitely looking over my shoulder.
I was quite lost throughout that whole portion of the story considering it seemed the writing did not communicate what was happening that well, and did not show much of their feelings or thoughts at the time which made it immensely confusing for me but later on in the story we get a lot more of that so I have been made happy. Overall it picked up so quickly Though I still think it could be executed a bit differently.
As far as the writing being inconsistent, it seemed to suddenly go from very descriptive and full of similes to a bit more direct translation in the sense that you can tell it does not carry the same charm. Yet, page still holds most of that charm. It felt as if a bit of the soul was missing because perhaps it got a little bit lost in translation. (haha. ha.)
Regardless, my heart was torn apart and I loved this. Although it was much on the shorter side of a book, it said everything it needed to say in the length that it had. I appreciated its brief touches on different ideas such as the experience of that description within the book resonated with me deeply. Theres so much more I love about this book and all of the things it illustrated beautifully within it. I do love this story and the ideas within it so I definitely do recommend as it is a valuable read. I wonder if I will ever get over this lol.
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Pre-read / currently-reading updates:
I just purchased it and thought, wow it's a pretty small and thin book, then I realized that since it is a bilingual version that means the actual story is only half the size of the book already - definitely going to be a shorter read but we shall see if it is worthwhile!
spoiler: it was
I love this page <3
I reread this a few weeks after posting this review and its so much more golden, although my critiques still stand, I would still recommend!
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
I loved this book. However I was not ready for I'm in the feels right now, nobody talk to me.
For some of my criticism I am not sure if the quality of the writing is dependent on the translation or the original story before the translation since although all of the left pages were in Korean, I, in fact, cannot understand Korean. So. The only true purpose of those pages was to feel smart while I was reading in public. But anyway, I am going to go into this review without specification to the author or translator(s) because quite obviously, I have no idea. I do not know how to break down what is error of translation or translation process versus a subjective flaw in the story itself. I may simply use the word writer whether or not any reason for critique is a result of translation.
At first I had judged this book pretty harshly. I still hold some of the same criticism. Firstly, the writing style seems quite inconsistent throughout the book, as well as the story in itself being a bit jumpy. In the I had to forcibly blink twice and do a double take to make sure I has just flipped the page from the to in what seems like a different timeline. Lets just say I did NOT expect that. Mind you I was reading this on campus so I was definitely looking over my shoulder.
I was quite lost throughout that whole portion of the story considering it seemed the writing did not communicate what was happening that well, and did not show much of their feelings or thoughts at the time which made it immensely confusing for me but later on in the story we get a lot more of that so I have been made happy. Overall it picked up so quickly Though I still think it could be executed a bit differently.
As far as the writing being inconsistent, it seemed to suddenly go from very descriptive and full of similes to a bit more direct translation in the sense that you can tell it does not carry the same charm. Yet, page still holds most of that charm. It felt as if a bit of the soul was missing because perhaps it got a little bit lost in translation. (haha. ha.)
Regardless, my heart was torn apart and I loved this. Although it was much on the shorter side of a book, it said everything it needed to say in the length that it had. I appreciated its brief touches on different ideas such as the experience of that description within the book resonated with me deeply. Theres so much more I love about this book and all of the things it illustrated beautifully within it. I do love this story and the ideas within it so I definitely do recommend as it is a valuable read. I wonder if I will ever get over this lol.
---------------
Pre-read / currently-reading updates:
I just purchased it and thought, wow it's a pretty small and thin book, then I realized that since it is a bilingual version that means the actual story is only half the size of the book already - definitely going to be a shorter read but we shall see if it is worthwhile!
spoiler: it was
March 14, 2022
- All the Koreanness that Koreans claim Han Kang lacks of.
- IDK if it’s the translation or the narration itself that wasn’t good, it wasn't constant. It was full of clichés: the very end was just that.
- The over explanations of Korean politeness felt too unnatural (maybe the translation) but at the same time it was a bit normal in a Korean background.
- Plain characters.
- Perfect material for a Korean drama! or at least a comic...
SPOILER IN SPANISH:
La historia va de unas dos chicas que se conocen a los 18, en un año y medio van a Seúl a estudiar, conocen otra gente, la una le termina a la otra para meterse con otra man, la nueva novia le deja xq no olvida a la novia anterior. Pasan 13 años las dos se encuentran y la man de pregunta qué hubiese sido si no hubiese conocido a esta weona…
- IDK if it’s the translation or the narration itself that wasn’t good, it wasn't constant. It was full of clichés: the very end was just that.
- The over explanations of Korean politeness felt too unnatural (maybe the translation) but at the same time it was a bit normal in a Korean background.
- Plain characters.
- Perfect material for a Korean drama! or at least a comic...
SPOILER IN SPANISH:
La historia va de unas dos chicas que se conocen a los 18, en un año y medio van a Seúl a estudiar, conocen otra gente, la una le termina a la otra para meterse con otra man, la nueva novia le deja xq no olvida a la novia anterior. Pasan 13 años las dos se encuentran y la man de pregunta qué hubiese sido si no hubiese conocido a esta weona…
October 28, 2021
very short + the translation had some errors. didn't really give the characters any personality, hobbies, any value except for their relationships with e/o... 우분투도 유분수지... didn't learn any words + finished it in like 2 hours but yeah... gonna donate it to the library or smth. about to read her other book and i pray it's better because i almost went crazy from reading the characters' names repeat like 20 times a page instead! of! just! referencing! them! it read like a 5th grade story assignment... i am so sorry.
September 22, 2023
I really enjoyed this little book. So much so that I swallowed it in one sitting (not that it was very long; only about 60 pages, as this is a bi-lingual edition). I liked the simple and clean prose, how the narrator's character gradually takes center stage, as the story progresses, how we aren't offered too much detail, only just enough to grasp the mood, as emotions and fears are unveiled... very relatable and very moving.
August 24, 2022
Quedé con gusto a poco. Es tan cortito que no permite entrar en los personajes, más allá de las relaciones que establecen entre ellas. Hay algunas citas que encontré preciosas, pero ahí se quedan no más.
January 20, 2021
Read translation
July 30, 2025
Absolutely adore it!!
Going back to this book once in a while I can proudly say it's my favourite book of all time
Going back to this book once in a while I can proudly say it's my favourite book of all time
August 22, 2025
Beautiful, heart-aching story.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews