Made in Korea by Sarah Suk
Genre: Real Life
Reviewed by Julia W., 12th Grade
Rating: 8/10
Now, Valerie is a senior and she is determined to save enough money to take her grandmother on a trip to Paris. She figures that as long as she plays her cards right, she should be able to gather enough money by the time summer rolls around. That is, until Wes Jung moves to town.
Wes is determined to go to college and major in music. However, his parents are strongly against it; if he wants to pursue his desired path, he needs to get the money to do so on his own. When he finds out that student-run businesses are a big deal at Crescent Brook, he decides to start his own. Wes’ mom is in charge of merchandise for a popular band and gets lots of samples and freebies. Wes starts selling these items and immediately gains some success.
Valerie is alarmed because she knows high school students only have so much money. She is concerned that if Wes gets popular, her business will suffer. Valerie and Wes are both determined to have higher sales than the other and stoop to the lowest of lows to gain advantages. The showdown of best student business quickly gets underway and the stakes are high.
One thing I really liked about Made In Korea was how there weren’t a lot of characters. Sometimes I feel like the number of characters can make or break a book. In this case, I was super pleased because it felt like I got to know the details of each character, which was really nice. I also like how there were a lot of ups and downs throughout the novel, I thought it was very representative of how real life would be.
Furthermore, while the usual concepts of romance, family life, and friendship are dealt with, I feel like the way that the author arranged everything made the book very original and not repetitive of what I usually read. For example, the way the author alternated between Wes and Valerie’s point of views gave a lot of insight into each character.
One down side, though, is that at some points in the novel there wasn’t anything going on. There were times when there wasn’t a conflict currently playing out and I often found myself wondering when something would happen. I don’t like to be bored when I read (no one does) so I wish that perhaps the author had cut out the parts that weren’t needed. I feel like that would help keep readers engaged.
Despite its flaws, Made In Korea was a great read and I recommend it to anyone who has interest in what going into adulthood looks like.
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