I was so obsessed with Sublimation I started recommending it before even finishing. You know when you read a concept which is just so great you can’t get it out of your head? That’s me and Sublimation. Keep reading this book review of Sublimation for my full thoughts.
Summary
The border cuts you in two.
When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home.
Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at ten years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance called her home for the funeral.
She doesn’t know that Soyoung plans to steal her body and her life.
How far would you go to live the choice you didn’t make?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I became obsessed with the concept of Sublimation almost immediately. I love the idea of instance-ing and merging, of these life choices which split us apart. As someone who’s lived a few of these, it’s this human instinct to be obsessed with the road less traveled. The choices that haunt us of what if. And Kim takes this concept and runs with it, integrating it into our pasts, our cultures, and our lives. Sublimation is transfixing. I loved the way it becomes experimental, fixating, and mysterious all at once. Every time I was getting comfortable, Kim throws another wrench in the plot and I loved it.
Don’t even get me started on the amazing narration from Major Curda & Michelle H. Lee and the audio production. There are amazing effects and the blend is great. I loved the way we get to know Rose and Soyoung, all these characters, who navigate grief, ambition, and love all differently. All these decisions which impact us, change us without us realizing, and make a mark. Sublimation is about the idea of choice. What it means to make a conscious choice. And I feel like I need to re-read it all over again.
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Find Sublimation on Goodreads, Storygraph, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.