Solving mysteries with your sister
June Hur's The Forest of Stolen Girls
I bit the handle of the bamboo brush. To solve a mystery spanning five years, I needed more. Thirteen girls had gone missing; behind each one, there had to be mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, friends and rivals, acquaintances and witnesses.
I dipped the brush into the ink, hesitated, then wrote: Father. What had he discovered? Where had he disappeared to? And why?
—The Forest of Stolen Girls, by June Hur
Hi, friends,
How goes it?
I still seem to be in big-time mystery mode, reading my way through some of this year’s Edgar nominees. Also, I have developed quite the addiction to Haribo Viola candy, which, as I described them to my sister, kind of taste how one of our grandmothers smelled. The next time I do a big Haribo order, I’ll be getting the five-pound container, thank you very much.
…I will ALSO be ordering a giant thing of Haribo Vulcano Fizz, because I just discovered that Josh got into my ONE BAG of them and ATE THEM ALL AND I DIDN’T EVEN GET TO TRY ONE!!
*breathes into paper bag*
He says—smugly, I may add—that they are VERY good.
Sadly, I can’t back up that assertion, because AS I SAID, I DIDN’T EVEN GET A SINGLE ONE. What a rat.
(He did said he would replace them, to which I obviously shrieked OMG THEY’RE A GERMAN IMPORT, YOU CAN’T JUST GET THEM AT RENY’S OMG OMG HOW DARE. At that point we were both full-on giggling. But the next time I order 900 pounds of gummy candy from overseas, if he mocks me he’d better WATCH OUT!!)
Soooo that’s what’s going on in my world.
Oh, also I’m on the mend from an absolutely monstrous stomach thing, so it’s really not like I’m going be eating anything other than white rice for a while, oog.
1426, Joseon.
Five years ago, thirteen-year-old Hwani and ten-year-old Maewol were involved in what is now referred to as the Forest Incident: the sisters disappeared for hours, and were later found unconscious and unharmed, near the body of a dead girl. Hwani had no memory of the incident or of the events leading up to it; Maewol claimed to have seen a man wearing a white mask.
Shortly thereafter, their detective father accepted a position on the mainland. So the family left Jeju Island—except Maewol, who stayed with the local shaman to pursue her calling.
A year ago, Hwani and Maewol’s father went back to Jeju to try to solve the case—the only one he’d never been able to crack. He wanted to find out, too, if the Forest Incident was somehow connected to the recent disappearances in the same area.
He disappeared.
Now, nearly-nineteen-year-old Hwani is on the case. And soon—although Hwani doesn’t know it yet—her little sister will be, too.
It’s always a good sign when I finish a book and them IMMEDIATELY hop on the computer to request all of the author’s other books from the library, which is what I did the second I finished The Forest of Stolen Girls.
It’s a much quieter book than I expected—for a story that features murder and kidnapping and poison and a whole lot of family secrets and heartache, it’s much more character-driven than plot-driven. While it absolutely does feature a dangerous and ominous sword-wielding figure in a white mask, it’s much more about a fractured and fragile relationship between sisters, and about how sibling relationships—and sibling rivalry—are very much informed by parent-child relationships.
It’s about what people will do—and what they will sacrifice—to protect their own, and it’s about how “their own” has multiple meanings. It can mean loved ones, sure. But it can also mean property.
It’s about perspective and memory and agency.
And it’s about figuring out who and what you want to be, versus who and what you’re expected to be.
Our heroine is a pretty everyday, average person, someone that you can easily imagine knowing, as opposed to a Sherlock Holmes or a Katniss Everdeen or a Miss Marple, even. She’s bright and curious, but she isn’t a superhero, and she isn’t infallible. That grounds the story, makes it all more real. A lot of mysteries feel a little like fantasy, because elements around the characters or the plotting or the dialogue feel heightened, a little MORE than reality, if that makes sense. And I generally LOVE that about the genre! But—and maybe it was just the right time on the right day?—something about the realism and emotional truth here really spoke to me on a core level.
The mystery is ultimately solved, but finding the solution doesn’t leave anyone feeling particularly triumphant—justice is served, yes, but that won’t bring the victims back. It’s a story that ends with the sort of achy truth that left me feeling kind of blue, but in a good way.
Oh! Also! This is the first YA title I’ve read in quite a while that doesn’t feature a romantic subplot? (Which absolutely makes sense given the storyline, but is somewhat uncommon, at least in my experience. I’ve also been more on the middle grade train for quite a while now, though, so it’s possible that I Missed A Trend.)
As I mentioned above, I’m currently impatiently waiting for June Hur’s other books to arrive! They are:
The Silence of Bones: 1800, Joseon. A sixteen-year-old is indentured to the police bureau, where she is assisting a young inspector investigate the murder of a noblewoman… and then the inspector becomes the prime suspect.
The Red Palace: 1758, Joseon. Eighteen-year-old Hyeon is a palace nurse, trying to avoid trouble and earn her father’s approval. But court politics can be hard to avoid, especially when four women get murdered in a single night and your best friend and beloved mentor is at the top of the suspect list. She starts her own investigation, teams up with a police inspector… and they realize that the trail might lead straight to the Crown Prince.
Oh, one last random thing! Spring is totally on the way, because the little rodents are on the move: At about 3:00 this morning, Lemon jumped up on the bed with a mouse.
Talk soon,
Leila
☺ Lemon: as reliable as crocuses... or something.