It was interesting that a book has been written about a video going viral on the internet that the person who’s in it is mortified and ashamed about and didn’t post it herself. It follows the fall out with her family and her own struggles to come to terms with what has happened whilst waiting it out abroad before returning home to Scotland.
Su-Jin was adopted from Korea by a family in Scotland, who then found out that they were pregnant after years of trying not long after. We find out that Su-Jin struggled to find her place a lot of the time and wished that she wasn’t different to her family, and tried to make her parents proud by following all of the rules set out for her.
It is definitely thought provoking, the topics dealt with are racism, revenge porn and the most relevant at the moment is spiking drinks. It points out exactly how easy it is to accept a drink from a stranger in a bar, even when you know you shouldn’t, and the implications it can have.
It was sometimes quite predictable and sometimes a bit confusing with the timelines jumping in some chapters without it being explained or obvious.
A very interesting read about something that could happen to any of us at any point.

ClareR (5864 KP) rated The End We Start From in Books
Nov 12, 2017
The way it's written reflects the shock and despair of the main character - sparse and disjointed. Time moves in a strange way (which will be interesting to see how this will be handled if it makes it to the big screen).
This is well worth a read, but make sure you're mentally in a good place first! The whole book made me feel uncomfortable, and there is no happy ending. Call me odd, but that's the kind of book that I really enjoy!

Eilidh G Clark (177 KP) rated Beside the Ocean of Time in Books
Jul 2, 2019

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