Olympia’s Reviews > Pool House > Status Update

Just a deeply unsexy love triangle between a mother, her daughter and a man who played the mother’s son on TV making the whole relationship feel so incestuous and with weird age differences that every interaction is uncomfortable to the reader. And that’s before we get into the whole money, power, race elements to each of the relationships.

It feels like this book is deliberately crude, provocative, unflinching, disgusting and while I believe the author is capable of that style of writing in a good way, like shining a light on society. There’s a hatred, cynicism and bitterness (along the with slow meandering of a lack of plot) to this story that is really off putting.

Also every single relationship in this is age-gap. Super icky! Get some fucking peers please, I’m begging you.

Maybe it’s been a while since I last read a book by Choi but boy does this book come across as bitter. Also what’s with 2026 lit-fit using gnats as a symbol. Did everyone attend the same writing retreat?