A sad book that makes you feel starry-eyed and sweet doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong, and if it did, do you even want to read right? Bringing romantic realism and magical realizing to the table, Shadows gives us love in the time of gentrification, at a pace somewhere between meandering and stopping-to-look-for-the-rose-smell, sparking the part of your brain that releases the morose and dreamy warm fuzzies. Also, unruly shadows: Gotta keep an eye on those.
One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun, (List Price: $16.95, Erewhon Books, 9781645661450, July 2025)
Reviewed by Ian McCord, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia