Yolk by Mary H. K. Choi

Review by Dorothy Requina

May 6, 2021

4 stars! Spoiler free review!

This is a story of two sisters that aren’t close in the slightest, but when one of them is diagnosed with cancer, they have to come together to make it through this hard time in their life.

THOUGHTS:

This book is so raw and honest.

I read this book months ago as I'm writing this review and I still think about it to this day. Mary H. K. Choi does not pull punches.

She delves into the racism that Asians face in America. She touches on not only the unrealistic beauty standards that society sets for women, but also that women pose on themselves. She shows the ugly and dangerous side of mental health and eating disorders. She even has the struggles of navigating the medical system within the plot. She did an amazing job of writing a realistic relationship between two sisters. As a sister myself, I felt like I could really connect with both characters. I felt like I saw myself in both characters.

A small gripe I might have is when it came to the romance. I actually didn't really these parts of the plot. I didn't feel like it added anything to it, and though the relationship in the second half I was fine with because it didn't detract from the story, the relationship, in the beginning, was honestly really gross and put a bad taste in my mouth. However, that may have been the author's intention?

overall:

Overall I would say that this book is definitely worth read! It's very different than the average happy-ending-contemporary-romance as it explores family much more, both sibling and parental relationships while hitting on hard topics like cancer, eating disorders, racism, and mental illness.