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.

First of all, this will be a lot easier for readers unfamiliar with Korean names when they have a hard copy and can flip back to the beginning to keep track of who is who.
I greatly enjoyed reading this. Even without the interesting premise of the government being involved and requiring three children, I felt this was ever so realistic having lived in an 8 unit apartment way outside of Tokyo where similar relations between occupants occurred. The author got the dynamics down really well as did the translator. I will be curious to see how English speaking readers relate to the book and if these very human relationships transcend culture. I'm betting they will, but having a knowledge of Asian culture is certainly a plus for readers trying to go deeper into some of the issues.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It is a memorable read!

Apartment Women is a Korean novel about a government incentive for families to move to a remote area and live in an apartment building for very cheap rent. The catch? The families must commit to have three children in the next 10 years, as this is an initiative to grow the population. This project is centered on communal living, which is emphasized by a big, nailed down picnic table in the shared courtyard (and clearly not the best use of this space for a building meant to be filled with children!).

As you might imagine, the mix of personalities poses a problem when trying to live communally in the middle of nowhere. I also didn't understand why the building wasn't full right away of families (there are four families living there during this time) when the application process was so competitive. These four families each have very different circumstances, jobs, backgrounds, interests.

What I loved most about this book was being able to relate so well to some of the women despite our cultural differences. Motherhood is hard wherever you live, and not every woman loves being a mother. I especially connected with the graphic designer mother who was shunned by the others for not being as into the communal lifestyle and was clearly struggling, and instead of helping her, the self proclaimed leader judged her.

I don't want to give too much away, but I thought the ending was perfect.

While this was a slower read than I typically enjoy, it is short so you can get through it quickly. I liked it and appreciated it.

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my review.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-mo is a contemporary examination of motherhood in the modern era, the imbalances of parenthood between fathers and mothers, and the idealization of communal living. Yojin moves with her husband and daughter into a pilot housing program by the Korean government for communal living. The other three couples are also parents who agreed to have three children to help combat the decreasing population in exchange for living in the countryside but close to Seoul.

The novel is split between four POVs, but we mostly see Yojin and Hyonae’s stories. Yojin works for her cousin in a pharmacy and is the main breadwinner in her family while Hyonae is a freelance picture book illustrator who is struggling to balance her work with raising a daughter. Yojin’s husband is a stay-at-home dad who makes mistakes and Yojin questions the subtle sexism in some of his choices.

What was really fascinating to me was how these four families are struggling to survive the communal living. We very often romanticize the idea of having multiple people to help take care of children and being involved, but what if everyone is in your business and thinks they have a right to that information? If everyone has kids, doesn’t that mean everyone needs to chip in? And how much does this actually disrupt the sexist norms that already exist in society? There’s a lot of great questions the work is asking and I was glued to the page the entire time.

I would recommend this to readers looking for books on modern motherhood, fans of contemporary fiction focusing on women, and readers looking for a critique on the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so early to read a book that it didn’t even have a cover yet. But there is a first time for everything, and Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-mo will be our December 2 2024.
Yojin, her husband and daughter have been approved to move into a new government housing project. In an attempt to help Korea’s falling birth rate the government is testing our family complex’s. Offering discounted rent on the agreement the families that move in will have three children. It sounds like a great proposition for a family already struggling to make ends meet. But living in close quarters, in a more remote area, and cultural pressures to conform and co-operate might be a little harder to handle then any of the residents bargained for.
I think I definitely misunderstood the premise of this book for a second. I thought it was going to fall more into the thriller category. However it’s not that in the least. It is a portrait of families, motherhood, and community and putting all of those to the test in a small environment. I like Youjin, she is trying her best to give her child a wonderful life even pushing beyond her comfort zone to do so. I like getting to see the other tenets perspectives and how they all perceive each other.
Thank you to @hanoversquarepress and @netgalley for letting me read this one early in exchange for a review.
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When the Korean government decided to get involved in building its population, the plan included an offer of housing that is cheap, outside a city, and with the stipulation that the couples who move into the community must eventually have at least 3 children. This is part of the driving force that makes Apartment Women a fascinating peek inside the desperate measures to keep the world moving as modern countries are aging rapidly.

Apartment Women describes, in a sense, a forced community. The couples have rules on caring for kids and building out a structure of work to maintain the community. Needless to say, even though the families have to move in because they all want the space and the cheaper living, they are in various places in their lives where living in a community and having to commune is not easy. Some husbands stay home, some wives are working too much and frustrated, and most are not equipped to deal with each other.

The book delves into everyone’s lives, and we get to see all the cracks and fissures of normal people and even how their children cope. I like the plain style of writing. It is an easy read and gives you a sense of what it is like to live in modern Korea for average people.

I really enjoyed Apartment Women. The story switches between the perspectives of the women living in a government housing scheme in South Korea, where couples need to apply to live with a focus on having children and living as a community.

The author did a great job of showing how our expectations for things don’t always reflect reality or how our lives pan out. I also thought that the nuance of our own internal voice was shown very accurately. I especially liked reading how the perspectives of different characters concerning the same situations contrasted with each other. It really helped to show how our experiences are shaped by our expectations and past experiences.

I had a fairly difficult time getting through this. This writing drones on and on and on and it really did not capture my attention. This was not my jam but it may be interesting for others.

gorgeous book with a gorgeous premise by an excellent author. will post this review closer to the review date as this book will be punlished in A YEAR?? oml