One of the most therapeutic and affirming books I've ever read in my life. The characters felt real, raw and authentic and gave everything that happened even greater weight and impact. A truly magical book.

Full of nice sentiments, cast of characters, and denouement, 'Marigold Mind Laundry' lives up to being a 'healing novel' as it's been called among its South Korean readership and shares a literary spirit akin to 'The Midnight Library'. Elements of a novel are there, but this book is more about what the author wants readers to feel about themselves than what characters are doing. Perhaps it comes with the territory of being translated literature, but this book put what the author wants the reader to feel all too plainly. The plot is so weak and the language more 'telling' than 'showing,' I struggled to stay engaged because everything I was meant to glean had been given to me in the first 5 chapters.. While the pieces and the intent of creating a fun story with lovely sentiments was there, final execution fell very short.

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

Marigold Mind Laundry by Jungeun Yun is a third person multi-POV South Korean cozy contemporary fantasy. Jieun was born centuries ago with mysterious powers to two loving parents. Unable to control her powers, she accidentally causes her parents to vanish and vows to live as many lifetimes as it takes for her to find her family again. In the present day, Jieun is living yet another cycle and creates the Marigold Mind Laundry to use her powers to help others.

The overarching theme of Jieun’s story and the stories of the people she helps is family. Jieun’s first two customers, Jaeha and Yeonhee keep coming back to the laundry to spend time with her and create a found family of the three of them, the older woman who runs the snack shop next door, and Hae-in, a photographer friend of Jaeha and Yeonhee. Despite Jieun not really doing much to encourage Jaeha or Yeonhee’s behavior, they refuse to leave her on her own, slowly helping her achieve what she has been missing for so long.

In Jaeha’s story, the pain of his mother needing to leave him during the day so she can work was the thing he wanted the laundry to remove, effectively also wiping away his love of movies and desire to be a filmmaker. Eunbyuk, a young influencer, is slowly killing herself as she tries to keep up with her family's demands of her as she is essentially their sole source of reliable income. Yeonhee misses a former relationship, someone who was a potential future life partner. The way relationships impact us and our decisions, our desires, how deeply a wound hurts, is on display in each story as is recognition that sometimes people can try their very best and still fail the people they love.

The idea of being able to choose which wound to remove from your life and wash it away is quite intriguing. There is an obvious butterfly effect, such as Eunbyul choosing to give up fame and no longer knowing how to be an influencer, that shows the impact of core wounds and how they define our tastes and interests and which goals we are going to pursue. Eunbyul, in particular, hit quite hard and I found her to be quite empathetic as she made a bad business decision because of pressure from her parents and siblings and that essentially almost ruined her life.

Content warning for mentions of attempted suicide and child abandonment

I would recommend this to fans of Korean contemporary cozy fantasies, readers of contemporaries with lighter speculative elements, and those looking for a more episodic fantasy