Almond: A Novel

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This reminded me of an episode of Hello Counselor when a daughter mentioned that she barely speaks to her father, as her father’s way of speaking felt like he was shouting or cussing at her. The father said he calls his daughter a “brat”, which the daughter did not appreciate. Amygdala" is one of my favourite words. I love how it looks and love how it sounds. For the longest time, when I saw it in books, I pronounced it "Am-ig-DAL-YUH. That doesn't sound very nice and I didn't like the word. But when I heard the proper way, "Uh-MIG-da-lah".... it just set off oodles and scads of feel good hormones

Almond by Sohn Won-pyung: Summary and reviews - BookBrowse

I mentioned earlier that Yunjae’s mother writes notes on how Yunjae should respond to someone’s actions. His mother teaches him how to react, claiming that it was out of love. However, he wonders if her actions are what love was: “But to me, it seemed more like we were doing this out of her own desperation not to have a child that was different.”Anyway, this sounds cliche but you'll eventually meet the people who you're meant to meet, no matter what happens. Time will tell if your relationship with him is meant to be.” I really enjoyed this one and it definitely made me think a lot about people and their emotions. Yunjae was an interesting MC and I really liked how he tried to understand the people around him. The way certain scenes and characters were described was very intriguing and to see everything through Yunjae’s eyes gave this a unique perspective.

Almond: A Novel - Won-pyung Sohn - Google Books Almond: A Novel - Won-pyung Sohn - Google Books

Yunjae lives with his grandmother and mother in a small apartment, at the front of which is his mother’s secondhand bookstore. Both of his caregivers dedicate their energy to creating a space that encourages and reminds Yunjae how to react in everyday situations. His mother prints out each hanja for happiness, sadness, anger, love, joy, and desire, on letter-sized paper, one big character per sheet, which his grandmother then traces. They place them all over the house for Yunjae to learn from and remember. After some instances at school begin to signal to his peers that Yunjae is not normal, his mother coaches him about various scenarios and the appropriate ways to respond: “ Thanks to Mom’s persistent efforts and my mandatory daily training, I slowly learned to get along at school without too much trouble. By the time I was in fourth grade, I had managed to blend in, making Mom’s dream come true.” Quite Disney, and in some kind of way relaying for me that these things can go away as long as someone just tries enough. There are a hundred answers to one question in this world. So it's hard for me to give you a correct answer" Llevo un tiempo debatiéndome entre las 4 y las 5 estrellas, así que lo dejaré [en mi cabeza, porque goodreads...] en 4'5. Me ha encantado casi absolutamente todo. El estilo narrativo es simple y directo, como Yunjae. Y pese a ser un personaje con el que, en un principio, no podría empatizar nunca por mi personalidad, me he sentido muy cerca de él en cada una de las palabras. Vas de la mano con el protagonista mientras te guía por su pequeña (y dura, vista desde fuera) vida, pero no es excesivamente dramático. No busca eso para nada, sino que busca la simpleza de alguien con alexitima, de alguien que es incapaz sentir. Y ha sido precioso.It must be difficult to write a character without feelings, and the author didn't always succeed. Yunjae does feel things all along, otherwise some of his observations would have been different. This could have been really good but it just didn't make much sense. The characters were not believable. For instance, the adults around him open up and tell him every little thing, as though he's their therapist. Another thing that didn't make sense is that his mother asked a friend to take care of Yunjae in the event she is ever unable to, but never told him anything about Yunjae's condition. Ooooo-kaaaaaaay. She wouldn't have, like, I don't know, said 'Hey, before you agree, I need to tell you that this kid has special needs that you'll need to know about and understand'? This quote was extracted from the Author’s Note. She clarified that she would not classify whether Almond was a happy or tragic story, as no one would truly know. Will Yunjae be able to fully feel all emotions in the future? Will he be able to find love? Will he and Gon be friends for a long time? Will Yunjae and his mother be okay?

Almond by Sohn Won-Pyung | Goodreads

I loved this book. It’s totally “my type”. It was perfect. Such a thought provoking beautiful story that made me feel so much. I’d probably be reading it again soon. Also, I couldn’t tell exactly why, but I teared up a little in the end. ALMOND is such a stark and powerful book, written in spare prose and with surprising depth of emotion. I loved the neurodivergent hero and his quest to just try to live his life, despite his disability. I liked the subtleties of his development, and how the people around him helped him relate to himself and those around him in various ways (whether deliberately or inadvertently). I still feel like this could (and should) be read and enjoyed by a young adult audience, but again, it does have some dark content, like the aforementioned crime scene, and a scene involving graphic animal cruelty (a butterfly) that was quite hard to read and made me pretty sad. Su abuela se encargará de que su "pequeño monstruito" pase desapercibido junto con la ayuda de la madre. Aunque un trágico suceso expondrá a "Yunjae" al mundo, donde se las tendrá que ver con "Goni", un abusón de colegio que cambiará su vida para siempre.So you must not have been scared when Gon hit you. But you do know that doesn’t mean you were brave, right? I’m already very curious about this book and I’ll actually buddy read it with my dear BookTube friend Katja! Nos parece ver a "Yunjae" indefenso en esta vida al igual que vimos a "Charlie" en "Flores para Algernon". Esa sinceridad e inocencia parece no permitirle encajar en este mundo. También está narrado en primera persona, con lo que "Won-pyung shon" (escritora) consigue hacernos sentir en un grado más íntimo a "Yunjae". I really loved the bluntness between Gon and Yunjae! They took each other the way they were and they didn’t try to pretend to be someone else when they were in each other’s company. I think this might have actually been the main reason their friendship could bloom and evolve because the way they met definitely wasn’t the best start. (And that’s an understatement right there.) I’m not going to spoil anything here though. ;-) Despite being unable to feel emotions the same way other people do Yunjae was quite a wise person sometimes and could look through people’s disguises with surprising ease. I suppose you could also say that because of his disability to feel emotions he was probably more perceptive than others? Lastly, and I know it sounds like an excuse, but neither you nor I nor anyone can ever really know whether a story is happy or tragic.” And then the book starts after this strong sentence that ends the prologue.