Asian American Literature Fans

So, I after finished up June Hur’s The Silence of Bones (Feiwel & Friends, 2020), I immediately looked up whether or not it would have a follow-up and it indeed will! Hur’s Silence of Bones doesn’t strike me as a YA. Though our narrator is a teenager, much else about this gritty narrative, set in Choson era Korea is hardly the stuff I’ve seen in the genre. It’s just far darker, with a social realist texture that I typically find in adult-oriented work. I think it just got slotted into YA because of the protagonist’s age and maybe because the narrative has some definitive closure (even as there are other elements that are left a little bit open). In any case, let’s let the official site give us some crucial information:

“1800, Joseon (Korea). Homesick and orphaned sixteen-year-old Seol is living out the ancient curse: ‘May you live in interesting times. Indentured to the police bureau, she’s been tasked with assisting a well-respected young inspector with the investigation into the politically charged murder of a noblewoman. As they delve deeper into the dead woman's secrets, Seol forms an unlikely bond of friendship with the inspector. But her loyalty is tested when he becomes the prime suspect, and Seol may be the only one capable of discovering what truly happened on the night of the murder. But in a land where silence and obedience are valued above all else, curiosity can be deadly.”

This anemic description doesn’t do much to round out the character list or complicated historical contexts. Seol is in an interesting position during this historical period. She’s an assistant to a detective, but she’s also an indentured servant. She is tolerated because she is needed to query female witnesses in crimes but at the same time is disrespected because she is seen to be encroaching in a patriarchal occupation. When I was researching the Joseon/Choson period, I was astonished to find out about Korea’s caste-system and feudal society, which quickly disintegrated in the 20^th century due to colonialism, occupation, war, and modernization. She’s working for a bureau in which there are competing factions and rivals. Seol works most closely with a gruff and austere man, Inspector Han. They develop a tenuous alliance, which is tested over the course of the plot. Hur’s narrative has added complexity due to the fact that Seol has a checkered family background; she’s partly estranged from her family and seeking out her brother. The plot is kicked off early on in the novel when a noblewoman, Lady O, is found murdered with her nose sliced off. The body count slowly piles up, and so we have a case on our hands. Seol’s investigatory acumen proves to be fortuitous, yet also places her in danger, because she draws ever closer to the killer. In the middle of writing this review, I had a chance to listen to a podcast and discovered that Hur actually did write this novel for adults, which makes a lot of sense. Yay me! In any case, it took me a little bit of time to get into the style of Hur’s writing but once I did, I was completely hooked. It may be the first novel I’ve read by a Korean North American writer that’s delved so deeply in this historical period. The tendency has been to write from the 20^th or 21^st century context, so this narrative and its unique historical contexts was truly refreshing to read. A highly recommended YA debut. The follow-up, tentatively titled The Forest of Stolen Girls, is set to be published in 2021.

Buy the Book Here:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250229557