Y/N by Esther Yi

Sometimes I read a book, and I think, “Really?”  This is one of those books.  This is not the worst book I’ve ever read, but it’s way down there.  I don’t even know how to classify this book, because it’s so nonsensical.  Borderline fantasy, maybe.  The unnamed first-person narrator is a twenty-something woman living in Berlin. She becomes obsessed with Moon (“mooning” over him), a member of a Korean boy band called the pack of boys.  She writes a fictional story about him, using the placeholder Y/N, so that the reader can insert “Your Name” for the person in a relationship with Moon. When Moon decides to step back from the band in real life, the narrator travels to Seoul on a quest to find him.  She eventually tracks him to a convalescent home called the Sanctuary where she sees a boy who looks like Moon.  Here’s her thought process, from page 154:

“In fact, his resemblance possibly proved he wasn’t Moon.  Similarity precluded equivalence:  If the boy were Moon, I’d never say he looked like Moon, just like I’d never say that I looked like myself.”

This odd deductive logic is my favorite passage in the book, but it’s a good example of how weird the whole thing is.  On the plus side, the cover art is stunning, but you know what they say:  You can’t judge a book by . . . .