If you are looking for a gentle book while the world outside is not — pick up The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang. This translated slim volume is about a market that can make your dreams come true. This is the sort of book that could easily be read in one sitting — although I did not — as it is a quick sort of read. Overall, I quite enjoyed my time with this book.

The Rainfall Market is about Serin, a schoolgirl who is living a tough life. Her father passed away when she was younger. Her sister has ran away. Serin lives in a very small apartment with her mother. She has no money. Serin is not the best at school. She is quite lonely. So, she reads about the rainfall market in the school library and learns you write a letter to this broken down house and if your story is accepted, you receive a ticket to the rainfall market. The ticket entitled the visitor to entrance to the market and the potential to buy what is called a dokkaebi orb which will make the vision she has of the future come true. So, Serin writes and against all odds she receives a golden ticket to Rainfall Market.

The Rainfall Market is run by a species called the dokkaebi. Each dokkaebi runs a business and has a sort of power trading something from humans to then transform to something cool — ie to fill a ball the humans have to think of their misfortunes and chant something and then the ball fills. So, while Serin is at the market, she has a cool cat guide named Issha who helps her navigate to find the exact orb she needs to change her life. She must make a choice before the end of the rainy season – one week – or she will never be able to leave the market.

I thought that You Yeong-Gwang’s debut was a sweet read. I liked meeting the different dokkaebi and learning about their job and the things they collect. Also, the twist was quite interesting too. And can we just talk about Issha the cat? I loved the dynamic between Issha and Serin. Serin broke my heart, because she’s had it so hard and things did seem a little hopeless for her life. I could understand why she wanted one of those orbs and a new life. And also why she felt like she had to get it perfectly right. This book was a lovely diversion – pick it up if you enjoy Studio Ghibli movies.

I was transported with Serin to a magical place where mischievous, supernatural creatures called Dokkaebi have the ability to show you different versions of your life. Before Serin began her adventure to choose a new life, she was gifted with Issha - a cat who served as her spirit guide and sometimes bodyguard. Their partnership eventually became a beautiful friendship. Serin’s journey also included encounters with various enchanted characters, each facing their own challenges. The author tells a compelling story, rooted in Korean folklore, that’s easy to get lost in. It’s imparted with a great sense of humor, thoughtful insight, and the perfect combination of mystery and adventure. Just like my favorite books - The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this book touches on hope, healing, kindness and self discovery. I loved it!

A South Korean girl named Serin reads a book about a magical place called The Rainfall Market, run by human-like people called the Dokkaebi. There, one can purchase a glass orb containing the life they wish for. Her favorite radio program has a segment called Stories from the Listeners, in which one listener’s letter about their personal hardships earns them a ticket to The Rainfall Market.

Serin writes the show a letter sharing that her father died when she was young, her sister ran away, she has no friends, and she can’t see any good prospects for her future. When her letter is chosen, she begins an unimaginable adventure to the Rainfall Market, where pursuing the dream life she wants may be more dangerous than she could’ve imagined, especially when someone there stops playing by the rules!

You Yeong-Gwang’s debut caught my eye because of its beautiful cover and because I’ve been craving something different than my typical thrillers and rom-coms lately. The magical realism, thought-provoking, feel-good storyline, light touch of fantasy, and a cast of fun characters were just what I needed. The cherry on top? A magical, size-changing spirit guide cat, Issha, behaves more like a puppy and completely steals my heart!

The writing is pretty simple, and some suggested it suited to a middle-grade audience. Whether that’s a translation issue or just how it’s written, I didn’t find it too young for an adult audience despite the MC being a teen or school-aged (I'm not sure of her exact age). It had shades of Willy Wonka and Meg Shaffer’s The Wishing Game with the winning ticket scenario and whimsical setting. It also had the philosophical bent of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library concerning the opportunity to “try on” different lives. Throw in a little magic and a thread of mystery, and it was a fun read.

The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang is a beautifully written and emotionally evocative novel that explores themes of love, loss, and the passage of time. Set against a unique backdrop, the story revolves around characters navigating life’s challenges and finding connections in unexpected places. Yeong-Gwang’s writing is poetic and introspective, drawing readers into a world that feels both intimate and universal. With its heartfelt narrative and rich character development, The Rainfall Market is a poignant and thought-provoking read that will resonate with fans of literary fiction.

Serin feels stuck. She lives in an apartment block that’s slated for destruction; her sister blew town without a backward glance; and she’s never better than okay at school, or friendship, or her hobbies. Out of desperation, she submits a letter of application to the Rainfall Market. The stories say that if your letter stands out, you’ll receive a ticket to the Rainfall Market. Once there, you can choose a new life—whatever you desire. Serin only half-believes in the Market, until she receives a golden ticket, ordering her to come to a certain address on the first day of the rainy season. She can stay in the market until the end of the rainy season, by which time she must have chosen her new life, contained within a magical Dokkaebi Orb.

But wait, there’s more! Serin is the one lucky duck from among the ticket-holders who has a special Golden Ticket (shades of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a very much darker piece of fiction), meaning that she can try out however many lives she wants before choosing the one she wants to keep. Yet as she moves through the Rainfall Market, peering into futures that could be hers, she always finds something lacking from them that she can’t live without. Worse, she begins to realize there’s something badly wrong in the market; and if she doesn’t figure out what it is, her life could be in danger.

You Yeong-Gwang’s The Rainfall Market (translated by Slin Jung) reminds me of a video game—one of the dreamy, indie ones from Annapurna that would win acclaim for its art design and people would admit on social media that it made them cry. It has a video game’s quest-like structure: Serin conceives of a life she’d like to live, asks her magical cat Issha to bring her to the relevant Dokkaebi Orb. Then she has to accomplish some small, weird task for the orb’s keeper before she’s allowed to look into the future it contains. If it were a game, you’d be solving small, whimsical puzzles in between cut scenes that are kind of a downer, taking breaks in between to pet the kitty.

(The kitty is very good. We love the kitty.)

You Yeong-Gwang is clearly having a ball with Serin’s mini-quests. At every stop, the resident dokkaebi identifies the human experience they seek and consume: One takes away serenity, another takes words from human hearts, and a third takes from humans desire to keep themselves clean. Some of these traits matter to Serin’s brief encounter with that dokkaebi. More often, they don’t. Coherent world-building isn’t really the point, because Serin is building agency, not expertise. The unpredictability of the tasks she’s given requires her to think on her feet, consider new ideas, and find greater trust in herself (and Issha) that she’ll be able to handle the next weird, unexpected thing that’s thrown at her.

While video games let the player bring their own tastes and experiences to the character we play as, a novel requires more investment in the protagonist. And this is where The Rainfall Market really lost me. As the only Golden Ticket holder, Serin doesn’t have any travel mates who could chat to her and help bring out aspects of her character through dialogue. (Her only companion is Issha, who is a very good kitty but who cannot talk.) As a window shopper for possible lives, she isn’t trying to form lasting connections with the denizens of the market, nor with the occupants of the lives she visits. By design, Serin is a bit of a blank, existing in the world of the Rainfall Market mainly to react to what’s happening around her.

As such, this book has the quality of parable. Don’t we all feel stuck, and isolated, and beaten down by our circumstances? Don’t we all wish for something different, even before we manage to articulate what that might be? The lesson Serin learns in the end isn’t quite that of It’s a Wonderful Life, although she does come to realize that the life she wants to leave behind was more valuable than she had initially supposed. I thought of it more like the lesson of “The Fisherman’s Wife,” a fairy tale that I love despite how much it comes off like “women, amirite?” Serin’s life is not necessarily the best of those she samples. But she does begin to see the burdens that other people’s lives—glamorous and desirable as they may seem from the outside—have placed upon them. We are all looking for an escape, but escape isn’t always quite the, well, Golden Ticket that it may seem.

The Rainfall Market rests comfortably in the genre of healing fiction, which has begun to reach English readers after many years of success in Korea and Japan. Serin’s journey is episodic and lightly fantastical, with a magical cat for company (don’t worry; the cat will be okay), and she’s able to win out in the end with the help of the friends she makes along the way. That she and her friends are thinly drawn is perhaps beside the point. Serin’s escape from her life feels as universally relatable as does her ultimate desire to slip back into it, albeit with a renewed belief in herself and a sense of hope for her future.

It’s an open question whether healing fiction would work better for me, a dog person who recently lost her dog, if the magical cats were magical dogs. As it is, I tend to finish these books feeling a little unsatisfied. Certainly that was true of The Rainfall Market. I expected it to be gentle and silly and life-affirming—and it’s all of those things. But it turns out that I want even my comfort reads to have a little sharpness to them, and The Rainfall Market keeps its claws resolutely sheathed. A fun, harmless debut for fans of The Midnight Library and The Cat Who Saved Books.

3.75 stars

The rainfall market is a sweet and very sad story right at the start.

This reminded me a little of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, when I read the synopsis. The premises are similar but beyond that they are actually very different. Rainfall market has a subplot and higher stakes than midnight library and I found the characters much more endearing.

The ending is the most satisfying and tied up end to a story that I have read in quite a while.

The cover art is also gorgeous.

Editor’s note: This review and roundup appears in several Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia newspapers and magazines, including at https://cullmantimes.com/2025/03/11/review-a-sip-of-spring-fiction-with-a-bit-of-history-for-flavor/

A sip of spring fiction, with a bit of history for flavor

By Tom Mayer

On the cusp of the 80th anniversary of the atrocities ending with World War II’s VJ Day, comes an important reminder in the form of cinematic storytelling from the pen of best-selling author Robert Dugoni, assisted by fellow academic researchers Chris Crabtree and Jeff Langholz.

Five hundred-page novels that contain more than a hundred pages of afterword and notes aren’t typical fare for the type of thrillers Dugoni writes; and if cinema is used as an adjective for such tomes it generally implies “best documentary” rather than “best picture.” But this fictionalized re-telling of the end of the war is anything but documental, especially with its final 150 pages moving full steam ahead, filled with submarines, warships and Clancyesque code breaking.

“Hold Strong” (Lake Union) tells the story of Sam Carlson and Sarah Haber, young sweethearts from Eagle Grove, Minnesota. It’s the end of the Great Depression and looking for a way out of his and his parents’ misfortunes — the family farm has been repossessed — Sam joins the war effort. Finding that the Army life suits him, he rises through the ranks. In 1942, he’s taken prisoner by the Japanese and survives the worst that that experience can offer, including the Bataan Death March in the Philippines and captivity in the hold of a Japanese “hell ship,” the Arisan Maru.

Through this, Sarah, and Sam’s family, receive no word about him, and the Army records him as missing in action. Though the couple made a promise to each other but never cemented an engagement before he left, Sarah especially is left in limbo, loving a man who she knows could be dead.

But Sarah’s strong, independent character is coupled with a brilliant mathematical mind, and she’s recruited out of college by the Navy to become a code breaker in the service of the WAVES — Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service — helping to turn the tide of the war, and possibly even unknowingly, Sam’s fate. The upshot is that no one, not even their families, can know what the women are doing, even to the point of telling others if asked that they are nothing more than secretaries in the service of Uncle Sam.

The story of Sam and Sarah is just that, a story, but Dugoni and company get it right, opening new and little-known chapters on the hells of that war — and the critical roles of female recruits — with startling and stark reality.

“Hold Strong” works well as a novel, and its secondary characters, such as Father Tom with his unflappable faith and Grace Moretti with her unbounded optimism, are extraordinarily well-developed. But this is one book bound for the big screen, and with its historic foundation underpinning a captivating wartime love story, one that is sure to become the sleeper read of the year.

Another novel of potential sleeper status comes to us as a dream in the charming coming-of-age “The Rainfall Market” (Ace). Written by a young South Korean novelist, You Yeong-Gwang (whose own dream as a young author is this story), and translated by Slin Jung, this magical novel tells the story of the impoverished teenager Serin and an abandoned house on the outskirts of Rainbow Town.

The legend says that if you send an essay explaining your misfortunes to that address, you could receive a ticket in return, and one that not only allows entrance to the Market beyond the house’s front door, but the offer to swap your life for another.

The odds are long but Serin sends off her letter and gets in return a ticket and an invitation to visit the Market for the duration of the rainy season — those who overstay the welcome are destined to never leave — with the total of its enchantments, including a magical cat companion named Issha.

Travels and travails follow Serin and Issha as they are plagued by Dokkaebi — goblin-like creatures taken from the pages of Korean folklore — who run the individual shops in the market, each offering a “happier story in our stock.”

With help from Issha and others that she befriends, Serin traverses the market’s allegorical landmines, comparing one life’s outcome with another until she comes to the end of her visit in this predictable but rewarding fairytale.

Other notable titles out this spring and worth the price of admission — no essay required — range from the fantastical to the feral with a number of big-hitting authors submitting some of their best work, including sequels:

“Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” (Berkley) by Grady Hendrix: 15-year-old Fern arrives alone and scared and pregnant at the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida — as are all the young woman and girls living at the home. Life is strictly regulated under the tyrannical control of the adults until Fern is gifted a book about witchcraft — and the power it contains to both create and destroy.

“The Ends of Things” (Blackstone) by Sandra Chwialkowska: A romantic lovers’ paradise is anything but idyllic for Laura Phillips and her boyfriend as shea becomes involved in the disappearance of the lone traveler befriended on the beach. An exotic getaway soon itself gets away from Laura as garnished cocktails and sumptuous suites turn into a murder investigation — and a fight for her innocence.

“Somewhere Toward Freedom” (Simon & Schuster) by Bennett Parten: Parten, a Georgia-native university professor with an expertise in the Civil War period, shines with storytelling as his reporting illuminates new, and unconventional, light on one of the most well-documented and well-known war episodes in our nation’s history — Sherman’s march to the sea. Subtitled “Sherman’s March and Story of America’s Largest Emancipation,” Parten re-tills well-trodden ground, telling the story of the thousands of enslaved people who followed Sherman and his army, turning a march of destruction into the launch of liberation in this meticulously researched book.

“Cupid on the Loose” (Blackstone) by John J. Jacobson: This timely novel that slipped into best-selling list early in February is nonetheless a timely tale for the ages, and especially for those who love a love story in the vein of Nicholas Sparks, and the romantic mayhem of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” — an author who incidentally plays a prominent role of his own in this fun read. Centered on a “kindred kind of romance” that needs a bit of tender to set it ablaze, enter a meddling grandmother whose intentions are as well-conceived as they are misguided.

“Destiny’s Way” (Berkley) by Jack Campbell: In this sequel to Campbell’s “In Our Stars,” the time traveling part-human, part-alien-DNA Selene Genji is thrust 30 years into the past, before the Universal Way destroyed the world, in an attempt to save Earth — excedpt those alive who want her dead after being declared a traitor by the Earth Guard. Assisted by at least one friend from the first part of the “Doomed Earth Duology,” Selene must find a way to save a prejudicial mankind that wants this independent and strong woman dead.

“The Secrets of Flowers” (Blackstone) by Sally Page: A story floating from the depths of the Titanic — and we never get tired of those — Page crafts a unique, heart-healing tale of Emma, who is bereft following her husband’s death. Told through the language of flowers, Emma discovers the lost story of a girl from the ship, one told in the arrangements of the flowers on board during the maiden, and final, voyage, that might just blossom into the healing of her own grief.

“The Memory Ward” (Blackstone) by Jon Bassoff: A seemingly Elysian small town is the scene of bizarre oddities, and postal worker Hank Davies isn’t the first to notice — he comes to realize he’s delivering mail filled with blank pages — but he’s the one whose willing to cry foul. A secreted story discovered beneath the walls of Hank’s bedroom touches off pages of alternate reality as Bassoff delivers a tale of trauma and altered identity, and one questioning the concept of humanity itself.

“American Fever” (Arcade) by Dur e Aziz Amna: This engaging and humorous novel centers on a Pakistani exchange student in rural Oregon who finds herself between worlds — and entrenched in the navigation of first love, racism, Islamophobia and homesickness. When she finds herself quarantined after a diagnosis of tuberculosis, her world shrinks further as themes of religion, family and national identity take on increasingly larger proportions.

“Protecting Jess” (Arcade Crimewise) by Karna Small Bodman: A White House economist and rising star, Jessica Tanner, has both brains and beauty. Sent to Brazil to speak at an international conference on behalf of her boss, a planned exotic dream assignment descends into a dangerous and foreboding nightmare.

“Don’t Tell Me How to Die” (Blackstone) by Marshall Karp: Marshall Karp, of NYPD Red series (aka, co-conspirator of James Patterson) fame, offers a taut, sharp and on-target psychological thriller in “Don’t Tell Me How To Die” (Blackstone). Told in parts, past and present, Karp crafts a evolving storyline centered on 43-year-old Maggie, a woman who is not only diagnosed with the same deadly disease that claimed her mother but vows to not recreate the adolescent hell she endured because of the passing. Seeing firsthand her dying mother’s warning that, once she died, women would flock to 17-year-old Maggie and her sister’s father “like stray cats to an overturned milk truck” and that it would be up to girls to protect him. Which they do, admirably — until one slips through their gatekeeping. … Determined that the same thing won’t happen to her own family, Maggie devises a plan to find a perfect match as wife and mother … before she dies. If this were all to the plot, the storyline would be worth an afternoon, but in succeeding parts of the novel, Karp continuously turns everything upside down, projecting surprise after surprise in a trope-laden, over-blown style that works perfectly for a main course instead of the appetizer it would have been coming from a lesser pen. Karp is a veteran in keeping the cinematic action going and the shocks coming — both of which are abundantly on display in his latest.

“Cold Iron Task” (Berkley) by James J. Butcher: In this Book 3 of 3 in Butcher’s “The Unorthodox Chronicles,” Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby — one of the most notable names in literary history — has solved at least one case, but he’s still a beginner in Boston’s Department of Unorthodox Affairs. As he joins an unlikely partner in the heist of of an otherworldly vault, Grimsby touches off past and closely guarded secrets, freeing demons and monsters, Usual and Unorthodox, that could be his demise in this series finisher.

“The Gate of the Feral Gods” (Ace Hardcovers) by Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl series): Welcome, Crawler, to the fifth floor of the dungeon in Book 4 of Dinniman’s quest series, and one filled with warrior gnomes, malfunctioning machines and a deadly, haunted crypt. On the eve of utter failure, Carl and his team find they must rely on the untrustworthy crawlers trapped in the bubble with them.

“The Summer Guests” (Thomas & Mercer) by Tess Gerritsen: In Book 2 of The Martini Club, retired covert agent Maggie Bird has “retired” to the seaside. In Purity, life is quiet, but it’s not without murder as a friendly neighbor of Maggies becomes embroiled in double homicide charges. It’s up to the Martini Club, a circle of ex-CIA friends book club, to find the truth behind the secrets that portend more murder on the horizon.

“Gothictown” (Kensington) by Emily Carpenter: What if you could purchase a Victorian home for $100 in a small Georgia town eager to spur its pandemic-riddled economy? So begins this story of Billie Hope’s dream of fleeing cramped and crimped New York City with her husband and daughter. Dreams, as they often do in the offerings from Carpenter — a Birmingham, Alabama, native now living in Georgia — descend from opportunities to devilish bargains, and “Gothictown” is part and parcel of the oeuvre. More than genteel charms lurks beneath the facade of Southern hospitality in this town. View a free 66-page teaser of the novel (“Gothictown: A Sneak Peek”) at online booksellers.

“Home Is Where the Bodies Are” (Blackstone) by Jeneva Rose: Questions and secrets arise when three estranged siblings begin to sort their mother’s estate — and discover a VHS recording of their blood-soaked father involved in a death of which none of them have any recollection. Revive the past or leave it buried with their mother? That becomes the question … with no easy, or safe, answers.

Reach Tom Mayer at tmayer@cullmantimes.com.

As a hater of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, I expected to not connect with this one. I can happily report that I truly loved this cozy magical realism novel! Where a magical abandoned house is the key to changing your life around. The house gives entrance to Rainfall Market, a market that allows you to change your life. This was refreshing yet heavy all at once.

Serin is a teenager whose life is plagued by misfortune. She reads about the Rainfall Market, where she can get a new life, so writes them a letter about her life. Serin jumps at the chance to choose a new life for herself, and is equally thrilled to find that her ticket, the sole golden ticket at the market, gives her the ability to collect as many futures as she wishes and take a peek at what her potential new life would look like. On the first day of the rainy season, she heads to the outskirts of Rainbow Town and finds an abandoned, rundown house. There she is granted admission by a strange creature, a Dokkaebi to begin her adventure and the chance to trade in her misfortune for a new life. With the help of a magical cat companion, Issha, Serin travels the market, meeting and helping the Rainfall Market’s Dokkaebi, spirits with special abilities, in exchange for the Dokkaebi orbs that hold endless possibilities for Serin’s future. All magic has a catch, and she only has to the end of the rainy season to pick her new future and leave the Rainfall Market with her chosen orb or vanish forever into the market.

I enjoyed this book with it's fantasy, interesting creatures, and adventure. Serin and Issha travel throughout the market and have lots of fun and action. Serin is a lovely character who is caring and loving, although extremely sad in her life. She and Serin are a great team and I enjoyed seeing the various activities they got involved in. Using her gold coins to feed Serin and buy her purchases, we see the various lives she could live if her wishes come true. The old adage of "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" definitely comes into play. It seems none of the lives she things she wants is perfect. When things in the Rainfall Market begin to change and have Serin in danger, she needs to decide what to do next. I enjoyed this coming of age fantasy and recommend it to those who enjoy this genre.

A charming tale of reflection about if the life we are living is the best for us or will the yearning to be an alternate you fulfill those aches.

The Rainfall Market is a whimsical fantasy novel that invites readers into a magical realm where desires for a better life can be fulfilled—at a cost. The story follows Serin, who receives a coveted golden ticket to the elusive Rainfall Market. There, she encounters a mystical cat companion, Issha, and explores various shops offering new lives encapsulated in Dokkaebi Orbs. Serin's journey is a quest for self-discovery, as she navigates the enchanting yet perilous market to find her ideal existence. This book is a light, enchanting read that explores themes of self-worth, contentment, and the complexities of choice, making it suitable for fans of cozy magical realism and allegorical storytelling.

This book was a really interesting read for me - the magical place of the Rainfall Market; a mysterious place run by Dokkaebi - is only one on the first day of the rainy season and it is the place where you can exchange your life for a new glass orb in order to get the life that you wish for.

It's very magical and whimsy with the way that is written and I found myself rather enjoying the lightheartedness and the magic. Issha, the magical spirit cat guide also completely charmed and stole my heart - was a creature! It was almost like a blend of Willy Wonka, the Wishing Game, and the Magic Library mixed together with some added whimsy.

Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing Group, Ace publishing, and Netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Overall, this was a cute story. I found the first 25% to be very unique and engaging, but after that, it really dragged a bit for me. The ending was a bit convoluted, maybe because of the ensemble cast or maybe due to translation. I think I anticipated a more whimsical version of The Midnight Library, but this one did not emotionally impact me like that one did.

Thank you so much to the publisher & Netgalley for an early copy of this ebook!

I think this is perfect for fans of The Midnight Library looking for a cozy fantasy rooted in Korean literature. For me however, I found myself at the halfway point wishing for something more as it felt like we were going in circles with this plot.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2UWB1r7/

This book is so sweet and soft and gentle and I think it could help a lot of people find happiness. I loved the whimsy and magic of the story but I just wish there was MORE whimsy and more magic. It was so lovely, like floating on a cloud.

This book was a bit boring for me. There was nothing *wrong* with it, but there also wasn't anything right with it. The premise sounded really promising, but the writing ended up being lackluster. It felt a bit juvenile, honestly. Now, did it make it easy to read? Yes. Did it also make it uninteresting? Also yes.

If you're looking for something digestible, this is it, but if you're looking for something meaty, seek elsewhere.

This was absolutely beautiful! I love all that there is to this magical Rainfall Market; especially seeing how each character has a unique job that depends on humans. A very creative and fun story to unfold.
In exchange for her misfortunes, Serin is able to swap for a better life. Issha, her magical cat companion shows Serin what her life could be like through magic orbs; but there's something that's following them...

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the arc!

This one was just ok for me. A sweet (YA?) story with a nice message, interesting characters and a semi-engaging plot … so, I’m going to blame my feelings of “meh” over this one on the fact that I’m not really a fantasy, magical realism kind of gal. I do enjoy a story like this now and then if all the ingredients fall into place and the story gives me the depth I need for a nice escape … but I just couldn’t really connect here. I do appreciate that it moves quickly and I never felt lost or bored. Overall it’s not a bad read and I’m sure many readers will probably enjoy this cozy fantasy.

2.5 stars. I enjoyed the concept of this story but the writing style was oversimplified in a way I was not expecting. It read like a middle grade story, so if it's intended to be for a middle grade audience it's fine, but I believe it's presented as a novel for adults. The story is told from the POV of a young girl, the stakes feel low, and any "danger" feels obvious in a childlike way.

Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions remain my own.

A South Korean girl named Serin reads a book about a magical place called The Rainfall Market run by human-like people called the Dokkaebi where one can purchase a glass orb containing the life they wish for. Her favorite radio program has a segment called Stories from the Listeners where one listener’s letter of their personal hardships earns them a ticket to The Rainfall Market.

Serin writes the show a letter sharing that her father died when she was young, her little sister ran away, she has no friends, and she can’t see any good prospects for her future. When her letter is chosen, she begins an unimaginable adventure to the Rainfall Market where pursuing the dream life she wants may be more dangerous than she could’ve imagined when someone there stops playing by the rules!

You Yeong-Gwang’s debut caught my eye frankly because of its beautiful cover and also because I’ve been craving something different than my typical thrillers and rom-coms lately. The magical realism, thought-provoking feel-good story line, light touch of fantasy and cast of fun characters was just what I needed. The cherry on top? A magical, size-changing spirit guide cat named Issha that behaves more like a puppy and completely stole my heart!

The writing is fairly simple and some have suggested it felt suited to a middle grade audience. Whether that’s a translation issue or just the way it’s written, I didn’t find it to be too young for an adult audience despite the MC being a teen or school-aged (I'm not sure of her exact age). It had shades of Willy Wonka and Meg Shaffer’s The Wishing Game with the winning ticket scenario and whimsical setting. It also had the philosophical bent of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library concerning the opportunity to “try on” different lives. Throw in a little magic and a thread of mystery, and it was a fun read.

Serin’s story of youthful self-discovery mixed with found family, adventure, mild peril and an adorable kitty companion made this a charming and sweet read, and the ending was so touching! Read the author’s note if you get a chance. His own experience is quite inspiring!