Like most of BTS fans, I came to know about this book in 2020 through the series “BTS : In the Soop”, Kim Namjoon (RM) and Min Yoongi ( Suga) two members of the band BTS were spotted reading this book in multiple episodes of the eight episode stay-cation series.

It sparked my interest in the book and I decided to get my hands on it.

The book falls in the genre Fiction and more specifically under the Young Adult/ Coming of Age categories it’s written by South Korean writer Sohn Won-Pyung and was originally published in 2017.

“Being ordinary is hardest thing to achieve — being ordinary is the trickiest part, Everyone thinks “ordinary” is easy and all but how many of them fit into the so-called smooth road the word implied”.

Quoted from Dr. Shim and Yunjae’s conversation in the book Almond

Outline :

The book “Almond” is about a boy Yunjae with alexithymia it’s a condition that effects amygdala the part of the brain that relates to expression of emotions. The book traces his life from a kindergartener to high schooler.

It is divided into 4 parts.

The first part introduces Yunjae, his condition, his childhood, his family which includes his mother and his grandmother, and his mother’s worries for him. Yunjae’s mother desperately wants her child to have an ordinary life, like an ordinary person. Yunjae’s life changes around his 18th Birthday, on Christmas Eve when he and his family get caught in gruesome act of violence that occurs when he is out for dinner with his mother and grandmother.

The second part of the story explores Yunjae’s paths crossing with Gon, Gon is an infamous troublemaker, who joins the same school as Yunjae. It explores their relationship with each other. It’s my favourite part of the book as both boys are fighting their own demons. One is unable to express emotions and is desperately looking for answers in his quest to understand emotions, and the other is putting on a facade to hide his fears and vulnerability.

The third part is about Yunjae’s encounter with a girl from his school’s track team, Dora. Yunjae finds himself experiencing strange symptoms that he cannot understand after his encounter with Dora.

The fourth part, Gon’s sudden disappearance causes a stir and Yunjae sets out to find him, because there are things he needs to tell Gon. In the process of searching for Gon, Yunjae ends up discovering something he never thought himself capable of.

My views about the book :

Overall the storyline is really fresh, and diffrent. Yunjae and Gon’s characters are flawed and despite the extremes of Yunjae’s alexithymia and Gon’s recalcitrant and unruly behaviour, there’s still scope for relatability because both boys constantly ask questions as they struggle to fit in, they’re not perfect and they don’t desire perfection, they desire normalcy. Both of them get ridiculed for being different.

They’re characters you love because of their flaws not despite them, because in their flaws there’s something very crude and real. They’re both written beautifully. Since the book is originally written in Korean and translated to English, the emotional essence of the original work is well preserved even in translated version

The book tugs at your heartstrings constantly and is a brilliant piece about emotional discovery.

You can definitely consider adding this to your reading list, if you’re looking to explore east asian authors or just read something different in the usual young adult genre.

© Samridhi Dutta

No part of this blog shall be republished without prior permission