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A review by booksbythewindow
I'm Waiting for You: And Other Stories by Kim Bo-young
For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2022/03/02/im-waiting-for-you/
Summary: I’m Waiting For You is a short story collection consisting of two pairs of short stories set in two worlds. The eponymous story begins the collection, following an unnamed narrator writing letters to his fiancée as he is travelling through time and space to meet her on earth on their wedding day. The final story in the collection, ‘On My Way To You’, serves as a companion piece to ‘I’m Waiting For You’, showing the letters from the fiancée as she makes her own complicated journey to earth. In the middle of this pair of stories lie two stories set in a world made up of immortal beings who are able to split themselves and enter the human world for short periods of time.
Overall Thoughts: I had a feeling that I would enjoy I’m Waiting For You, but I didn’t expect the impact that the title story and its companion piece would have on me. ‘I’m Waiting For You’ and ‘On My Way To You’ have definitely become two of my favourite science fiction works that I have read; the plight of this engaged couple, trying so hard to make their way to each other so that they can spend the rest of their life together, but finding themselves thwarted at every turn, was full of tension and emotion that had me completely absorbed. The use of letters as a narrative device places the reader firmly in the head of the narrators in both stories, allowing us to see not only their personality but their doubts and motivation to persevere. The middle two stories, following Naban as he looks to save himself from corruption, were interesting and raised lots of questions about human life and purpose but were not as engaging to me as the narrative of the couple in the first and last stories.
Summary: I’m Waiting For You is a short story collection consisting of two pairs of short stories set in two worlds. The eponymous story begins the collection, following an unnamed narrator writing letters to his fiancée as he is travelling through time and space to meet her on earth on their wedding day. The final story in the collection, ‘On My Way To You’, serves as a companion piece to ‘I’m Waiting For You’, showing the letters from the fiancée as she makes her own complicated journey to earth. In the middle of this pair of stories lie two stories set in a world made up of immortal beings who are able to split themselves and enter the human world for short periods of time.
Overall Thoughts: I had a feeling that I would enjoy I’m Waiting For You, but I didn’t expect the impact that the title story and its companion piece would have on me. ‘I’m Waiting For You’ and ‘On My Way To You’ have definitely become two of my favourite science fiction works that I have read; the plight of this engaged couple, trying so hard to make their way to each other so that they can spend the rest of their life together, but finding themselves thwarted at every turn, was full of tension and emotion that had me completely absorbed. The use of letters as a narrative device places the reader firmly in the head of the narrators in both stories, allowing us to see not only their personality but their doubts and motivation to persevere. The middle two stories, following Naban as he looks to save himself from corruption, were interesting and raised lots of questions about human life and purpose but were not as engaging to me as the narrative of the couple in the first and last stories.