Snowglobe by Soyoung Park (skillfully translated from the Korean by Joungmin Lee Comfort) is an austere, thrilling, and endlessly surprising YA dystopian novel reminiscent of Black Mirror and Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer.
Sixteen-year-old Jeon Chobahm lives on a frozen, post-climate-shift Earth, where most people make their living by walking on human-sized hamster wheels that generate electricity. The power they produce is used by the Snowglobe, a temperate domed superstructure, the population of which is made up entirely of reality TV show actors who provide entertainment in exchange for a life of luxury. After the sudden death of Snowglobe megastar Goh Haeri, the enigmatic and ambitious Director Cha offers Chobahm (a near-exact physical match for Haeri) the chance to escape her life of "punishing monotony" by posing as Haeri and helping to hide her untimely death. But life in the Snowglobe is not as glamorous as it seems on screen--Chobahm is completely isolated from her family, and thrust into stressful confrontations with Haeri's traumatized mother, narcissistic grandmother, and former lover, Yi Bonwhe, heir to the founding family of the Snowglobe broadcasting system. Chobahm is resilient despite the trials, and resolves to "pinch... off any unhappiness that trie[s] to sprout." Until, that is, she receives a mysterious phone call: it's Haeri, and she wants her life back.
Snowglobe is a biting and thought-provoking examination of the contemporary obsession with fame, attention, and luxury. Throughout the novel, Park engages deeply with issues of class and social status, contrasting the bleak and sparse lives of settlement dwellers with the lavish and ostentatious lives of Snowglobe citizens. She also examines the lengths to which people are willing to go to "make it," sacrificing privacy, freedom, and even a life beside their loved ones for a moment in the public eye. Perhaps most importantly, Snowglobe is a story about personal authenticity that asks readers to consider why they would want to live as someone else when they were born to live as themselves. Compelling in its narration and unflinching in its social critique, Snowglobe is a captivating cautionary tale for the influencer age. --Cade Williams, freelance reviewer
Shelf Talker: This biting and thought-provoking YA dystopian tale examines the contemporary obsession with fame and luxury.