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Tailbone: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 7 Apr 26A fierce and gorgeous debut novel about a teenager who runs away from her abusive home to live in a boarding house for single women as a global financial crash threatens the people of Seoul.
Set in Seoul in 2008, Tailbone follows the story of an unnamed teenage girl who, after years of struggling with her alcoholic father's abuse, and what she sees as her mother's cowardice, decides to run away. At a boarding house for single women, the narrator is pulled into the orbit of one of the other girls living an older girl named Juju, whose beauty and hardscrabble determination greatly impress the narrator.
But when a global financial crisis reaches Korea, fears of a wider economic collapse bring the city to a standstill. Everything the girls have come to rely on for survival-mainly, the patronage of wealthy men-is put at risk. Everyone begins to struggle, especially Juju, who has long been dependent on one particular benefactor, a man who is all too aware of his power over her. As businesses close and winter sets in, the narrator is forced to reckon with not only her deepening fear for Juju's future, but also her own uncertain path. Will she stay on the run or go back home to her heartbroken mother? In a city where everything rots from greed and desperation, what can a helpless woman like Juju teach her about survival? Will their hope for each other ignite courage or destruction?
A poignant tale about survival, the impact of colonial and familial violence, class, privilege, and womanhood, Tailbone is a powerful and thrilling novel from a blazing new talent.
Set in Seoul in 2008, Tailbone follows the story of an unnamed teenage girl who, after years of struggling with her alcoholic father's abuse, and what she sees as her mother's cowardice, decides to run away. At a boarding house for single women, the narrator is pulled into the orbit of one of the other girls living an older girl named Juju, whose beauty and hardscrabble determination greatly impress the narrator.
But when a global financial crisis reaches Korea, fears of a wider economic collapse bring the city to a standstill. Everything the girls have come to rely on for survival-mainly, the patronage of wealthy men-is put at risk. Everyone begins to struggle, especially Juju, who has long been dependent on one particular benefactor, a man who is all too aware of his power over her. As businesses close and winter sets in, the narrator is forced to reckon with not only her deepening fear for Juju's future, but also her own uncertain path. Will she stay on the run or go back home to her heartbroken mother? In a city where everything rots from greed and desperation, what can a helpless woman like Juju teach her about survival? Will their hope for each other ignite courage or destruction?
A poignant tale about survival, the impact of colonial and familial violence, class, privilege, and womanhood, Tailbone is a powerful and thrilling novel from a blazing new talent.
- GenresFictionLiterary Fiction
Kindle Edition
Expected publication April 7, 2026
4453 people want to read
About the author
Che Yeun
2 books21 followersChe Yeun is a fiction writer who often explores loneliness, desperation, and survival in her work. Her short stories can be found in Granta, AGNI, Virginia Quarterly Review, the Kenyon Review Online, and elsewhere. She has received grants from Hedgebrook, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the David T. K. Wong Fellowship. TAILBONE is her debut novel.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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January 7, 2026
Book Riot’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026:
This is poised to be a breakout debut novel from a writer whose short fiction has garnered praise and attention. Following an unnamed teenage girl who seeks safety from her abusive father in a boarding house for single women, Tailbone tells the story of two friends surviving a global financial crash, where survival relies on the patronage of wealthy men. By all accounts this sounds like the kind story of friendship, identity, and soul-searching that stays with you long after the last page. —S. Zainab Williams
This is poised to be a breakout debut novel from a writer whose short fiction has garnered praise and attention. Following an unnamed teenage girl who seeks safety from her abusive father in a boarding house for single women, Tailbone tells the story of two friends surviving a global financial crash, where survival relies on the patronage of wealthy men. By all accounts this sounds like the kind story of friendship, identity, and soul-searching that stays with you long after the last page. —S. Zainab Williams
December 28, 2025
can a city choke your loneliness out? if you've wanted to be left alone all your life, away from your alcoholic washed up dad, away from your weak mother; can that be possible in a city that whirls you into its muck corners and chaos? or will it just amplify it and the anger that comes with your breath?
tailbone by che yeun delves into the rage, loneliness, despair, and frustrations of womanhood. when a girl runs away from her family, she is thrown into a city that knows no bounds. it is quite and loud; separated by a few hours and crowds, when in both atmospheres our character cannot escape the trail of what she left behind, the misery of her present life, and the looming fear of her uncertain future. in a quick, sharp, and brutal voice, yeun digs deep into a violent and harsh reality of women who don't have it all. in the midst of a financial crisis, we are pulled into the corners of seoul where our nameless character and the women around her struggle financially, emotionally, socially, and physically. this novel felt like a powerful pull; nothing but drawing me in the more i read. whether it was the metaphorical connections of the character's past to the women's current situations, or the emotions that lie between the lines of yeun's prose, tailbone is a bold telling of women's endurance in a world of violence and loneliness that wraps you up to strangle you.
truly an incredible, powerful, and mesmerizing debut that projects the hurt, anger, loneliness, and need for connection and comfort that women constantly feel in an original story i couldn't get enough of and made me face my own feelings.
tailbone by che yeun will be out april 7th, 2026
thank you to the publishers for gifting me this mesmerizing debut
"no matter how weak i felt, no matter how many people touched me like a sludge in a ditch, I would still make this life happen. I wasn't sure why the world would ever need someone like that to exist. But I needed me to exist."
tailbone by che yeun delves into the rage, loneliness, despair, and frustrations of womanhood. when a girl runs away from her family, she is thrown into a city that knows no bounds. it is quite and loud; separated by a few hours and crowds, when in both atmospheres our character cannot escape the trail of what she left behind, the misery of her present life, and the looming fear of her uncertain future. in a quick, sharp, and brutal voice, yeun digs deep into a violent and harsh reality of women who don't have it all. in the midst of a financial crisis, we are pulled into the corners of seoul where our nameless character and the women around her struggle financially, emotionally, socially, and physically. this novel felt like a powerful pull; nothing but drawing me in the more i read. whether it was the metaphorical connections of the character's past to the women's current situations, or the emotions that lie between the lines of yeun's prose, tailbone is a bold telling of women's endurance in a world of violence and loneliness that wraps you up to strangle you.
truly an incredible, powerful, and mesmerizing debut that projects the hurt, anger, loneliness, and need for connection and comfort that women constantly feel in an original story i couldn't get enough of and made me face my own feelings.
tailbone by che yeun will be out april 7th, 2026
thank you to the publishers for gifting me this mesmerizing debut
"no matter how weak i felt, no matter how many people touched me like a sludge in a ditch, I would still make this life happen. I wasn't sure why the world would ever need someone like that to exist. But I needed me to exist."
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
very good -- compelling voice, exciting sentences, a real hand with the dramatic. it took me a while to commit to the first few chapters but once i was there i was sold hard. could it have ended two or three chapters earlier.... maybe, but we can't have everything. thrilling tbh!
*arc provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
*arc provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
September 12, 2025
A gripping coming of age tale as savage as it is astounding, Tailbone seduces one first with voice, then swells and electrifies from within the storied walls of the Seoul boarding house in which anything is possible. Tailbone introduces Che Yeun as one of the absolute greats, an extraordinary stylist and singular storyteller of our time.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews