This story is about the romance between two unnamed middle school students: the main character recounts how they fell for the class 부반장, their brief period of dating, and their life afterwards.
The author says that they didn't name the characters (referred to as 나 and 부반장) because they wanted them to be anyone; while it's a nice idea, I felt that their desire for the characters to be seen as whomever the reader wants resulted in them being completely devoid of personality - rather than making the characters more relatable, I found it had the opposite effect.
The reason the characters are unnamed seems more obviously to be a way to disguise the fact thatthey are both girls until the big reveal, something I think could have been accomplished simply by choosing gender-neutral or gender-ambiguous names. It's also curious that the author portrays a same-sex relationship, but doesn't have the main character reflect on their identity or think about how the relationship may be perceived by others. The breakup appears to be due to the 부반장's discomfort at how other people may look at them, but the main character seems blissfully unaware; this seems unlikely given how sensitive children of that age are about fitting in.
While there are some sweet moments - I thought flowers acting as a symbol of love throughout the story worked well - overall, it's difficult to care about the characters or their relationship. The period of the characters actually being together is over in the blink of an eye; most of the story is "나" recounting how they fell for the 부반장 and the aftermath of the relationship.
Although the author's afterword talks about feelings of love and liking someone, the story itself didn't show much in the way of emotional depth or growth; I'm sure some of this can be attributed to the author's desire to make the story and characters as generic as possible to appeal to the largest audience they could, but again, this only takes away from the potential impact the story could have on the reader.
The language is relatively simple, the only real challenge being the names of the plants mentioned. The simplicity of the story makes it an easy - if tedious - read.
Overall, I found this a dull read and really had to force myself to finish it. The characters are flat, the story boring, and honestly the only reason it didn't feel like a complete waste of time reading it was the language practice.
This story is about the romance between two unnamed middle school students: the main character recounts how they fell for the class 부반장, their brief period of dating, and their life afterwards.
The author says that they didn't name the characters (referred to as 나 and 부반장) because they wanted them to be anyone; while it's a nice idea, I felt that their desire for the characters to be seen as whomever the reader wants resulted in them being completely devoid of personality - rather than making the characters more relatable, I found it had the opposite effect.
The reason the characters are unnamed seems more obviously to be a way to disguise the fact thatthey are both girls until the big reveal, something I think could have been accomplished simply by choosing gender-neutral or gender-ambiguous names. It's also curious that the author portrays a same-sex relationship, but doesn't have the main character reflect on their identity or think about how the relationship may be perceived by others. The breakup appears to be due to the 부반장's discomfort at how other people may look at them, but the main character seems blissfully unaware; this seems unlikely given how sensitive children of that age are about fitting in.
While there are some sweet moments - I thought flowers acting as a symbol of love throughout the story worked well - overall, it's difficult to care about the characters or their relationship. The period of the characters actually being together is over in the blink of an eye; most of the story is "나" recounting how they fell for the 부반장 and the aftermath of the relationship.
Although the author's afterword talks about feelings of love and liking someone, the story itself didn't show much in the way of emotional depth or growth; I'm sure some of this can be attributed to the author's desire to make the story and characters as generic as possible to appeal to the largest audience they could, but again, this only takes away from the potential impact the story could have on the reader.
The language is relatively simple, the only real challenge being the names of the plants mentioned. The simplicity of the story makes it an easy - if tedious - read.
Overall, I found this a dull read and really had to force myself to finish it. The characters are flat, the story boring, and honestly the only reason it didn't feel like a complete waste of time reading it was the language practice.