Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi (ARC Review)

Title: Yolk
Author: Mary H.K. Choi
Type: Fiction
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Date published: March 2, 2021

A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Jayne Baek is barely getting by. She shuffles through fashion school, saddled with a deadbeat boyfriend, clout-chasing friends, and a wretched eating disorder that she’s not fully ready to confront. But that’s New York City, right? At least she isn’t in Texas anymore, and is finally living in a city that feels right for her.

On the other hand, her sister June is dazzlingly rich with a high-flying finance job and a massive apartment. Unlike Jayne, June has never struggled a day in her life. Until she’s diagnosed with uterine cancer.

Suddenly, these estranged sisters who have nothing in common are living together. Because sisterly obligations are kind of important when one of you is dying.

⤖ My Review ⬻

First and foremost, I would like to share that I am an older sister who is very protective of her younger sister, so I already knew that Yolk would hit me in the feels just from that alone. I’ve also read Mary H.K. Choi’s debut Emergency Contact (it’s one of my favourite YA contemporaries!) as well as Permanent Record when it came out in 2019, so I knew that her writing–I knew that it would make me emotional all on its own (even without the added subject of sisterhood).

There was no way that I was going to pass up on reading Yolk though, and I’m so glad that I pushed myself to read the book and feel the feels because it’s one of my favourite reads so far this year!

I love how raw the writing in Yolk was. The characters and situations were also either relatable or still very believable! I felt so many things! Yolk really made me face the protective feelings I have for my sister and the things that I feel toward her and our relationship as sisters. So many anxieties…

Some of you may also know that, in most books, I need a romance plot in a book to keep me interested in reading. Well, I will say that I didn’t need a romance plot to keep me going in Yolk, which should say a lot especially because of the heavy and emotional subject matter.

Have I mentioned how relatable the story between the two sisters was? Not in the way that my sister got sick or anything like that, but my sister and I are both immigrants and the children of immigrants, which made our experiences in schools, and life in general, different from that of our peers and friends. There are certain things that only my sister would understand about me, and Choi captured this undefinable thing between sisters so perfectly… I could go on and on, but I don’t want to delve into spoiler territory.

I am happy to say that another of Mary H.K. Choi’s books has made it into my top favourite books of all time, and I cannot wait to see what she will write next!

⤖ About the Author ⬻

Mary H.K. Choi is a Korean-American author, editor, television and print journalist. She is the author of young adult novel Emergency Contact (2018). She is the culture correspondent on Vice News Tonight on HBO and was previously a columnist at Wired and Allure magazines as well as a freelance writer. She attended a large public high school in a suburb of San Antonio, then college at the University of Texas at Austin, where she majored in Textile and Apparel.