Arc Review: Seoulmates by Susan Lee

Her ex-boyfriend wants her back. Her former best friend is in town. When did Hannah’s life become a K-drama?

Hannah Cho had the next year all planned out—the perfect summer with her boyfriend, Nate, and then a fun senior year with their friends.

But then Nate does what everyone else in Hannah’s life seems to do—he leaves her, claiming they have nothing in common. He and all her friends are newly obsessed with K-pop and K-dramas, and Hannah is not. After years of trying to embrace the American part and shunning the Korean side of her Korean American identity to fit in, Hannah finds that’s exactly what now has her on the outs.

But someone who does know K-dramas—so well that he’s actually starring in one—is Jacob Kim, Hannah’s former best friend, whom she hasn’t seen in years. He’s desperate for a break from the fame, so a family trip back to San Diego might be just what he needs…that is, if he and Hannah can figure out what went wrong when they last parted and navigate the new feelings developing between them.

• Title: Seoulmates
• Author: Susan Lee
• Publisher: Inyard Press
• Publication Date: September 20th, 2022
• Genre: Contemporary, Romance 
• Source: Publisher sent ARC in exchange for an honest review
• Targeted Age Range: YA
• Content Warnings: vomit (chapter 1), mentions of underage drinking (chapter 1), internalized racism, mentioned death of a family member (stomach cancer), minor injury (ankle sprain), mentions of childhood illness, discussions of weight (chapter 4), racism, mentions of a medical clinical trial (chapter 6, chapter 13), mentions of past bullying, parental abandonment, sexual content (chapter 18)
• Rating: ★★★

A huge thank you to Goodreads and Inkyard Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

I love a good childhood friends to lovers story, so obviously I had to check out Susan Lee’s debut novel Seoulmates. This was definitely a fun summer read — I loved reading about all the places Hannah and Jacob went to in San Diego to check off places on Jacob’s summer bucket list. Speaking of Jacob’s summer bucket list, I loved that one of the things on the list was finding the best California burrito — I volunteer as tribute to assist in that task. I also really enjoyed the dual POVs; it provided a good narrative balance and I liked reading from both Hannah and Jacob’s perspectives.

There was some really great character growth from both Hannah and Jacob throughout the book. I’ll be honest, I did not like Hannah at all  at first— I found her very superficial, self-centered, and stuck up. As the story goes on and you get to learn more about her, and you really see that underneath the facade, she’s a young girl who is hurt and scared. I think many of us have had moments where we’ve lashed out or acted in a way that is not at all reflective of us out of fear of letting ourselves be vulnerable, so I could sympathize with that. I was really happy to see the progression of her character as the book went on, and I think that she ended up in a really good place.

On the other hand we have Jacob, who I really liked right from the get-go. It was clear to see that he is a very family oriented kid, and everything that he did was for the benefit of his family. Jacob is the person who puts everyone’s needs before his own, even when it results in him being miserable. As the story went on, I was so proud of how he learned to speak up for himself and express his needs instead of letting others steamroll over him.

I liked the childhood friends to enemies to lovers plot line quite a bit. I definitely liked Hannah and Jacob as a couple and was waiting for them to get together, but I wasn’t super invested in the relationship. However, I loved their friendship and I personally think that having a solid friendship is the best way to have a successful romantic relationship, so I appreciated that. I was worried that the whole reason for them losing touch was going to be something really insignificant, but as it was slowly revealed it made sense. It really was a misunderstanding, bad timing and circumstances outside of their control which made me really feel for the two of them. 

I can’t lie, before I read Seoulmates I thought that it was going to just be a cute childhood friends to lovers romance with a focus on K-pop and K-dramas. While those things are absolutely there, Seoulmates had a lot more serious subject matter than I thought that it would, and I definitely think that it added to my enjoyment of the book because it brought a lot of depth. 

While it was incredibly difficult to read about Hannah’s internalized racism and how she had shunned a huge part of her Korean culture, I think that Susan Lee did a really good job of describing the struggles that Asian Americans have always faced, and have especially faced in the last few years. As I am not Korean, I cannot speak on the specific representation and as to if there are harmful stereotypes or not, but I do think that a lot of what Hannah struggles with can be relatable for many Asian Americans.

“I didn’t even know he was into Asian girls.” I stop and directly stare at her. She shakes her head. I mean, like real Asian girls. You’re American Asian, ya know?’ 

‘Uh, thanks, Shelly. But, I’m Korean… Korean American. I mean I guess there’s a difference between someone who’s, I don’t know, directly from Korea or something. but..’ 

‘Yeah, that’s what I mean’”

For so many years Asian culture, especially in America, has been seen as “other” or “odd” and “weird”, then suddenly, in 2012, Korean culture especially started to gain popularity through K-pop and it became the “in” thing to fully immerse oneself into Korean culture. It’s so hard growing up and having your culture — and therefore you — be seen as something “different” and “strange”. It makes you want to dismiss those aspects of yourself because you just want to fit in, and that’s exactly what Hannah did. As sad as that makes me for her, I truthfully can’t blame her! She gets told, to her face, that she isn’t a “real Asian girl” because she’s Korean American, that is unfortunately, a reality for so many Asian Americans, myself included. I can’t lie that there were times when I got a little frustrated with her and how quickly and completely she dismissed her culture, I fully understand why she made those choices. I really appreciated that Lee didn’t shy away from showing these struggles and realities that Asian Americans face on a daily basis. 

Additionally, I enjoyed that Lee went into the negative effects of fame and how so many celebrities — especially teen celebrities — have no agency in what happens in their lives. Jacob’s team was incredibly controlling and he really couldn’t do anything without getting their approval, which absolutely had an effect on his mental health. It’s so easy to look at celebrities and think that they have it all and that their lives are incredibly easy. While, yes, they have far more opportunities and advantages that non-celebrities do, it’s important to remember that just because they’re famous does not mean that they have full control over their lives and I think it’s important to continue discussing that — especially when it comes to teenage celebrities and people of color.

There were a lot of things in Seoulmates that I really liked, but some stuff fell a little flat for me. There were times where I thought that the writing was a bit awkward or stilted. Sometimes I had to go back and reread some sections because I had thought I missed something, so at times the flow was a bit off. I also felt that chapter 18 specifically was definitely out of place with the tone of the rest of the book — I think had the characters been older it would’ve been less jarring, but with them being 17-18 it was a little too explicit.

Overall there were parts of Seoulmates that I really liked, and some parts that just did not work for me, but I think that, for the most part, it was a solid debut and I will be checking out whatever Susan Lee writes next!

*This post will be updated with links to OwnVoice reviews as I find them

Links for Seoulmates: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound