What a delightful, wry, and delicate read Apartment Women is! Gu Byeong-mo spun a masterful tale about the life of one small precarious community. The story is set in a poorly planned and designed government-sponsored project. It is meant to make people’s lives better (in theory), but as it often happens, the execution did not fit the idea, As such, something that is supposed to improve the quality of life of the residents becomes a backdrop to the farce that is apartment living.
While following the lives of the families throughout the book, I couldn’t help but get drawn right into the heart of their lives and feelings, At some point in the book I am Yojin, I am Danhui, I am Gyowon, I am Hyonae. I want to be a perfect mother who feeds her kids organic foods and buys them sustainably produced toys, I want to be warm and welcoming and polite, I want to be a team player and a good cook, and I want to be left alone and not be drawn into the forced sense of community, I want to be a part of something bigger, but not at the expense of my own identity. I weep at the universal truth of the hardships of motherhood, a womanhood, and a neighborhood. This unique little story will stick with me for a while.

The concept of this book drew me in. Being given a place to live in exchange of the promise of having children is a wild idea!
Unfortunately in execution, I found it to be awfully boring.

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing | Hanover Square Press and NetGalley for the chance to read this work in exchange for my honest opinion.

I love this author, but this subject matter didn’t quite grab me, and there were a lot of names to keep up with right from the start.

Admittedly only read about 65% of the book. It is difficult to follow partially because of the characters' names are so different, one can hardly determine who is who, male vs female. The book drones on with these characters just discussing rules of the community and who is doing what and following the apartment rules. I could not find fully developed story plotted out to follow. Not exactly the book as described when requesting to read it. I was provided an advanced reader copy and was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions expressed are my own. Thanks to the author,publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read the book. Sorry it just did not meet my expectations.

I want to thank Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Hanover Square Press for the opportunity to read this advanced copy of Gu Byeong-mo's novel Apartment Women.

I felt the author did a fairly good job of introducing the concept and identifying the characters. However, their focusing more on Yojin as the story went on, kind of left the rest of the characters flat for me. While I felt that I got a taste of the other characters personalities, I don't feel I really got to know them. I also feel that as so much of the story was told solely from Yojin's viewpoint, that the author didn't allow us to fully hear the other characters feelings on what was occurring .I really liked the premise of the story.

The idea of bringing total strangers together to live in a communal setting is definitely a recipe that can take the characters in many different directions. It was interesting that in a situation that should have lent itself to providing the women with someone to lean on, it almost did the complete opposite.

Though Apartment Women will not be one of my favorite reads, I did find it interesting.

First off - thank you Net Galley for the arc! I am a huge fan of Korean fiction and was incredibly excited to get this one early

Overall, this is a great little book. It’s not as dystopian as marketed, but provides some really unique insights into motherhood, capitalism, and community

thank you netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to this arc.

the reason for the low rating is due to how this book was formatted and possibly translated.

i dnf’d at 25%, it was a struggle to come to the decision because i enjoyed the story but the lay out and translation made it hard to enjoy.

there’s 4 different women’s povs set inside this book, yet there is no indication when the povs switch. the paragraphs are just smushed together and i had to sit there and decipher who’s pov i was reading.

it’s a shame because other wise from the constant over thinking to figure out what the hell was going on, the story has a great premise. the publisher needs to either get this book reformatted or find a different translator because the book itself just felt so dry and drab.

The idea of the storyline was good but reader definitely needed more to work with, it felt very quick and none of the characters stood out to me. It was just like this happened then poof they moved out and that was that.

I quite enjoy Asian literature, and don’t too often take issue with translations; however, either Gu Byeong-mo’s Apartment Women is suffering from a translation disconnect or this book is lacking in some necessary style. The premise sounds pretty incredible, if I am being honest - several families move into an apartment complex in the middle of nowhere as part of a government experiment on communal living. This is my cup of tea because I love social studies. However, this book is written (or translated) so incoherently, that I had difficulty following much of it. The storyline is not clear, neither are the families and members within them delineated. I found myself confused throughout much of this book, not quite understanding where it was going or what I was supposed to get out of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with a free version of the ebook.

This book was super interesting -- it is about a cluster of 4 Korean Immigrant families and their adventure as they grow their families in a constrictive communal living area. It felt slow at times and unorganized as there were no chapter headings. Overall I would recommend it as it delves into each family and how they cope with their living situation and there are insights I benefitted from that I was not aware of before!

First, thank you NetGalley.com and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this digital Advanced Readers Copy of ‘Apartment Women’ by Gu Byeong-Mo.

Second, I loved the idea of this novel. A suggestion I’d like to suggest is chapter headings or obvious separation of the character POV changes. The POV changes happen so frequently that it often took me out of the story because I had to go back and figure out who’s perspective we were in. The lack of chapter headings made it hard for me to find a good ending point for reading breaks, as well as a lack of information digestion. I almost wish it was split by character names or that each chapter was a different perspective.
I understand the idea was probably to make it flow like activities and people in an apartment complex move, but it made it hard to follow. I also understand that this is an uncorrected proof that I am reading ~

Third, a lot of the points the author made about the dual or single income houses, as well as being a woman in the work force resonated very well with me, and I wish there was more elaboration on those ideas. I think that might be possible with obvious POV switches / chapters. I look forward to reading the published version. Thank you again to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing.

This has a little bit for everyone.. weaponized incompetence, gaslighting, boundary pushing, feelings of inadequacy.
My second book by Gu Byeong-Mo, I liked it!!

I just reviewed Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-mo. #ApartmentWomen #NetGalley

I really enjoyed this one. I started it after reading several rather unsatisfying arcs, so the writing quality immediately hooked me- yay, a well-edited, well written story! I agree with another reviewer that the names may be one of the elements that throws off some readers, not because they are so similar, but because for me 'ear' it was hard to recognize men's names as opposed to female names to know which character I was reading about. I'm not sure how one fixes that, really. Hopefully most readers who like world literature will get past this challenge. This was a really good book and I could easily see it on a longlist or two in the next book award season. Some of the characters were cringe-awful, reminding me so much of people in my own life just like them. I could easily relate to this novel, and will definitely be recommending it to my friends.

Thought I would resonate with this book more than I did. The premise, on paper, seems like it would be right up my alley. But in truth: nothing really happens.

That may not be particularly true for the entire book. People move in. People move out... So it goes.

I wished there had been some big revelation about women's work: their unseen emotional & physical labor, child rearing, the responsibility in this program to have more children, the weight of parenthood (in any other aspect than financial, which, unfortunately, was not explored at all). Sure, we saw a variety of viewpoints: a stay at home dad, a social media addict, the discomfort of a married man toeing uncomfortable, deep-rooted & misogynistic lines with a married woman... but again... Nothing really happened. I didn't see a ton of growth. There were no repercussions for the adults' actions. In all I was left unsatisfied.

This book left a lot to be desired. The pacing was slow. The conflicts between characters seemed superficial at best. There could have been so much more done to speak to the individual struggles, where it was kept at a surface level. If that was an intentional choice, I can appreciate the commitment, but would not find myself wanting to read this again in the future.

This was a slice-of-life that just happened to be focused around this particular program & apartment building. Some individual lines & sentences cut deeply- particularly from Yojin's perspective, but a few hard-hitting sentences do not a literary masterpiece make.

In an experimental apartment complex outside of Seoul, several families with young children try to coexist. The purpose of the experiment is to encourage couples to have more children, but the story certainly doesn't make that seem easy or even desirable. Between challenging marital relationships, financial worries, expectations around parenthood, and more, the various characters struggle to navigate life in this community. Despite the cultural differences, I could relate to the societal pressures around motherhood. I enjoyed gaining a better understanding of it through a Korean lens. However, the story itself wasn't paced in a way that made me want to keep going and by the end, I felt a little tired of it.

When I read the description of Apartment Women I was immediately drawn in. This book follows the lives of 4 families living within this communal housing, with the promise that they will have 3 children over the next 10 years.

One thing I enjoyed about this book was the general tension that grew between the families as they work together more often and try to raise their families in this close living environment. With so many different personalities, it was interesting to see how they mesh together. I will say overall this was a slower read, but it was intriguing and kept me interested the entire time.

It could be the way it was translated, or the way it was formatted but the entire book was one long chapter. There were no chapter breaks and it would jump back and forth between which family you were following without warning. I wish that this book was split into chapters, so it was clear when we were going to follow a new family while reading.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book!

Apartment Women is a wonderful read about the lives of 4 couples and their children, primarily from the perspective of the women. Loved the simple storytelling style that conveyed a multitude of layered emotions and social nuances.

As newly introduced neighbours, with their own personal issues, the range of thoughts and emotions that the characters navigate through in their daily interactions felt very real.

An excellent read.

At a couple of places, the flow of the story felt like it jumped a few scenes, but that may be attributed to the text being translated. Nothing that takes away from the story by much.

4.5/5

Enjoyed this ARC thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing!

Not my cup of tea. The entire book was one big chapter and everything was jumbled together. I didn’t get a feel for any of the characters and I had a hard time following who was married to whom. The ending felt incomplete, almost like the author got tired of writing.

I was thoroughly captivated by the struggles faced by the four families in their communal living arrangements. While the concept of having a larger support system for childcare and involvement in daily tasks may be romanticized, it raises important considerations. Namely, the potential invasion of privacy and the expectation for equal contribution from all members, regardless of parental status. Additionally, this dynamic challenges and disrupts entrenched sexist norms within society. The thought-provoking nature of these inquiries had me completely engrossed in the work.

I tried. I failed. DNF.

It may be the translation. It may be me. But, lord, this was slow and I just couldn't.

I give up.