Book Tour: Snowglobe by Soyoung Park

Snowglobe

by

Soyoung Park

Young Adult Sci-Fi/Dystopian

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publishing Date: February 27, 2024

Page count: 374 pages

SYNOPSIS:

In a world of constant winter, only the citizens of the climate-controlled city of Snowglobe can escape the bitter cold—but this perfect society is hiding dark and dangerous secrets within its frozen heart. A groundbreaking Korean novel translated into English for the first time!

“The Hunger Games meets Squid Game in Soyoung Park’s dystopian thriller Snowglobe” –Entertainment Weekly

Enclosed under a vast dome, Snowglobe is the last place on Earth that’s warm. Outside Snowglobe is a frozen wasteland, and every day, citizens face the icy world to get to their jobs at the power plant, where they produce the energy Snowglobe needs. Their only solace comes in the form of twenty-four-hour television programming streamed directly from the domed city.

The residents of Snowglobe have everything: fame, fortune, and above all, safety from the desolation outside their walls. In exchange, their lives are broadcast to the less fortunate outside, who watch eagerly, hoping for the chance to one day become actors themselves.

Chobahm lives for the time she spends watching the shows produced inside Snowglobe. Her favorite? Goh Around, starring Goh Haeri, Snowglobe’s biggest star—and, it turns out, the key to getting Chobahm her dream life.

Because Haeri is dead, and Chobahm has been chosen to take her place. Only, life inside Snowglobe is nothing like what you see on television. Reality is a lie, and truth seems to be forever out of reach.

Translated for the first time into English from the original Korean, Snowglobe is a groundbreaking exploration of personal identity, and the future of the world as we know it. It is the winner of the Changbi X Kakaopage Young Adult Novel Award.

Content Warning: torture, murder, forced work, socioeconomic inequality

CLICK TO PRE-ORDER OR PURCHASE!

| Amazon | Apple Books | Barnes & Noble |

| IndieBound | Indigo | Kobo |

REVIEW:

5 stars!

Mesmerizing!

Snowglobe is a young adult dystopian tale by author Korean author Soyoung Park, recently translated into English by Joungmin Lee Comfort. It is book one of a duology, so readers need to be prepared to hold on when all their questions are not answered in this volume. But, with its intriguing premise, engagingly relatable main characters, and nimble execution, Snowglobe is pure entertainment.

The main character is Jeon Chobahm, a sixteen-year-old twin living in the frigid “open” world with her mother, twin brother, Ongi, and grandmother, who is firmly within the grasp of dementia. Since graduating from school ten months earlier, she and Ongi have been working 10-hour days at the power plant with their mother.

Chobahm’s dream is to become a director of reality show-styled programming in the domed city of Snowglobe, where it is all created and filmed. She is conflicted when her idol, director Cha Seol, offers her the opportunity to “help” her on her most famous show, Goh Around, by secretly replacing the star, an amazing lookalike named Haeri. With this harsh background and difficult bleakness looming, Chobahm is amazingly hopeful for her future, and it was easy to understand her agreeing to Director Cha’s scheme. Her innocent beliefs are quickly challenged.

While Chobahm struggles with the ethics of the impersonation, the unsettling dynamics in the Goh family, and the actions and agenda of the intimidating and dangerous Cha Seol, she sinks into her role as Haeri more easily than I would have expected. Her long attention to the show prepares her well. But what happens off-camera is tense and stressful, and Chobahm has no one she can trust. As her masquerade continues, she uncovers startling revelations that the viewers at home are completely unaware of.

The setting of the domed city of Snowglobe is one of the things that drew me to this story, but with Chobahm’s hectic, supervised life, we only get a narrow glimpse of what it’s like. She’s in a very restricted niche, and her life stays pretty much in that lane except for a couple of wrong moves on her part. We have a much more robust vision of the open world than the physical nature of Snowglobe proper.

The story is well-told and nicely paced, with some eye-opening twists and turns to keep me glued to its pages. I read almost the entirety of the book in one reading session without even a thought for a break. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any information about the sequel.

I recommend SNOWGLOBE to readers of young adult fiction and dystopian stories.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Soyoung Park majored in communication and media at university. She is a winner of the Original Story Award and the Changbi X Kakaopage Young Adult Novel Award. She is the author of the Snowglobe duology.

February 26th
Boys’ Mom Reads! – Review
Books With Lemon – Top 5 Reasons to Read Snowglobe

February 27th
Forthenovellovers – Review
PopTheButterfly Reads – Review

February 28th
Confessions of a YA Reader – Promotional Post

February 29th
Books & Such – Review
Eye-Rolling Demigod’s Book Blog – Promotional Post

March 1st
Read and Reviewed – Review

March 2nd
Reading Stewardess – Review, Playlist
There are no bad books – Review

March 3rd
Stuck in Fiction – Promotional Post
Betwixt the Sheets – Top 5 Reasons to Read Snowglobe