I had such a visceral reaction while reading Your Neighbour’s Table. The story focuses of a communal living group, and the different families that live in this community. We get a POV from each ‘family’ so to speak and experience a slice of their life, their thoughts, feeling and response to this communal living situation.

There was so much that I thought was so realistically written, that I could not help but empathise with the characters and topics that I think were brilliantly showcased:

Some of the moments that stood out to me, were where the fathers response when asked by the mother if he understood what it meant to watch the kids was “if you don’t write down instructions… how would I know what to do?”, and it just goes to show how widely it’s understood that men weaponise their incompetence. Similarly, the six-year old daughter being expected by the father to help out and look after younger kids and in his opinion the mother being upset over this was an over reaction.  

It was so easy to become invested in the characters and want them to overcome the issues they were struggling with but it was also so easy to dislike some of the characters. Overall, it was a quick read, that I think if you like slice of life, social commentary and realistic characters, you’ll like this.

Thank you to Headline, NetGalley and Gu Byeong-Mo for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.