I think it’s safe to say that I’m tired of reading books from the so-called “healing fiction” genre, as they’re called in South Korea. This is absolutely not me dismissing the genre altogether as bad; in fact, I do think there’s value in a genre that brings so much solace to a society dealing with as much pressure and stress as South Korea. Marigold Mind Laundry doesn’t particularly stand out in any way, other than that it’s charming to think of a magical laundromat for characters to visit and wash away particular stains covering their hearts. Like many other novels in the healing fiction genre, I thought the premise and setting were interesting, but I got tired of the same messages being hit over my head repeatedly. I think what really annoyed me about this particular novel, though, was how excessively preachy it got that it read as a (not-so-)cutesy self-help book. Unfortunately, Marigold Mind Laundry also has the same issues as other healing fiction novels, which is having an overcoming grief narrative (and I’m not big on overcoming stories) and relatively flat characters.

With that said, I can see why a reader would find value in a book like Marigold Mind Laundry and others like it. There’s a time and place for cozy and heartwarming novels, especially ones that are deliberately meant to comfort the reader. I think for me, though, I find that I struggle with these novels because they frequently lack substance, whether it be in the plot, the characters, the setting, etc. This is all to say that this novel will work for some, but others might be on a similar boat as me and find the reading journey to be a bit of an annoying slog.