Specs
Reviews
(4/5)A quiet yet engaging near-future story about a boy growing up in a state-run facility
The story: To address Korea's low birth rate, the government has encouraged citizens to have babies and surrender them to state-run facilities. When they turn 13, these kids can be adopted by families. Jenu 301, a child being raised in one of these facilities, went an unusually long time without being adopted and faces the possibility that he will age out and go through life with no family.
Not much happens in this story, and yet somehow I found it quite compelling, enough so that I read it twice! It's reflective rather than exciting, but the story manages to build suspense out of small questions and I always wanted to know more about Jenu and his roommate Aki.
For language learning: I see some other reviewers found it easy but to me it was a real stretch! Rather than a series of straightforward events, there was a lot of speculation, a lot of "If this were true, would we..." I struggled to tell who was speaking until I realized I wasn't paying close enough attention to honorifics and formality. (Everyone speaks casually to the kids, the staff uses honorifics to the pre-foster parents, and the pre-foster parents use polite speech but not honorifics to staff.) However the mild SF setting doesn't pose much special challenge, as there is very little SF jargon.
“모른다는 것이 꼭 나쁜 일만은 아닌 것 같다. 모르기 때문에 배울 수 있고, 모르기 때문에 기대할 수 있으니까.“
A coming of age story of a futuristic world where “nation’s children” are fostered in a closed off government facility awaiting adoption. They go to school there, play games in the VR room with friends, and await their “페인트“ with possible new parents.
The main character is almost aged out, and only has a little time left as a Nation’s Child. His view is quite different from the others, and I liked to hear his perspective. It was also interesting to see how the adult figures around him reacted to his situation. The story was short, and a little simple, but it brought up interesting themes of family, what role parents have, and the responsibility of the government systems there to protect our children in need. The vocabulary wasn’t very difficult, and a lot of the “futuristic” terms were English loans. I’d recommend it for a quick read with an interesting premise. I’d like to see a fleshed out version of this world written for adults one day, I think it has a lot of potential.
Contemplative coming-of-age story
I came into this book expecting some light sci-fi, and got instead an introspective book about parenthood and the meaning of family.
The narrative was more difficult than expected grammar-wise. Our brooding and contemplative MC spends a lot of time 1) guessing how other characters are thinking/feeling, 2) speculating about hypothetical events, and 3) considering what the ideal parent/family/society looks like. As a result the book has a lot of complex sentences, and I often needed to re-read the same passage over and over again to figure out its meaning.
I usually enjoy more action-heavy books, so I wouldn't consider 페인트 a page-turner. I think this is a solid book for language learning though; I learned a lot of new vocabulary and was exposed to some more complex grammar. This is also a valuable book for anyone who is a parent or is considering becoming a parent in the future — it'll give you a lot to think about!