I didn't make it very far into this one. It just . . . didn't hold my attention. (Not much else to say, but have to reach the character limit.)

I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish the digital copy on my phone only to give it a poor review.

A wonderfully narrated novel. The audiobook is read by a cast, which keeps the individual characters well-defined. This novel has a murder at its core but is not a mystery, per se. Rather, it uses the murder as the basis for character studies. All of the characters are well-drawn even the minor ones.

Lemon by Kwon Yeo-Son follows the aftermath of the 2002 murder of the beautiful Hae-on and the grief suffered by the people surrounding the murder. I had a hard time with this novel. I think it's because I expected more of a murder mystery. It's not really that. Mostly it follows the three narrators: Da-n (Hae-on's sister), Taerim (Hae-on's rival), and Sanghui (the sister of the boy accused of murdering Hae-on). The women don't particularly have distinct voices (but I suspect that may be due in part to the translation). The murderer is revealed about half-way through this short novella, but that person is never brought to justice. Moreover, the three narrators strike me as unreliable, so even though we know who killed Hae-on, there's little cause to believe any of these three women are actually telling the truth. Mostly, this book is an exploration of grief and not really a gripping thriller as the blurb may suggest. I thought this book was okay.

I listened the the audiobook and I suspect (reading other reviews) that experience is better than the actual book, because the three narrators: Greg Chun, Greta Jung, and Jaine Ye represent the three women in the story, so because they have different voices, it's easy to tell who's who despite the indistinct voice of the narrative. The narrators did a good job considering the limitations of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ALC.