Specs
Reviews
(4/5)The story starts out with the suicide of high school student 제갈윤. After her death, four of her friends each mysteriously receive a letter from 제갈윤 with details about their wrongdoings. The letters are shared with the rest of the school. This prompts homeroom teacher 나현진 to investigate the relationship between the students and the events leading up to 제갈윤’s suicide.
I thought it would just be a simple novel, but it ended up being a really thought-provoking piece about of guilt and fault. To what degree are we responsible when we do something that unintentionally ends with negative consequences for others? The author used 제갈윤’s suicide and her friends’ actions before her death to ask this interesting question. I really appreciate the book more once I understood its intended message.
Except for 제갈윤 (who is mentioned only in memories), the characters in this book are very multi-dimensional. I find myself rooting for all of them despite—or because of—their faults.
In terms of difficulty, this book is one of the more challenging books I’ve read so far. I had to look up quite a bit of words, but luckily they would repeat often so I ended up acquiring them easily. It takes place in a Catholic school, so I learned some new words related to school and Catholicism. It is a full YA novel so I’d recommend this book for learners who can read at an upper intermediate level.
"내가 이 아이들을 제대로 알고 있을까. 타인을 완전히 안다는 것이 가능한 일일까."
"아무리 멀쩡한 얼굴을 하고 있어도 속으로 무슨 생각을 하는지는 아무도 모르는 거잖아요."
A student at a prestigious catholic school kills herself in the school grounds. 7 months later some students at the school receive letters from the dead girl blaming them for her death, but is everything in the letters true?
This was a solid YA with a mystery element to it. Obviously thematically very similar to 죽이고 싶은 아이 but I would say this is a little easier since it doesn't have as much transcribed spoken speech.
Having said that it wasn't so simple as to be boring or bad writing. There were lots of interesting phrases I picked up on along the way and the writing was without filler so it kept me enagaged to the end.