What do you think?
Rate this book
The Stone Home
A hauntingly poetic family drama and coming-of-age story that reveals a dark corner of South Korean history through the eyes of a small community living in a reformatory center—a stunning work of great emotional power from the critically acclaimed author of If You Leave Me.
In 2011, Eunju Oh opens her door to greet a stranger: a young Korean American woman holding a familiar-looking knife—a knife Eunju hasn’t seen in more than thirty years, and that connects her to a place she’d desperately hoped to leave behind forever.
In South Korea in the 1980s, young Eunju and her mother are homeless on the street. After being captured by the police, they’re sent to live within the walls of a state-sanctioned reformatory center that claims to rehabilitate the nation’s citizens but hides a darker, more violent reality. While Eunju and her mother form a tight-knit community with the other women in the kitchen, two teenage brothers, Sangchul and Youngchul, are compelled to labor in the workshops and make increasingly desperate decisions—and all are forced down a path of survival, the repercussions of which will echo for decades to come.
Inspired by real events, told through alternating timelines and two intimate perspectives, The Stone Home is a deeply affecting story of a mother and daughter’s love and a pair of brothers whose bond is put to an unfathomably difficult test. Capturing a shameful period of history with breathtaking restraint and tenderness, Crystal Hana Kim weaves a lyrical exploration of the legacy of violence and the complicated psychology of power, while showcasing the extraordinary acts of devotion and friendship that can arise in the darkness.
In 2011, Eunju Oh opens her door to greet a stranger: a young Korean American woman holding a familiar-looking knife—a knife Eunju hasn’t seen in more than thirty years, and that connects her to a place she’d desperately hoped to leave behind forever.
In South Korea in the 1980s, young Eunju and her mother are homeless on the street. After being captured by the police, they’re sent to live within the walls of a state-sanctioned reformatory center that claims to rehabilitate the nation’s citizens but hides a darker, more violent reality. While Eunju and her mother form a tight-knit community with the other women in the kitchen, two teenage brothers, Sangchul and Youngchul, are compelled to labor in the workshops and make increasingly desperate decisions—and all are forced down a path of survival, the repercussions of which will echo for decades to come.
Inspired by real events, told through alternating timelines and two intimate perspectives, The Stone Home is a deeply affecting story of a mother and daughter’s love and a pair of brothers whose bond is put to an unfathomably difficult test. Capturing a shameful period of history with breathtaking restraint and tenderness, Crystal Hana Kim weaves a lyrical exploration of the legacy of violence and the complicated psychology of power, while showcasing the extraordinary acts of devotion and friendship that can arise in the darkness.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published April 2, 2024
143 people are currently reading
15567 people want to read
About the author
Crystal Hana Kim
3 books422 followersCrystal Hana Kim is the author of If You Leave Me, which was named a best book of 2018 by over a dozen publications. Kim is the recipient of the 2022 National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award and is a 2017 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize winner. Currently, she is the Visiting Assistant Professor at Queens College and a contributing editor at Apogee Journal. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family. Her second novel, The Stone Home, is forthcoming April 2024.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 167 reviews
April 8, 2024
4.25⭐️
“I am on a peninsula, or to be more precise, the southern half of a peninsula broken in two. But in my mind, I am the land itself. I watch the waves, and when the tides come near, I will them to retreat, retract into their uncontained bodies.”
Daegu, South Korea, 2011: Forty-six-year-old Eunju is visited by Narae, a Korean American woman in her thirties, who has come to return an item of hers that was in the possession of her recently deceased father Sangchul. Narae also expresses her desire to know more about her father’s life in South Korea and how he came to be in possession of something that belonged to Eunju. The narrative follows Eunju as she shares her story with Narae detailing a traumatic history she shares with Sangchul from three decades ago when they were both teenagers and inmates at The Stone Home, a state-sanctioned reformatory center.
Inspired by true events, The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim is an intense and incredibly moving coming-of-age story that sheds light on a dark period in the history of South Korea. Written in lyrical yet powerful prose, the story alternates between past and present timelines – the present timeline focusing on Enju’s interactions with Narae and past events presented from the perspectives of Eunju and Sangchul in alternating chapters. The author presents an unflinching look into the horrifying conditions and human rights violations in reformatory centers that housed women and children rounded up off the streets, labeled as “vagrants” in need of rehabilitation. Detainees were subject to forced labor, barbaric punishments and unimaginable abuse in the hands of those responsible for running the institution and fellow inmates who were charged with supervising others. Eunju’s trauma has followed her into her adulthood - evident in how she struggles to frame her thoughts while recollecting the truth of her experiences in The Stone Home, where she, then only fifteen, and her mother were forcibly detained. Sangchul’s story is one of personal loss, disillusionment, and transformation - trapped in an environment that promotes violence and cruelty Sanchul struggles to preserve his humanity in the face of devastating loss and pressure to conform to what the governing authorities expect of him. The author is brutally honest in her depiction of the dynamics within the center– the friction and rivalries, the power play, the moments of empathy and solidarity between the detainees and the difficult choices Eunju and Sangchul and others have to make in order to survive in a system designed to break them down.
I always appreciate fiction that sheds light on stories and historical facts that were previously unknown to me and this novel is no exception. The story features a large cast of characters, each of whom has a distinct role to play in the story. My only niggle is that I wish we had gotten a bit more information on the events that transpired during the gap years, between past and present timelines including the fate of some of the supporting characters.
Please read the Author’s Note where she briefly discusses the historical context of this story and the people places and events that inspired this novel, In reality, these homes were part of a state-sanctioned strategy in a time of major political changes in the years leading up to the 1988 Olympics intended to clear the streets of those deemed unwanted including political protesters, the homeless and the disabled among others.
Given the subject matter, this is not an easy read but it is definitely an important story that needs to be told and shared and talked about.
Many thanks to the author and William Morrow for the digital review copy via NetGalley and the gifted ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Connect with me! ✏ Instagram ✏ My Blog ✏ The StoryGraph
“I am on a peninsula, or to be more precise, the southern half of a peninsula broken in two. But in my mind, I am the land itself. I watch the waves, and when the tides come near, I will them to retreat, retract into their uncontained bodies.”
Daegu, South Korea, 2011: Forty-six-year-old Eunju is visited by Narae, a Korean American woman in her thirties, who has come to return an item of hers that was in the possession of her recently deceased father Sangchul. Narae also expresses her desire to know more about her father’s life in South Korea and how he came to be in possession of something that belonged to Eunju. The narrative follows Eunju as she shares her story with Narae detailing a traumatic history she shares with Sangchul from three decades ago when they were both teenagers and inmates at The Stone Home, a state-sanctioned reformatory center.
Inspired by true events, The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim is an intense and incredibly moving coming-of-age story that sheds light on a dark period in the history of South Korea. Written in lyrical yet powerful prose, the story alternates between past and present timelines – the present timeline focusing on Enju’s interactions with Narae and past events presented from the perspectives of Eunju and Sangchul in alternating chapters. The author presents an unflinching look into the horrifying conditions and human rights violations in reformatory centers that housed women and children rounded up off the streets, labeled as “vagrants” in need of rehabilitation. Detainees were subject to forced labor, barbaric punishments and unimaginable abuse in the hands of those responsible for running the institution and fellow inmates who were charged with supervising others. Eunju’s trauma has followed her into her adulthood - evident in how she struggles to frame her thoughts while recollecting the truth of her experiences in The Stone Home, where she, then only fifteen, and her mother were forcibly detained. Sangchul’s story is one of personal loss, disillusionment, and transformation - trapped in an environment that promotes violence and cruelty Sanchul struggles to preserve his humanity in the face of devastating loss and pressure to conform to what the governing authorities expect of him. The author is brutally honest in her depiction of the dynamics within the center– the friction and rivalries, the power play, the moments of empathy and solidarity between the detainees and the difficult choices Eunju and Sangchul and others have to make in order to survive in a system designed to break them down.
I always appreciate fiction that sheds light on stories and historical facts that were previously unknown to me and this novel is no exception. The story features a large cast of characters, each of whom has a distinct role to play in the story. My only niggle is that I wish we had gotten a bit more information on the events that transpired during the gap years, between past and present timelines including the fate of some of the supporting characters.
Please read the Author’s Note where she briefly discusses the historical context of this story and the people places and events that inspired this novel, In reality, these homes were part of a state-sanctioned strategy in a time of major political changes in the years leading up to the 1988 Olympics intended to clear the streets of those deemed unwanted including political protesters, the homeless and the disabled among others.
Given the subject matter, this is not an easy read but it is definitely an important story that needs to be told and shared and talked about.
Many thanks to the author and William Morrow for the digital review copy via NetGalley and the gifted ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Connect with me! ✏ Instagram ✏ My Blog ✏ The StoryGraph
December 20, 2023
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1FB7wHLq...
A haunting, powerful coming of age that exposes a hidden, disturbing section of Korean history. Lyrical and unflinching, The Stone Home discusses the atrocities committed at government-sanctioned reformatories, but also the fiercely devoted bonds between brothers, mothers and children, new companions bonded by solidarity. It showcases that humans are capable of the most unspeakable cruelty, but also of unparalleled good, and of everything in between. It is a tribute to a mother’s love, her sacrifice, and the ways in which our memories affect the ways that we see the world. It is a look into the impossible choices that we must make in life, for survival, for justice, for closure. This novel, though heartbreaking, also shimmers with hope; it is a call to the forgotten, a whisper on the breeze that we remember, we look for them, to them. Beautifully written, enlightening, and emotionally hard-hitting, The Stone Home is an incredible account of human suffering and human perseverance, of hate and love, of old lives and new, of honoring those absent and finding those lost.
A haunting, powerful coming of age that exposes a hidden, disturbing section of Korean history. Lyrical and unflinching, The Stone Home discusses the atrocities committed at government-sanctioned reformatories, but also the fiercely devoted bonds between brothers, mothers and children, new companions bonded by solidarity. It showcases that humans are capable of the most unspeakable cruelty, but also of unparalleled good, and of everything in between. It is a tribute to a mother’s love, her sacrifice, and the ways in which our memories affect the ways that we see the world. It is a look into the impossible choices that we must make in life, for survival, for justice, for closure. This novel, though heartbreaking, also shimmers with hope; it is a call to the forgotten, a whisper on the breeze that we remember, we look for them, to them. Beautifully written, enlightening, and emotionally hard-hitting, The Stone Home is an incredible account of human suffering and human perseverance, of hate and love, of old lives and new, of honoring those absent and finding those lost.
March 27, 2024
Phenomenal historical background and character development. The writing is lyrical, at times abstract. I appreciate this approach because the topics are very heavy, yet the author does an excellent job not making the story read like trauma porn.
It’s a heart breaking and extremely heavy read about the little known history of “vagrant” houses that abused children established first during Japanese colonization and perpetuated during the early years of South Korea.
It’s a heart breaking and extremely heavy read about the little known history of “vagrant” houses that abused children established first during Japanese colonization and perpetuated during the early years of South Korea.
April 16, 2024
When I say this was a difficult read, I mean that in every possible definition.
Like probably most non-Koreans, I knew nothing of what the author writes about here, these horrid "reformatories" that were basically cruelty-driven prisons where people were forcibly incarcerated for basically not living the way the government wanted them to. Seeing what happened to the characters living in this place and knowing that while this particular story is fiction, it is based very much on reality, was harrowing and made it painful to read at times. You can't help but imagine what you would do in a situation like that, how you would manage to cope or even if you could at all, what it might do to you, etc. It's gut-wrenching to bear witness to the worst aspects of humankind. I can't imagine how traumatic it must have been for the author to do this research, to take all of this in and put it down on paper, and I'm grateful that she wanted to bring this story to light for the vast majority of the world that had no idea about it.
Unfortunately, this was also difficult for me in the technical sense. The writing style was hard to get into, kind of choppy and disjointed, and wavering between grounded and metaphorical in a way that I found jarring at times. I wasn't always clear about what was happening or why, and most of the characters were not very fleshed out. That could perhaps have been intentional--in a prison of any type, a person's humanity and individuality are largely stamped out and muffled. But it made it hard to feel connected to anyone aside from a couple of characters, especially with how short most of the chapters were and how quickly the scene would change.
A mixed bag, but I am appreciative to have been given the chance to learn about something that I probably otherwise never would have known about.
Like probably most non-Koreans, I knew nothing of what the author writes about here, these horrid "reformatories" that were basically cruelty-driven prisons where people were forcibly incarcerated for basically not living the way the government wanted them to. Seeing what happened to the characters living in this place and knowing that while this particular story is fiction, it is based very much on reality, was harrowing and made it painful to read at times. You can't help but imagine what you would do in a situation like that, how you would manage to cope or even if you could at all, what it might do to you, etc. It's gut-wrenching to bear witness to the worst aspects of humankind. I can't imagine how traumatic it must have been for the author to do this research, to take all of this in and put it down on paper, and I'm grateful that she wanted to bring this story to light for the vast majority of the world that had no idea about it.
Unfortunately, this was also difficult for me in the technical sense. The writing style was hard to get into, kind of choppy and disjointed, and wavering between grounded and metaphorical in a way that I found jarring at times. I wasn't always clear about what was happening or why, and most of the characters were not very fleshed out. That could perhaps have been intentional--in a prison of any type, a person's humanity and individuality are largely stamped out and muffled. But it made it hard to feel connected to anyone aside from a couple of characters, especially with how short most of the chapters were and how quickly the scene would change.
A mixed bag, but I am appreciative to have been given the chance to learn about something that I probably otherwise never would have known about.
July 26, 2025
“Mina told me Park Chung Hee himself had sanctioned this place. He was dead, a dictator, a president. He had been educated. I was nobody’s daughter. What did I know?”
Told from two points of view, this fictionalized story holds so much truth within it as it reverts in time and tells the story of pain, strength, mental shift, and tragedy. In a time where being homeless was a crime, being “mixed-breed” was looked down upon as if you dictated how you were born. The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim is based on the government of South Korea in the 1980s. Concentration camps were opened like the Brothers’ Home, where the military rounded up thousands of people, including the homeless, children, and disabled, on the streets, and while detained, they were forced to work in harsh conditions.
Switching from 2011 to 1980, we meet a mother-daughter pair (Umma and Enuju) and two brothers (Sangchul and Youngchul). In 2011, in her adult years, Enuju receives a knock at her door from a woman who is holding a knife from her past. This knife floods Enuju with memories as she must relive a year of her past that connects both women, but the story leaves behind a trail of tragedy. In 1980, Enuju and her mother are homeless, and her mother’s survival tactics are looked down upon, but she will do anything for her daughter’s survival, even if that means letting her body be degraded by men constantly. While on the streets, they are taken by the police and placed in the “stone home." It is depicted as a reformatory so that these young boys, girls, and women can reenter society as better humans, but instead, abuse, starvation, assault, and torture lie behind the walls. The same can be said for Sangchul and Youngchul, but they came from a family with shelter and support but happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
As readers, we see through the eyes of Enuju and Sangchul. Two teenagers are navigating their past and current dilemmas as they are both put in situations that make them question what is real and test how far they will go to escape. The friendships they build in the stone home shift as decision-making is no longer for the collective but for the individual self. For Sangchul, it causes him to lose his brother and his mind as he starts to do unquestionable things. For Enjuju, her friendship wavers, and the pedestal she holds her mother on starts to topple over.
This story is a page-turner. A book that sticks with you after you read that last line because it not only leaves you wondering about certain characters, it also makes you reflect on the wickedness of history and how you may find goodness in people. Find solidarity in the harshest times, and you must find out how Enuju, the woman who comes to visit her, and the knife are all connected.
Told from two points of view, this fictionalized story holds so much truth within it as it reverts in time and tells the story of pain, strength, mental shift, and tragedy. In a time where being homeless was a crime, being “mixed-breed” was looked down upon as if you dictated how you were born. The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim is based on the government of South Korea in the 1980s. Concentration camps were opened like the Brothers’ Home, where the military rounded up thousands of people, including the homeless, children, and disabled, on the streets, and while detained, they were forced to work in harsh conditions.
Switching from 2011 to 1980, we meet a mother-daughter pair (Umma and Enuju) and two brothers (Sangchul and Youngchul). In 2011, in her adult years, Enuju receives a knock at her door from a woman who is holding a knife from her past. This knife floods Enuju with memories as she must relive a year of her past that connects both women, but the story leaves behind a trail of tragedy. In 1980, Enuju and her mother are homeless, and her mother’s survival tactics are looked down upon, but she will do anything for her daughter’s survival, even if that means letting her body be degraded by men constantly. While on the streets, they are taken by the police and placed in the “stone home." It is depicted as a reformatory so that these young boys, girls, and women can reenter society as better humans, but instead, abuse, starvation, assault, and torture lie behind the walls. The same can be said for Sangchul and Youngchul, but they came from a family with shelter and support but happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
As readers, we see through the eyes of Enuju and Sangchul. Two teenagers are navigating their past and current dilemmas as they are both put in situations that make them question what is real and test how far they will go to escape. The friendships they build in the stone home shift as decision-making is no longer for the collective but for the individual self. For Sangchul, it causes him to lose his brother and his mind as he starts to do unquestionable things. For Enjuju, her friendship wavers, and the pedestal she holds her mother on starts to topple over.
This story is a page-turner. A book that sticks with you after you read that last line because it not only leaves you wondering about certain characters, it also makes you reflect on the wickedness of history and how you may find goodness in people. Find solidarity in the harshest times, and you must find out how Enuju, the woman who comes to visit her, and the knife are all connected.
February 4, 2024
[4.5/5 stars]
South Korea, 1980s - young Eunju Oh and her mother are captured by the police off the streets and sent to a rehabilitation facility, when they encounter two brothers, Sangchul and Youngchul. 2011 - an unknown woman holding a familiar-looking knife visits Eunju, reminding her of a place she desperately wants to leave behind.
This book is immersive from the first chapter - Kim delivers a story with distinct voices, that allied with alternating timelines and short chapters, make this an unputdownable read. Depressing and haunting, the narrative revolving around a reformatory center is not for the faint of heart. This is mainly a family drama, beginning with a suspenseful feeling that turns into a straightforward plot. The way the bothers' path twines with Eunju's isn't completely unexpected yet effortlessly realistic. Despite the violence and devastation, there's a stream of kindness flowing from the pages in form of devoted bonds, between mother and children; and brothers. Amidst of what seems like utter hopelessness, the characters thrive, being the main driving force for one to keep reading. I mostly cared for the main characters and I think the author accomplished what she wanted by using the side characters. I thought it became entirely worthwhile when the story acquires an evocative tone in the last 20 pages. Ultimately, this is about sacrifices and perseverance.
Based on real events, Kim sheds light on a dark corner of South Korean history, which one can feel the research and care put into this novel about the rehabilitation houses. Beautifully written, THE STONE HOME is an impressive and relevant book that I hope everyone reads.
[ I received an ARC from the publisher - William Morrow books . All opinions are my own ]
South Korea, 1980s - young Eunju Oh and her mother are captured by the police off the streets and sent to a rehabilitation facility, when they encounter two brothers, Sangchul and Youngchul. 2011 - an unknown woman holding a familiar-looking knife visits Eunju, reminding her of a place she desperately wants to leave behind.
This book is immersive from the first chapter - Kim delivers a story with distinct voices, that allied with alternating timelines and short chapters, make this an unputdownable read. Depressing and haunting, the narrative revolving around a reformatory center is not for the faint of heart. This is mainly a family drama, beginning with a suspenseful feeling that turns into a straightforward plot. The way the bothers' path twines with Eunju's isn't completely unexpected yet effortlessly realistic. Despite the violence and devastation, there's a stream of kindness flowing from the pages in form of devoted bonds, between mother and children; and brothers. Amidst of what seems like utter hopelessness, the characters thrive, being the main driving force for one to keep reading. I mostly cared for the main characters and I think the author accomplished what she wanted by using the side characters. I thought it became entirely worthwhile when the story acquires an evocative tone in the last 20 pages. Ultimately, this is about sacrifices and perseverance.
Based on real events, Kim sheds light on a dark corner of South Korean history, which one can feel the research and care put into this novel about the rehabilitation houses. Beautifully written, THE STONE HOME is an impressive and relevant book that I hope everyone reads.
[ I received an ARC from the publisher - William Morrow books . All opinions are my own ]
July 10, 2024
I had no idea what happened in South Korea in the 70s and 80s and I appreciate learning something about this, especially something horrific like this.
But the writing style did not work for me at all, and I felt so distanced from the characters that in the end I did not like a single one of them.
There also was so much information not given about the characters, because it was kind of an open ending and I would have liked to find out more about their lives, so that was another thing that did not work for me.
But the writing style did not work for me at all, and I felt so distanced from the characters that in the end I did not like a single one of them.
There also was so much information not given about the characters, because it was kind of an open ending and I would have liked to find out more about their lives, so that was another thing that did not work for me.
April 2, 2024
In her new release, The Stone Home, Crystal Hana Kim brings to light a part of South Korea’s history that has long been kept in the dark.
2011, Daegu, South Korea, a young woman named Narae appears at a door. It is the door of a stranger. Her father Sangchul has left her a name and an address in his will. He asks her to return an item to a woman named Eunju in exchange for the truth. Slowly the story of how Eunju, her mother, Sangchul, his brother Youngchul and a band of other unfortunates all come to be at the Stone Home. Through a series of conversations between Eunju and Narae the horrific conditions, labors, hardships and brutality they endured are painstakingly revealed. And in time, Narae will learn why her father chose Eunju to share their story.
The novel is based on true events. In the 1980’s, the government of South Korea pledged to rid the streets of vagrants, thieves, prostitutes and other undesirables. They are forcefully rounded up and housed with the goal of reforming them into productive citizens. In truth, these individuals were mostly the poor, orphans, children, mothers and widows who were systematically imprisoned and forced to labor under appalling conditions. But at its heart, The Stone Home is a redemption story. It is about the relationships between brothers, mother, daughter, and how all the women grow to rely and depend on one another for solace, strength, and survival. Be warned, this is not an easy read, but an essential one for understanding the cruel legacy of colonization, government corruption, corrosive power and it enduring effects.
TW: realistic depictions of violence, allusions to sexual abuse, physical and mental torture
Many thanks to the author @CrystalHanaK, @WilliamMorrowBooks and @NetGalley for the pleasure of reading this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
2011, Daegu, South Korea, a young woman named Narae appears at a door. It is the door of a stranger. Her father Sangchul has left her a name and an address in his will. He asks her to return an item to a woman named Eunju in exchange for the truth. Slowly the story of how Eunju, her mother, Sangchul, his brother Youngchul and a band of other unfortunates all come to be at the Stone Home. Through a series of conversations between Eunju and Narae the horrific conditions, labors, hardships and brutality they endured are painstakingly revealed. And in time, Narae will learn why her father chose Eunju to share their story.
The novel is based on true events. In the 1980’s, the government of South Korea pledged to rid the streets of vagrants, thieves, prostitutes and other undesirables. They are forcefully rounded up and housed with the goal of reforming them into productive citizens. In truth, these individuals were mostly the poor, orphans, children, mothers and widows who were systematically imprisoned and forced to labor under appalling conditions. But at its heart, The Stone Home is a redemption story. It is about the relationships between brothers, mother, daughter, and how all the women grow to rely and depend on one another for solace, strength, and survival. Be warned, this is not an easy read, but an essential one for understanding the cruel legacy of colonization, government corruption, corrosive power and it enduring effects.
TW: realistic depictions of violence, allusions to sexual abuse, physical and mental torture
Many thanks to the author @CrystalHanaK, @WilliamMorrowBooks and @NetGalley for the pleasure of reading this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
July 18, 2024
4.5 stars out of 5
"Truth was murky, colored by desire, how humans wanted to bend the world to their understanding of order."
Kim's novel is about the camps the vagrants of South Korea were sent to in order to "rehabilitate" them. Sanctioned by the government until the 1980s, these "homes" were rampant with abuse, violence, and forced labor.
The novel follows two characters, Eunju and Sangchul, who start off as very similar in their natures. Both characters are fiery, volatile, bitter, and resentful toward the cards dealt to them in life and within their imprisonment in the reformatory. Their bitterness eats at both of them from the inside.
Both Eunju and Sangchul are each presented with a choice in the camp: Either perpetuate the violence and mercurial abuse distributed by the camp's administration in order to ensure their safety from said violence, or decide to exercise agency within their imprisonment to help others and break the cycle of institutionalized abuse.
Although fear and violence easily breed more violence, "The Stone Home" reminds the reader that no matter how hopeless and powerless a "trapped" person may feel, there is always a choice to be made: to go along with the norm (violence, abuse) and protect your own interests, or resist against the tyranny around them and save others, even if it means endangering yourself.
Kim's novel was frightening to read here in 2024. I easily drew parallels between South Korea's reformatories and Nazi concentration camps. Crimes against humanity always seem horrific, and it's impossible to believe these crimes can ever be perpetuated, at least I think so.
But history tends to repeat itself, it seems, and institutionalized violence seems to possibly be in America's future now, with a troubling general political election looming later this year and the dangerous implications it can bring. I hope I'm wrong.
"Truth was murky, colored by desire, how humans wanted to bend the world to their understanding of order."
Kim's novel is about the camps the vagrants of South Korea were sent to in order to "rehabilitate" them. Sanctioned by the government until the 1980s, these "homes" were rampant with abuse, violence, and forced labor.
The novel follows two characters, Eunju and Sangchul, who start off as very similar in their natures. Both characters are fiery, volatile, bitter, and resentful toward the cards dealt to them in life and within their imprisonment in the reformatory. Their bitterness eats at both of them from the inside.
Both Eunju and Sangchul are each presented with a choice in the camp: Either perpetuate the violence and mercurial abuse distributed by the camp's administration in order to ensure their safety from said violence, or decide to exercise agency within their imprisonment to help others and break the cycle of institutionalized abuse.
Although fear and violence easily breed more violence, "The Stone Home" reminds the reader that no matter how hopeless and powerless a "trapped" person may feel, there is always a choice to be made: to go along with the norm (violence, abuse) and protect your own interests, or resist against the tyranny around them and save others, even if it means endangering yourself.
Kim's novel was frightening to read here in 2024. I easily drew parallels between South Korea's reformatories and Nazi concentration camps. Crimes against humanity always seem horrific, and it's impossible to believe these crimes can ever be perpetuated, at least I think so.
But history tends to repeat itself, it seems, and institutionalized violence seems to possibly be in America's future now, with a troubling general political election looming later this year and the dangerous implications it can bring. I hope I'm wrong.
May 12, 2024
HOLY SH*T! I read the first half of this book slowly, to absorb the world of the stone home and the cast of characters. Then I read the second half all in one night because I could NOT put it down. The novel picks up this propulsive momentum and made me not be able to sleep until I knew what happened to Eunju, Sangchul, and the other characters. Grateful to be alive in an era when Crystal Hana Kim is writing! She is one of our great historical novelists. Read it!
March 5, 2024
[5 stars] The fictionalized narrative of residents at a facility billed as a Christian rehabilitation center in 1970's / 1980's Korea, from their shocking kidnapping by local police to their harrowing experiences of forced labor and enslavement, and the parallel journey of a 30-something Korean American woman seeking the truth about her birth mother and family of origin.
While this book is a significant plot departure from her previous and equally moving If You Leave Me, it does maintain the same strong throughlines of unearthed / lesser known Korean history and layered relationship dynamics. It was an incredibly graphic read (for anyone, but especially as someone born in early 1980's Seoul to an unmarried birth mother who could've met the same fate) and left me in tears, but it's also a new contemporary favorite. I enjoyed how the structure switched between Sangchul and Eunju, first and third person, and the past and present, and was haunted by the devolution into madness, sadism, and power hoarding.
Highly recommended for fans of child narrators and headstrong young women protagonists, readers who like mother-daughter and found family story arcs, and anyone interested in the complexity of simultaneously holding empathy, resistance, hope, and rage amidst dehumanization and forced confinement.
Publication Info: William Morrow / Harper Collins, April 2024
Goodreads 2024 Challenge: 8/48 (read 2/17/24-2/23/24)
Popsugar Reading Challenge: has at least 3 POVs
CN / TW: descriptions of racialized, gendered, and whorephobic physical, verbal, mental, psychological, religious, and sexual abuse, torture, and violence against adults and children as well as blood / body horror, family separation, enslavement, and forced institutionalization / incarceration
While this book is a significant plot departure from her previous and equally moving If You Leave Me, it does maintain the same strong throughlines of unearthed / lesser known Korean history and layered relationship dynamics. It was an incredibly graphic read (for anyone, but especially as someone born in early 1980's Seoul to an unmarried birth mother who could've met the same fate) and left me in tears, but it's also a new contemporary favorite. I enjoyed how the structure switched between Sangchul and Eunju, first and third person, and the past and present, and was haunted by the devolution into madness, sadism, and power hoarding.
Highly recommended for fans of child narrators and headstrong young women protagonists, readers who like mother-daughter and found family story arcs, and anyone interested in the complexity of simultaneously holding empathy, resistance, hope, and rage amidst dehumanization and forced confinement.
Publication Info: William Morrow / Harper Collins, April 2024
Goodreads 2024 Challenge: 8/48 (read 2/17/24-2/23/24)
Popsugar Reading Challenge: has at least 3 POVs
CN / TW: descriptions of racialized, gendered, and whorephobic physical, verbal, mental, psychological, religious, and sexual abuse, torture, and violence against adults and children as well as blood / body horror, family separation, enslavement, and forced institutionalization / incarceration
March 19, 2024
The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Books for the ARC ebook.
A coming-of-age, historical fiction/family drama with timelines of 1980’s and 2011. Inspired by real events told through two perspectives and timelines.
I had a difficult time trying to read this. I felt things were disjointed at times and found I had to keep going back and rereading. I would try looking up many of the Korean words and couldn’t find definitions. Many baffling metaphors in her writing style. This wasn’t a good fit for me, but many others did enjoy this book.
A dark time in South Korea’s history. Government wanted all vagrants, beggars, and other people sent to detention centers to rehabilitate them to be returned to society. They were physically abused as well as psychologically abused. Many died or disappeared.
I never felt connected to any character even with all the abuse that was happening.
I would consider reading another book by the author.
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Books for the ARC ebook.
A coming-of-age, historical fiction/family drama with timelines of 1980’s and 2011. Inspired by real events told through two perspectives and timelines.
I had a difficult time trying to read this. I felt things were disjointed at times and found I had to keep going back and rereading. I would try looking up many of the Korean words and couldn’t find definitions. Many baffling metaphors in her writing style. This wasn’t a good fit for me, but many others did enjoy this book.
A dark time in South Korea’s history. Government wanted all vagrants, beggars, and other people sent to detention centers to rehabilitate them to be returned to society. They were physically abused as well as psychologically abused. Many died or disappeared.
I never felt connected to any character even with all the abuse that was happening.
I would consider reading another book by the author.
January 21, 2025
Ugh. Somehow totally lifeless even as its source material should be moving, riveting, and rebuking. Commits one of the most irritating crimes of Asian-American writers, which is to write with the intention of instructing non-Asian(-American) readers on Asian(-American) history and/or experiences, and therefore to posture with a stiff, didactic tone rather than to simply, I don't know, write a story good enough to instruct on its own.
April 8, 2024
[Copy #gifted @williammorrowbooks @bibliolifestyle]
READ IF YOU LIKE...
• Shedding light on little-known history
• Deeply flawed characters
• Tear jerkers
I THOUGHT IT WAS...
An emotional examination of a shameful slice of South Korean history. Eunju and her mother are taken off the street by policemen and taken to the Stone Home, a state-sanctioned reformatory in name, but a nightmarish prison in actuality, with a hierarchy controlled by fear, violence, and abuse.
There's really no ramp up to this story. Kim throws you right in and it's disorienting, but that's exactly how the experience was for so many men and women, some with loving families, who were yanked from their lives simply because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. For the first chunk of the book, you may find yourself trying to wrap your head around what you're reading just because of how wrong it is. How could this happen? I asked myself this over and over, a confusion and shock probably amplified because I have the privilege of living in America.
This first disorientation is what makes this novel shine. Kim uses her prose to force you to feel the fear, pain, agony, humiliation, rage, and dissociation of the members of the Stone Home. Readers who don't like choppy sentences will be challenged, but I urge you to engage with this text. This is a confrontation with history that a country tried to hide. This is a hard look at imperfect people trying to do whatever it took to survive.
READ IF YOU LIKE...
• Shedding light on little-known history
• Deeply flawed characters
• Tear jerkers
I THOUGHT IT WAS...
An emotional examination of a shameful slice of South Korean history. Eunju and her mother are taken off the street by policemen and taken to the Stone Home, a state-sanctioned reformatory in name, but a nightmarish prison in actuality, with a hierarchy controlled by fear, violence, and abuse.
There's really no ramp up to this story. Kim throws you right in and it's disorienting, but that's exactly how the experience was for so many men and women, some with loving families, who were yanked from their lives simply because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. For the first chunk of the book, you may find yourself trying to wrap your head around what you're reading just because of how wrong it is. How could this happen? I asked myself this over and over, a confusion and shock probably amplified because I have the privilege of living in America.
This first disorientation is what makes this novel shine. Kim uses her prose to force you to feel the fear, pain, agony, humiliation, rage, and dissociation of the members of the Stone Home. Readers who don't like choppy sentences will be challenged, but I urge you to engage with this text. This is a confrontation with history that a country tried to hide. This is a hard look at imperfect people trying to do whatever it took to survive.
July 20, 2024
Kim's novel takes a bit of an adjustment as the three intersecting storylines take time to sift through and allocate proper energy to, but the process is worth it once the novel hits the halfway point. The characters and plot--centered on an abusive system that exploit orphans, women, and anyone who police judge to be undesirables from the late 70s-1980s in South Korea--all build a thorough throughline that Kim masterfully orchestrates to a true crescendo. Dynamic characters and a deep sense of how ordinary people can make inhumane decisions.
March 24, 2025
A novel about the 80’s in South Korea, a period of which I knew nothing. Vagrant teenagers were removed from the streets and taken to cruel reform schools. The book has two main characters and tells the story from each point of view as well as telling the story from another’s view much later.
Interesting to learn but I didn’t really like the style.
Interesting to learn but I didn’t really like the style.
May 1, 2024
Having read and enjoyed this author's stellar debut novel, I was thrilled to win a copy of her sophomore novel, which was inspired by actual events. The story is set in Seoul and told in two timelines (mid-1980 to mid-1981, and 2011), primarily from the alternating perspectives of Eunju and Songchul, two youths who are being held at a state-sanctioned reformatory center in the early 1980 time period. Eunju has been detained with her mother; Songchul with his brother. The reformatory is co-ed, but the male and female prisoners are generally kept separated. When the story flashes forward to 2011, we meet an adult Eunju who is met by a stranger at her front door with a knife from her past. The flashbacks in time eventually reveal how and why this stranger has made an appearance, and how this visit is connected to this past.
This story is bleak and heavy, even more so knowing that it is grounded in historical facts. I had a hard time getting through it because of how gut-wrenching it was. However, the writing and historical details are exquisite, which helped me keep going. I did have to pace myself though and read a lighter, frothier title at the same time to balance out the darkness.
I believe that the level of my discomfort with this story is a credit to the author's ability to transport me into this world and to make me feel the pain and suffering of the characters who were trapped by their circumstances. While this was not an easy read and I am sure I missed nuances because I knew nothing about this history prior to picking up this book, I am glad to have had a chance to learn about this painful period of South Korea's past. It is a haunting read about human suffering, survival, and reconciliation with the past that I will not soon forget.
Many thanks to William Morrow for my Goodreads Giveaways win and for the opportunity to read another exquisite novel by Crystal Hana Kim!
I used this as my pick for the 2024 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge prompt "a bildungsroman."
This story is bleak and heavy, even more so knowing that it is grounded in historical facts. I had a hard time getting through it because of how gut-wrenching it was. However, the writing and historical details are exquisite, which helped me keep going. I did have to pace myself though and read a lighter, frothier title at the same time to balance out the darkness.
I believe that the level of my discomfort with this story is a credit to the author's ability to transport me into this world and to make me feel the pain and suffering of the characters who were trapped by their circumstances. While this was not an easy read and I am sure I missed nuances because I knew nothing about this history prior to picking up this book, I am glad to have had a chance to learn about this painful period of South Korea's past. It is a haunting read about human suffering, survival, and reconciliation with the past that I will not soon forget.
Many thanks to William Morrow for my Goodreads Giveaways win and for the opportunity to read another exquisite novel by Crystal Hana Kim!
I used this as my pick for the 2024 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge prompt "a bildungsroman."
January 21, 2025
Two stars bc the ending was kinda suspenseful. Characters have no personality. Writing was kinda cringe. Nothing happened for majority of the book. I was kinda disappointed bc I rly enjoyed If You Leave me. Sad.
November 16, 2023
Difficult read because it’s so depressing g. Based on true events in South Korea in the70’s - 80’s. “Home” for orphans a d homeless,
but a brutal place where many died. Two narratives-a young girl with her mother and two brothers forced to make terrible choices.
but a brutal place where many died. Two narratives-a young girl with her mother and two brothers forced to make terrible choices.
July 16, 2024
okay low-key boring and also hard to follow via audiobook. maybe my opinion is bad but it's my opinion!!!
October 9, 2024
A moving read about an awful time in Korea's past. This was hard to read at times as it is so awful to think about how cruel people can be. 4-4.5 stars
November 20, 2024
Another part of history I did not know about, this novel kept me reading to the very end.
Read
March 20, 2025Multiple points of view and time frames help provide some more perspective and understanding of the characters of this difficult story. It definitely kept me wanting to know more.
April 3, 2024
This was absolutely brutal and raw in its truthfulness.
I cannot even truly comprehend the emotions, the history behind this story.
I cannot even truly comprehend the emotions, the history behind this story.
March 13, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Crystal Hana Kim for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Wow. I appreciate historical fiction that introduces me to parts of history that are completely new to me. In the 1980s, South Korea embarked on an effort to "rehabilitate" citizens by capturing people - including young adults and children - and imprisoning them in work camps. The Stone Home is a fictionalized account of people living this horror.
Kim uses alternate timelines, a writing technique I enjoy, to allow the reader to see the immediate horror of the Stone Home and its long-term impact on survivors. In 2011, Narae appears at Eunju Oh's door. Narae was sent by Sangchul Kim, who was imprisoned as a child with Eunju, and is carrying a knife that Eunju recognizes. Through conversations between Narae and Eunju, the reader learns the horrifying details of Eunju's and Sangchul's experiences at the Stone Home and unravels the relationship between Narae and Eunju.
The violence and torture - physical and mental - in The Stone Home are unsettling, to say the least. However, my feelings did not really move beyond horrified. While I definitely saw how the violence they were forced to experience created violence within each character, I did not feel attached to the characters or satisfied by the story.
The Stone Home taught me about a dark time in contemporary South Korean history but its detailed descriptions of human-to-human violence made it difficult for me to feel empathy toward the characters.
Wow. I appreciate historical fiction that introduces me to parts of history that are completely new to me. In the 1980s, South Korea embarked on an effort to "rehabilitate" citizens by capturing people - including young adults and children - and imprisoning them in work camps. The Stone Home is a fictionalized account of people living this horror.
Kim uses alternate timelines, a writing technique I enjoy, to allow the reader to see the immediate horror of the Stone Home and its long-term impact on survivors. In 2011, Narae appears at Eunju Oh's door. Narae was sent by Sangchul Kim, who was imprisoned as a child with Eunju, and is carrying a knife that Eunju recognizes. Through conversations between Narae and Eunju, the reader learns the horrifying details of Eunju's and Sangchul's experiences at the Stone Home and unravels the relationship between Narae and Eunju.
The violence and torture - physical and mental - in The Stone Home are unsettling, to say the least. However, my feelings did not really move beyond horrified. While I definitely saw how the violence they were forced to experience created violence within each character, I did not feel attached to the characters or satisfied by the story.
The Stone Home taught me about a dark time in contemporary South Korean history but its detailed descriptions of human-to-human violence made it difficult for me to feel empathy toward the characters.
Read
February 20, 2024A good story. The flow did feel a little stiff at times, but I felt as though I learned about a part of history that I had not really looked into before.
September 30, 2024
4.5 stars — this story is going to stay with me for a while. i'm going to continue thinking "what happened next" despite knowing the implication of how the story ended. apart me is hopeful, but apart of me also knows ...
the writing in this is magnificent. the way certain things are described ism, for a lack of a better term, so good. especially towards the end. i enjoyed the way this was written so much and i think i'd like to reread it again some time in the future to really take in the way it was written, but also the story to understand it better.
"she closed her eyes. the bird transformed into a bear, that deep, dark growl, all musk and earth. burrowing, and then a rest."
the writing in this is magnificent. the way certain things are described ism, for a lack of a better term, so good. especially towards the end. i enjoyed the way this was written so much and i think i'd like to reread it again some time in the future to really take in the way it was written, but also the story to understand it better.
"she closed her eyes. the bird transformed into a bear, that deep, dark growl, all musk and earth. burrowing, and then a rest."
April 30, 2024
The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim is a historical fiction novel about the 1980s reformatories in South Korea that took in "vagrants" to keep them off the streets, leading to prolific, state-sanctioned violence and horrific abuse, all to keep Seoul presentable for the ’88 Olympics. Our two main characters are young, rebellious Eunju Oh, who came in with her mother, and the strong, physical Sangchul, who focuses all his energy on protecting his more intellectual brother. They both will have to face terrible decisions if they want to survive without internalizing the violence themselves.
This novel edges on being too bleak. Its topic is horrific, so it's hard to fault that, and it was a tough week for me to dive into a bleak story like this one, which probably impacted my opinion. I think perhaps Kim's occasionally over-wrought writing extended this bleakness—left unsure about what happened, I'd have to either reread or just assume the worst.
Still, the novel is an effective, hard-hitting look at psychological, emotional, and physical violence and the impact they have on us all, but particularly young minds. The suspicions, betrayals, that they sow—the growing need to either internalize the violence or redirect it at someone else to save yourself. It shows, unapologetically, what it might take to survive something like that place, the withdrawing, partitioning, imagining, competing that results. The novel is painful but rich in its tragedy. Just remembering, recording, is a victory: South Korea only acknowledged the existence of these reformatories officially in 2022.
Content warnings for torture, body horror, violence, psychological and physical abuse, sexual assault, trauma/PTSD.
This novel edges on being too bleak. Its topic is horrific, so it's hard to fault that, and it was a tough week for me to dive into a bleak story like this one, which probably impacted my opinion. I think perhaps Kim's occasionally over-wrought writing extended this bleakness—left unsure about what happened, I'd have to either reread or just assume the worst.
Still, the novel is an effective, hard-hitting look at psychological, emotional, and physical violence and the impact they have on us all, but particularly young minds. The suspicions, betrayals, that they sow—the growing need to either internalize the violence or redirect it at someone else to save yourself. It shows, unapologetically, what it might take to survive something like that place, the withdrawing, partitioning, imagining, competing that results. The novel is painful but rich in its tragedy. Just remembering, recording, is a victory: South Korea only acknowledged the existence of these reformatories officially in 2022.
Content warnings for torture, body horror, violence, psychological and physical abuse, sexual assault, trauma/PTSD.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 167 reviews