*we carry the sea in our hands* by janie kim is a beautifully crafted collection that explores themes of identity, memory, and belonging. kim's poems weave together personal and cultural histories, particularly reflecting on the korean-american experience. her language is rich and evocative, using nature and the sea as metaphors for emotional depth and the fluidity of both personal and collective histories. the collection delves into the quiet struggles of displacement, loss, and connection, offering a tender, meditative look at love and roots. it's a striking and reflective work that lingers long after the final page. overall, a great read for anyone looking to dive deep into literary fiction.

Really interesting book overall with biology mixed in with a mystery of finding ones birth parents. I think some parts were a bit disjointed and after the big tragedy, the MC seems disconnected. Maybe that more realistic?

This is a beautifully written poetic story about a scientist who was adopted twice although I loved the story about her work in researching the sea slugs and the science elements in the book I didn’t love the main character I felt she was very draining and instead of looking to a better life looked at the downfalls thank you for this early arc copy

We Carry the Sea in Our Handsis a beautifully written story about feeling lost and finding ourselves. Abby is a post-doc working at a lab researching the origin of sea slugs. She was born in Korea and adopted in the US, but her parents' marriage fell apart when she was young, and she was adopted by her best friends' parents. Abby begins investigating the origin of her own life, with very little information to go on other than that she was a "drop-box baby" in Korea. Overall, the tone is sad and a little meandering, but the content is so fascinating. Abby sees things in a scientific way, so it made the metaphors so unique. I listened to the audiobook, which is perfectly narrated by Michelle H. Lee. She has such a wonderful tone and calming delivery, which seemed the right choice given the book's narrator.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for providing this ebook/audiobook. All thoughts are my own.

We Carry The Sea In Our Hands was beautifully written with lovely, poetic prose. Of that I am certain. But I’m not sure what this story wants to be. It deals with abuse, adoption, grief, complex science, discovery, sci-if adjacent mutations, locating birth parents, death, and a whole lot of sea slugs. At times I was overwhelmed by the complex biological explanations and other times, I was able to follow along. Kim bounced between over-explanation and simplification. Similarly the story bounced back and forth between scientific explanation and personal narrative / poetry almost and it was a little like reading whiplash. I found most of the characters two dimensional and struggled to find the meat of this. Ironically, I didn’t hate it. I’m unsure how to feel about it honestly.

But it is certainly unlike anything I’ve read before.
3 stars

ARC review. Thank you NetGalley for letting me read more books!

As other synopses and reviews have said, this one is poetically written. I think it is spot-on for a small target audience, and will be quite satisfying for youngish readers who tend toward academia and science. There’s a similarity to the Pulitzer Winner, The Overstory, in the biological component. I also see comparisons with some of T.C. Boyle’s works, although his read with a broader purpose.

This was an unexpected delight of a debut featuring a Korean born 'drop-box baby' who gets adopted by a Korean American immigrant couple and grows up to be a sea slug scientist. Obsessed with tracking down her birth parents and concerned for her journalist friend who gets caught up in an undercover smuggling scheme, this story was singularly moving and told in such poetic prose. Great on audio too with a GORGEOUS cover! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review. Janie Kim is definitely a writer to watch!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Alcove Press and Dreamscape Media for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of the debut novel by Janie Kim, wonderfully narrated by Michelle H. Lee. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!

Abby was a "drop-box baby," a Korean orphan whose mother left her as an infant. Her experience in the American foster care system was traumatic, and she sought refuge with her best friend, Iseul and her family, who welcomed her as another daughter. Abby and Iseul remain fast friends into adulthood. Abby is working at a university studying the origins of life in sea slugs. This work leads her to wonder about her birth family. But when a tragedy occurs, Abby is devastated and unsure how to go on.

This was an ambitious book, with lots of both true and speculative science, but it all works beautifully. The writing is wonderful and feels lyrical and magical. I loved the family Abby found in Iseul's home, and the characters in this book are where it truly shines as such themes of family, trauma, grief, and the importance of communication are explored. Fabulous debut!

There are many things I really liked about this book: the Asian representation, first and foremost, and the wonderfully described relationship between Abby and her adoptive family (Iseul in particular). And at first, I also enjoyed the fact that the FMC is a scientist, and the parallels she draws between the science and her quest of finding her birth parents. But the scientific side of things was too prominent for me. I simply didn’t understand Abby’s work; my knowledge of this kind of science is zero, and I felt that things weren’t explained well enough for me to get into it, so I couldn’t connect to it at all & therefore, it turned out to be not such an enjoyable read as I thought it would be. And that’s a shame, because I liked the premise and the writing style. And I’ll be curious to see what the author writes next.

4.5⭐️
In between sadness, I can see what is luminous.

Brain tingle warning: this book is full of science!! It’s also full of heart and tragedy and triumph.

Our MC Abby and her trials, and learnings take us on a journey piecing together the origins of love and life.

I really enjoyed this book. The half a star I didn’t give it was a fault of my own for letting myself feel alittle overwhelmed with the science throughout - it is very much well explained and well used.

Every character in this book is rich and diverse and felt just right as a part of Abby’s world. The writing is well done so that you can both fully understand the despondent state of the MC and also very much be in her world for the story - no looking in and watching on, I was there with her.

Also, the cover looks so beautiful I’m tempted to run out and buy it when it comes available next Tuesday 7/9/24.

Thanks to Net Galley and Alcove Press for the advanced readers copy for review.

"I have two lab notebooks. The regular one is for observing life as a biological phenomenon. The second one is for observing life as a personal experiment. This is the second one."


This was a beautiful but sad book about the meaning of family and sense of self. Abby, a former "drop box baby" was abandoned at birth but she's now seeking answers about her past. There's a lot of loss and grief in this book, but it's woven into a complex story about adoption, abandonment, and guilt. I loved the ocean themes and the speculative fiction elements to the story. I didn't realize this book was a debut when I was reading it and honestly I would never have realized if I hadn't seen it written somewhere - this absolutely doesn't read like a debut. Highly recommend this one if you like stories about characters finding out who they are and speculative fiction novels. This was wonderful to read on audio, the narrator did a great job infusing the emotion into their words.

4.5 stars, rounded up for GR

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Rating: 5/5 stars

"I have two lab notebooks. The regular one is for observing life as a biological phenomenon. The second one is for observing life as a personal experiment. This is the second one."

A marine-biologist researching the origins of life at the ocean floor inadvertently discovers the origins of her own life along the way in this wonderfully crafted debut.

The Story:
Our story opens with Abby, a former Korean “drop-box-baby”, who’s now works as a microbiologist researching the origins of life through her studies of endosymbionts (bacteria living inside the cells of) in sea-slugs. An unexpected discovery at the lab leads her to the start of another origin-story entirely; her own… When she accidentally discovers an anomaly inside one of her own cells, one that might be passed on genetically and could help her retrace her maternal line, she embarks on a scientific quest for her own roots. When tragedy strikes her adoptive family, Abby journey of discovery turns to a complicated one of grief, trauma, belonging and the home we carry within us…

What I loved:
As someone with a soft spot for family-sagas, especially when they deal with trauma and grief, ánd ocean-based motifs ánd speculative/sci-fi with biology elements, you can see how this books premise was catnip to me. I’m so excited to say that that premise held up, and Janie Kim manages to execute it to near perfection.
Don’t let the mention of “speculative science/sci-fi” deter you if that’s a genre you aren’t comfortable with. The speculative elements are more of a side-note in an otherwise grounded literary story. They’re also very well rooted in true science (not a surprise as the author has a PhD in the subject), so they never feel outlandish. In fact, to me, it balanced the elements perfectly: they’re there as wonderfully consistent motifs for readers (like myself!) who love them, but can also be almost ignored by people who’re just here for the family-story.
Speaking of which: the character tale at the heart is where this novel clearly shines. It interweaves a wide range of complex themes like family, adoption, grief and guilt over a family-members death, memory and inheritance, into a tight and intimate story. The prose is stunning and lyrical, and due to fantastic editing, not a single word feels “too much”. Everything about this book feels deliberate and balanced: from its quotable lines, to the emotional punches that hit home without ever becoming melodramatic. The magnitude of the story the author manages to tell in only just over 300 pages would be impressive for anyone, but considering this is a debut… My mind is blown!

Overall: Janie Kim is an author to watch out for in the future, but only after you go ahead and savour this debut-gem. With stunning prose and a beautiful story, she managed to strike an emotional chord with me that will linger for quite some time.

Many thanks to Alcove Press and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a long time to get into the rhythm of this book. It is beautifully written, and very poetic at times. For some reason that made the story feel a lot slower for me than I think it should’ve been. Perhaps I don’t fall comfortably into the intended audience for the book, but I must say that it doesn’t change the fact that it is beautifully written.
The story deals with family and belonging really intricately. I felt like the scientific elements of the story were parallel to some of the biological interest in “Where the Crawdads Sing,” and if I had an interest in that sphere I may have enjoyed some elements of this book much more. I am certain that readers who enjoyed “Crawdads” will enjoy this.
I am also really pleased I kept reading. There is something so fulfilling about reading stories where the protagonist is a BIPOC individual. I think the way that the character faces some of those deeply existential questions of self and how they move in the world becomes so much more important when held up against cultural expectations of the characters and stories that have traditionally been in the spotlight.
Overall this was a lovely story and very well written. The pacing could’ve been a little faster for my liking, but that didn’t tarnish the overall experience too much.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

With poetic prose and originality, We Carry the Sea in Our Hands by Janie Kim is one woman’s origin story with a scientific backdrop that challenges scientific theory and beyond.

Told from a scientist’s perspective, Abby takes you on a journey of her origin story from her beginnings as a drop box baby adopted by her initial adoptive parents and their tumultuous relationship to her second adoption by her closest friends parents. It is through this second adoption and navigating her PhD research that Abby decides to find her biological mother but in ways that she least expected – her own scientific research of sea salt slugs. Using the scientific method, an inquisitive mind, and scientific data Abby finds not only her biological mother but a deeper and more in depth understanding of her Korean heritage. Through her quest to find her birth mother, she receives clarity like clear water: Hye-rin.

As a scientist myself, I truly enjoyed reading this novel written from a scientific lens. Using alliteration, poetry, and double entrendre Kim not only educates the reader on molecular and evolutionary biology, but she also skillfully immersed me in Abby’s origin of life story using science. This is not an easy feat; many biological concepts are difficult to understand but Kim masterfully interweaves these concepts in simple terms that keeps the reader engaged and involved in the story. Using raw emotion and empathy, Kim humanizes scientific thought, theory and perspectives to keep the reader grounded in the idea that there is a life attached to this scientific world. Although not all the science and techniques have been discovered (yet!), I would consider this a true work of science fiction (pun intended!).

I was delighted to see Kim take on the darker side of being a female scientist in multiple characters. From Abby’s treatment by her boss and other scientists to Petra’s forced requirement to not be culturally who she is – a creole woman of color. With a feministic tone, Kim openly discusses the constant degradation of women in science; the accusations they are less knowledgeable and need to be told what to do or have their work stolen and credit given to men. These themes I have seen firsthand in the scientific field and am glad Kim brought them to light with grace and empathy.

A FULL review is available on my website - Hues of Literature

A young biologist who was adopted twice as a child, searches for her birth mother while researching sea slugs. This novel is an interesting mix of family drama and tragedy and science.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This book was incredible! Our main characters journey to find her biological parents was almost poetic. The story flowed well and kept me engaged throughout. A wonderful read!

Some of the images and ideas from this book will stay with me for a long time. It was a fascinating and beautiful take on the young-adoptee-searching-for-the-truth-about-her-past trope.

What kept it from being a 5-star read for me was that it took me a while to be fully drawn in to the story. I'm very glad I kept reading, because from about 1/3 of the way through to the end, it was exquisite. I will definitely be watching for Janie Kim's next book!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read the digital ARC in advance of publication.

I finished this book longer than I expected or should. First, I had another urgent thing to do so I set it aside for a while, and second, despite how page-turning it is, I didn't want it to end soon. It honestly surprises me to see myself in a situation where I could go on, but I don't want to, because then I don't know where and when I could read such beautiful, fluid, strong-yet-gentle strings of sentences again.

Abby's journey of acceptance goes a long way, from a little corner in her lab to a little island in South Korea. Every plot point takes turn naturally. The voice, I think, is this book's strongest suit. Not only feels intimate, experiencing Abby's struggle in Abby's own words and point of view gives a sense of rhythm in each phase of her life. The musical quality of the prose that's composed consistently page by page is what makes it easy to follow from one scene to another, alongside relatable theme and fleshed-out characters. The ending, however, could pass as 'K-Drama smooth' (I'm thinking "Lovely Runner" in terms of vibe since I just finished watching it recently), but some readers do love a neat and satisfying ending, albeit a little bit too-easy.

There are lots of science stuff here (biology, and quite specific) that will be overwhelming if you're not familiar with it especially in the beginning. Take your time to digest it all because it's going to be tied with the whole story. I don't have pure science background but I majored in science education, and for me the explanation is easy to understand.

To close this, I want to quote prettier and longer sentence, but this one somehow clicked instantly:

"This is because delusion is soluble in reality.
Like how arsenic is soluble in water, I think."

"Iseul is going back to the sea."

Janie Kim crafted something really beautiful – a complicated yet hopeful story about family ties (those known and unknown), loss, science and sea slugs. Abby starts her career with bacteria, unconciously hoping this study will lead her to her biological parents. She does not expect, however, what kind of ground-breaking discovery she will make – and what will it cost her. Because science does not like to be mingled with emotions, yet those seem to never truly leave Abby.

I have this problem with family sagas and minisagas that I love the beginning, but grow rather numb with time. This is not the case. Janie Kim surprised me; when I thought I knew the direction, she spinned the bingo known as plot and dealt the new cards. Abby's story is comforting in its heartbreaking ways, interestingly developed and steeped in real emotions. Although it took me some time to get through, and the pacing is rather slow, I do not regret any page. It was a beautiful story, and I am sure it will stay with me for some time.

Beautiful, poetic, heartbreaking. I am still not emotionally recovered from this novel and I am at a loss of words to describe how well-written this story is. I love how science was interwoven throughout and how the emotions ebbed and flowed throughout to make the connection between the reader and characters. I would strongly suggest this as a book club read and will be purchasing a physical copy for myself.