A kind thank you to the publisher for approving me of this ARC.

Lemon is a novel written by Kwon Yeo-Sun and translated by Janet Wong. I wouldn't say it follows the structure of a detective novel, and the main point of the book is not to solve the mystery aka who murdered Hae-on. In fact, we don't learn who committed the murder. However, there are several clues throughout the book, so the reader draws their own conclusions. I would have liked to get some kind of resolution and a definitive answer to who did it, but I also understand it's not the focus of the story. The author wants to explore the aftermath of a murder, of losing a loved one and never arresting the one responsible. The guilt you survived and your loved one didn't. The what-ifs that may have saved that person. It implicitly explores all these issues in an unusual way.

Lemon is an unusual book, in general. Maybe it's not unusual for South Korean literature, but it is for me. It doesn't follow any structure I've seen before, and for me, it makes this story more unique, unparalleled because I haven't read anything like it. It's told by different perspectives, and to be honest, the only fact that irked me was that I couldn't tell whose pov I was reading. After a while, you deduce that the pov switched, but I couldn't really tell whose pov exactly I was reading. But if you pay close attention, you figure it out. The more I think about it, the more I realize that this book you not only read but experience. The story and the way it's told are intricate and unique.

I personally gravitate towards books that I can't compare to anything else, towards books you can't confuse with anything else, towards stories that are uniquely written. Even if I didn't like every single thing in this book, I can still honestly say that I really liked it. It's a themes-book, not a plot-book, if that makes sense. I'm sure the reviews will be either 'I loved it', or 'I didn't like it at all' and it's understandable. The reader will either get captivated by its uniqueness, or simply won't understand it. To me, Lemon stands out because of how different it is. It resonated with me and made me think about how one crime can affect the lives of the victim's loved ones and of the suspects' and their families.

Lemon is thought-provoking and norms-challenging in its exploration. It doesn't seek the truth of the mystery but perhaps the truth of life, as Da-on herself says she wants to learn how to live. It doesn't see the crime as an equation to solve, catch the killer, and be done with the book. Instead, it sees the crime as a catalyst that explodes the lives of the people involved. It's not a detective book but an explorative story that journeys like life, and touches people in different ways.

A 19 year old student Kim Hae-On was murdered in the summer of 2002 it became known as the High School Beauty Murder.
Shin Jeongjun and Han Manu are the two suspects.After 17 years the case has gone cold and without justice things take a toll on Kim's younger sister Da -On she tries in her own way to find out what happens
The story is told from the viewpoint of Da-On and two of Kim Hae-On's classmates from different points in time.
I found myself struggling with this book I wanted to like it but I'm afraid it just didn't work for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the ARC

“Lemon… The brilliant yellow of the yolk was making me want to write poetry once more. For now, as long as I was gazing at the yolk nestled next to the white, I didn’t feel lonely. I felt no pain. I was at peace, like a baby in a cradle.”

Lemon, by Kwon Yeo-Sun and translated here by Janet Hong, is an unusual and compelling short novel. Part mystery, part psychological study, the book spans a period of nearly 20 years, starting with the unexplained murder of a beautiful young girl, Kim Hae-on, in 2002. Two suspects are identified by the detective in charge of the case - rich and privileged Shin Jeongjun, whose car Hae-on was last seen in, and poor and overlooked Han Manu, a delivery driver who is one of the last people to see her alive.

The story is told by three narrators - Hae-on’s sister Da-on, and two of her female classmates. Each bring their own perspective, and potential bias, to their descriptions of the events, and the author does a great job portraying these different voices. The narrators aren’t outright identified in each chapter, and the reader is left to decipher their identity, and possible motivations and misconceptions, themselves.

I don’t think it reveals too much to say that the story does not come to a neat conclusion, so lovers of traditional whodunnits may not appreciate that. However, as a huge murder mystery fan myself, I felt that I was given just enough information, from the three points of view, to draw my own conclusions. And in fact, I felt that the various contradictions between the narrators were very telling, and helped to highlight a (possible) truth of what had happened that night in 2002.

I found this book an unputdownable read. While outwardly a murder mystery, it is also a deeply atmospheric study of grief, guilt, beauty, jealousy, class and much more besides. I would recommend it to lovers of mysteries and psychological thrillers.

“Lemon” is released in the UK on 7th October 2021. Many thanks to NetGalley, Head of Zeus and of course the author for providing an advanced ebook copy.

Really well written book that I read through in one go, beautifully worded, it just maybe wasn't for me. I prefer thrillers where the ending is summed up or is so wtf it's confusing. This gave you hints, as the chapters moved from different pov jumping couple of years ahead, although still not sure what happened.
The way it was structured was interesting starting off with an interrogation and some of others chapters as a one sided view from a telephone call. Enjoyed the writing and the characters but didn't have a satisfying ending, although would have happily read more if longer.

1.5 rounded up

I have to admit that I struggled with Lemon. Going into this book the blurb gave me the impression that it would be much more of a thriller than it turned out to be.

Kwon Yeo-Sun's novel is set in 2002, when World Cup fever has hit Korea. (I would say here that the setting of 2002 felt totally incidental to proceedings - a pet peeve of mine in books.) Kim Hae-on, a 19 year old high school student is murdered in a crime dubbed the "high school beauty murder". We don't get to know Ha-on from her own perspective but from that of her younger sister, Da-on, looking back on the incident some 17 years later.

Lemon is far from a detective novel, being more interested in those who were caught up in the aftermath of Hae-on's death and the impact it has had on the rest of their lives. I would have been receptive to this as different a way of approaching a mystery/thriller, however the execution felt lacking. My impression was that the book wasn't quite sure what it was trying to be or to achieve, with this resulting in a muddled story with no stakes; I didn't feel that I knew or understood the motivations behind anyone involved enough to care about the outcome at the end of the book.

Lemon, by Korean novelist Kwon Yeo-Sun, is ostensibly a thriller in which Da-on, the protagonist (and one of the novel’s three narrators), tries to solve the mystery of the brutal murder of her nineteen-year-old sister Kim Hae-on during the heady days of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, jointly hosted by Korea and Japan.

It is no spoiler to reveal that by the end of the book we do not really get a tidy solution to the whodunnit, although there are enough clues to invite us to reach our own conclusions. What we do get is a darkly humorous and often unexpectedly moving exploration of loss and grief. We learn of the long-lasting ripples which the murder has on the life of the individuals closest to the tragedy, particularly Kim Hae-on’s family (especially Da-on, who feels she must honour her sister’s memory and fill the void left by her death) and delivery boy Han Manu, who is one of the last persons to see Hae-on alive and is long considered to be the prime suspect. Da-on’s narrative alternates with that of two Hae-on’s and Da-on’s ex-schoolmates.

At just under two hundred pages, Lemon is a quick and often entertaining read, even if it does not flinch from staring into the face of death, illness and injustice. Janet Hong’s translation is crisp and flowing.

'Lemon' has a very intriguing entry. It isn't a classic crime novel and may appear unstructered.
Through alternating perspectives we get to know Da-on and her sister and how she and her family experience loss and grief.
On a side note: If you wondered if the world cup takes too much room, like the summary might suggest, it doesn't. It mearly takes place during one timeline and is therefore mentioned a handful of times.
I liked how this novel tells its story, but it left me quite unsatisfied in the end. 3,5 Stars.

Lemon is a Korean literary mystery novella about the impact one murdered teenager has on others around her, as the aftermath is shown from three perspectives. Around the World Cup of 2002, Hae-on was murdered, and the case was never solved. Her sister, her classmate, and her friend all feel the impact of her death in the following years, but it's clear it holds a different place in each of their lives.

The novella is told in short sections in which you have to work out who is talking from context, and I liked the twisty, not always clear nature of the narrative, with some of the later sections shedding more light on what came before. The mystery at the heart of the book is interesting, but perhaps more interesting is the importance of class and how different characters are treated, especially as Hae-on's sister discovers more about the boy who was originally accused of the murder.

This book is a fleeting thing, showing the aftermath of the murder of a high school student and the different perspectives people can have on one person. I liked the fragmentary structure and atmosphere and the novella tells a gripping story that leaves you thinking.

This novella is the epitome of why you shouldn't feel sorry for the dead, you should feel sorry for the living. The writing depicts a murdered beauty, Hae-on, who's murder is left unsolved. Lemon is told from the perspective of three different people, the younger sister of Hae-on, Da-on, and two of Hae-on's classmates over a period of seventeen years after the murder occurs. The main objective of Lemon explores the deep theme of grief and how it torments people in different ways.

The sheer emotional intensity of Lemon is powerful. Not only is grief explored, but it's put on raw display as Da-on's terrifying feelings on death become apparent. Feelings of guilt and estrangement are heavily written. The toll of one person's death spreads it's inky black hands, turning everything it touches to darkness. Eating disorders, mental health issues, and learning disabilities are also implied but not stated outright.

The writing itself is poignant and profound, each word chosen carefully, and each insight explored and disassembled.

There is a lack of clarity in the format of the novella, present are unclear perspectives and timeline often gave me reason to pause and frown, but as a novella, it was a lot to unpack in those eight chapters. The title Lemon refers to the colour of the dress Hae-on was wearing when her life was ended.

This isn't a simple open-and-shut book of finding out the killer, there is no conclusion as such, but rather an exploration of lives that intersect in traumatic ways, and how this is dealt with.

Lemon is a book that explores just how life and death affect people using the untimely death of a beautiful school girl as its model.

The novella follows the before and after of the death of Kim Hae-on. A beautiful girl whose killer is still free almost 20 years later. Da-on, Hae-on's younger sister goes through a drastic transformation as she tries to come to terms with her grief.

This novellas strongest aspect is that it is not who the killer is the drives this story but rather what this tragedy has done to the people around her and the lasting impacts of it. The small revelations that are littered throughout make this portrait of grief more chilling and upsetting than the average thriller.

The characters themselves are complicated especially considering you only see them briefly in these 200 pages. You get the expression life moves on with them and their hardships only become harder with this death that encircles all of them. The characters seemed normal and overwhelmingly human.

Perhaps what I didn't like is that this book does not give you complete closure, the characters aren't necessarily reliable narrators and while I often enjoy that, here it creates confusion on the actual events.

Despite this, that's not what this book is about at all, it's not a simple thriller about a murdered girl, it is so much more than that and I greatly enjoyed this journey. I would definitely recommend this.

Did the pages of his life hold any meaning? Probably not. At least that’s what I believe. Just like how I believe life has no special meaning. Not his, not my sister’s, not even mine. Even if you try desperately to find it, to contrive some kind of meaning, what’s not there isn’t there. Life begins without reason and ends without reason.

그의 삶의 갈피갈피에도 의미 같은 것이 있었을까. 아니, 없었겠지. 없었다고 나는 생각한다. 어떤 삶에도 특별한 의미 같은 건 없다고 생각한다. 그의 삶에도, 언니의 삶에도, 내 삶에도. 아무리 찾으려 해도, 지어내려 해도 없는 건 없는 거라고. 무턱대고 시작되었다 무턱대고 끝나는 게 삶이라고.

Lemon is Janet Hong's translation of the 2019 novel 레몬 by 권여선 (Kwon Yeo-Sun)

Hong has previously translated the unsettling short stories of 하성란 (Ha Seong-nan) and the offbeat works of 한유주 (Han Yujoo), her translation of the latter's The Impossible Fairy Tale winning the A First Translation Prize from the Society of Authors, for translations into English from any language, and the LTI Korea Translation Award for translations from Korean into any language.

권여선 is a multi-award-winning writer, winning, among others, the 32nd annual Yi Sang Literary Award (이상문학상) in 2008, the 15th annual Oh Yeong Su Literary Award (오영수문학상) in 2007 and, in 2012, the 45th annual Hankook Ilbo Literary Award (한국일보문학상).

Lemon opens with a flashback of sorts, actually more an imagined reconstruction, to July 2002, the day after the World Cup Final:

"I imagine what happened inside one police interrogation room so many years ago. By imagine, I don’t mean invent. But it’s not like I was actually there, so I don’t know what else to call it. I picture the scene from that day, based on what he told me and some other clues, my own experience and conclusions. It’s not just this scene I imagine. For over sixteen years, I’ve pondered, prodded, and worked every detail embroiled in the case known as “The High School Beauty Murder”—to the point I often fool myself into thinking I’d personally witnessed the circumstances now stamped on my mind’s eye. The imagination is just as painful as reality. No, it’s more painful. After all, what you imagine has no limit or end."

The speaker is Da-on (다언). Her stunningly beautiful but oddly naive older sister Ha-on (해언), aged 18, had been found in a park, murdered in the early hours of that day. The police investigation focused on two suspects Shin Jeong-jun (신정준), from a wealthy background - Ha-on was seen driving with him in his new car the previous evening - and Han Manu (한만우), ineloquent and from a disadvantaged background, who was also seen in the area.

"That day, the detective would have weighed Han Manu’s narrow, pinched face against Shin Jeongjun’s clean features, the former’s cheap World Cup T-shirt against the latter’s IVYclub button-down shirt, a single mother against an accountant father, and the twentieth rank in class against the top ten of the entire grade, as well as the credibility of the witnesses providing the alibis. Rather than try to find the real culprit, the detective would have considered whom he could—or should—crush and turn into the culprit. And that’s exactly what he tried to do."

But in practice both have alibis, and there is little evidence, and the case remains unsolved.

The novel(la) is told in chapters sets over the years from 2002 to the present day (2019) and the narration switches between three narrators, Da-on, and two of the sister's schoolmates, Taerim (태림), a rival for Jeong-jun's affections, and who was with Han Manu on the day, and Sanghui (상희), who was in a literary club with Da-on, and whose poem, inspired by Joyce's Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man (and the line: The moocow came down the road where Betty Byrne lived: she sold lemon platt) gives the novel it's title:

"I asked myself: Did I want to go back to that time, too? When I’d been so wild about Joyce that I’d written my poem “Betty Byrne, Maker of Lemon Platt”? If we could actually go back to that time, would I? I didn’t know.

나는 자문했다. 나 또한 그때로 돌아가고 싶은가. 조이스에 빠져 「레몬과자를 파는 베티 번 씨」라는 시를 쓰던 그 시절로. 그럴 수 있다면 그렇게 할 것인가. 나는 대답할 수 없었다."

Lemon also refers to the colour of the dress worn by Ha-on when she was murdered, and as part of her psychological reaction to the murder of her sister, Da-on undertakes plastic surgery to look more like her sister, and takes to wearing a similar dress.

Ha-on's mother also has an troubling reaction. She had originally intended to name her first child Hye-eun (혜은), but her husband's regional accent mangled the name to Ha-on. After her death she attempts to retrospectively change the name, and then Da-on comes up with a disturbing solution of her own:

After she died, Mother began to obsess over the name Hye-eun. She seemed to think my sister’s life had gone wrong because of the name change. In the end, my dead sister returned to my mother as Hye-eun. This isn’t a metaphor; it’s a fact. Ten years after my sister’s death, my mother held in her arms a live baby named Hye-eun. This baby was my gift to her.

This very much isn't a standard crime novel. While Ha-on, seventeen years later, still wants to know who killed her sister, the novel is more interested in tracing the psychological impact on all those involved, the impact of grief, guilt and revenge, as well as highlighting social questions of class.

3.5 stars

Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.

4,5

I had a great time with this slim, fast-paced Korean high-school murder mystery.

It is very well built-up, with 8 short, chronological chapters slowly unfolding what happened before and after the murder to the main characters involved.

I did not expect great literature, but the writing is actually good and certainly a lot better than most thrillers out there. The Korean setting adds to the atmosphere and reading experience. Perfect summer read for me.

Lemon was a short yet captivating read that considered themes such as life and death, guilt, belonging and social hierarchy and its privileges. Rather than a linear narrative, we gradually piece together events from the recollections of several characters, allowing us to pass judgment on what actually happened to Kim Hae-on. This is not a story that ends neatly, with all questions answered, but it does offer a thought-provoking premise that lets the reader come up with their own conclusions. Lemon was a different kind of story from what you might expect from the blurb, but it is definitely one worth reading. It gets 4.5 stars from me.

Kwon Yeo-sun's novel 'Lemon' is less that two hundred pages long, yet it an absolutely gripping exploration of life, death, gender and privilege in modern-day Seoul. In 2002, Kim Hae-on was murdered, her endearing beauty blemished by a killer who, to this day, remains free. The novella follows Da-on, Hae-on's younger sister, as she attempts to unravel the events of Hae-on's last moments. Alongside this portrayal of a broken family, we also hear from two of Hae-on's classmates at the time and in the years which follow.

This is not a simple, chronological narrative. We discover fragments of the story in fits and starts, never knowing which is the most reliable lens from our three narrators. Many elements of this are skilfully written, the subtle revelations making it more chilling the deeper you read - it is not the identity of the murderer which drives this reading experience, rather the lasting impact this death has had on these lives as we follow them through to 2019.

Fragmented confessions to a therapist, memories of a traumatic and neglectful childhood, a man grappling with poverty and a cancer diagnosis - these lives are woven as disparate experiences which occasionally intersect, circling around the echo of memories of Hae-on's death all those years ago. It is a stunning read and will stay with you long beyond the open possibilities of the final pages.

Do not enter into this story looking for closure or a simple tale of a beautiful high school girl whose life was snuffed out. Read carefully to pick up the clues, and see whether you can identify the true villains and victims - it is not as simple as you might think. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

#Lemon #NetGalley
A good short novella.
THE SISTER:
In the summer of 2002, my big sister Hae-on was murdered. She was beautiful, intelligent, and only nineteen years old. Two boys were questioned, but the case was never solved. Her killer still walks free.
THE CLASSMATE:
In the summer of 2002, my classmate Hae-on was murdered. She was haughty, spoilt, a typical rich kid. But she didn't deserve to die. Even now, years later, I can't stop thinking about her. Who would do such a thing?
THE FRIEND:
In the summer of 2002, my friend Hae-on was murdered. The culprit was never found, but I think I know who did it...At once a gripping crime story and a fascinating dissection of class, gender and privilege in contemporary Korea, Lemon is the must-read novel of 2021.
Thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for giving me an advanced copy.