The Red Palace

Written by June Hur

Feiwel and Friends

978-1-250-80055-8

336 pp.

Ages 13-18

January 2022

Revenge begets revenge; the anger is unquenchable. We become the monsters we are trying to punish. Justice, however, brings closure, and that is what I want. It can only be achieved by remaining sober-minded and rational. (pg. 173)

It is 1758, and eighteen-year-old Baek-hyeon is a nurse (uniyeo) at Changdeok Palace, a position for which she has worked tirelessly in her efforts to gain the attention of her biological father, Lord Shin, and appreciation of her mother, one of his oft-neglected concubines. But the palace is a place of spies, secrets, and worse, and Hyeon learns first-hand to keep her counsel when she and her friend Nurse Jieun and a royal physician are called to the Crown Prince's chambers to participate in a charade of caring for Prince Jangheon who is AWOL. But then the nurses are alerted to a massacre at the Hyeminseo, the public medical office where Hyeon had studied to become a nurse. Two student nurses, Head Nurse Heejin and Court Lady Ahnbi, who served Madam Mun, the King's concubine, have all been violently murdered and Hyeon's mentor, Nurse Jeongsu, is Commander Song's prime suspect.

 

Hyeon vows to prove Nurse Jeongsu's innocence, even as Commander Song endeavours to torture a confession from her. It seems someone else thinks the same, peppering the capital with handbills declaring the Crown Prince to be a murderer. Undertaking her own investigation, speaking with several nurses including Nurse Inyeong who'd reported the murders, with Royal Physician Khun who'd been seen arguing with Court Lady Ahnbi, and with Sulbi, a damo working for the police bureau, Hyeon forms an unlikely alliance with the young Police Inspector Seo whom she believes at first is only Eojin, a police servant. Together, the two young people work to uncover lies and truths, protect the innocent, thwart injustice and develop a relationship deemed socially improbable.

The Joseon dynasty which ruled Korea from the 1300s to the 1800s is not a familiar one for this reviewer or many readers. But June Hur skillfully takes us to this era and its society of classes ranging from royalty and the nobility to the cheonmin (vulgar commoners). It is a time when men kept concubines, sons were revered over daughters, and Confucian ideals were followed. From the clothing which marks the roles and status of many, like the nurse uniform of pale blue silk jacket and dark blue skirt and white apron with garima headpiece,  and meals of gukbap and sullungang, to naming protocols, June Hur makes us believe in this reality, with these people and these histories. Her "Author's Note" reveals the true history which she incorporated into her story but her characters and the mystery to be solved are all her own, intricate and vivid. As with her earlier books, The Silence of Bones (2020) and The Forest of Stolen Girls (2021), June Hur tells a story but readers do more than just absorb it. They become invested in it. Even as I learned of a different culture, I wanted justice for the honourable Hyeon, for the victims of violence, and for women who were limited by their birth. I wanted resolution. And, with tenderness, compassion and honesty to time and place, June Hur eloquently gives readers that.

The Forest of Stolen Girls

Written by June Hur

Feiwel and Friends

978-1-250-22958-8

384 pp.

Ages 13-18

April 2021

 

Driven to find the connection between the Forest Incident, in which his two daughters were found near where a young woman was killed, and the disappearance of 13 girls since then, Detective Min Jewoo pursued an investigation onto the island of Jeju in early 1400s Joseon (Korea). But the detective goes missing, and now his daughter Min Hwani, 18, returns to the island of her birth to find her father and perhaps reconnect with her younger sister, Min Maewol, now 15, who was left on the island to apprentice with Shaman Nokyung five years ago. Still, how can Hwani investigate on an island rife with superstition, with villagers petrified of losing their daughters to an unknown menace in the Gotjawal Forest or being selected as tribute women for Ming China, and stay safe herself while trying to work with her angry sister, resentful of her abandonment and mistreatment by her family? Having learned much from her detective father, Hwani becomes the investigator, probing the disappearance of the missing young women, and the Forest Incident, as well as his disappearance. Who she can trust or doesn't differs greatly from that of Maewol but the two sisters find a way to come together and delve into the mystery of the missing and the suspicious man in the white mask.

I do not want to reveal too much about The Forest of Stolen Girls as it is a mystery at its foundation, albeit a historical one in a unique time period. Just as she did in her debut novel The Silence of Bones (2020), June Hur enthrals with her setting as well as her story. With both her books set in the time of the Joseon Dynasty and by also scattering in words unfamiliar to most (e.g., jukjangdo, shin-byung, jeomjip, hanji), June Hur has created a new character of place of which readers will want to learn more. I was constantly looking up more about this historical period, and devoured June Hur's historical note appended to her story, trying to understand the people, their ways of life, their relationship with geographical neighbours (including becoming a vassal state) and the practice of offering tribute women. But within that amazing context, June Hur has woven a story of mystery, of family lost and found. There are countless characters who may or may not know something valuable and some who present facades of compassion and justice while evil lurks in the forest and the villages of Jeju. Who is responsible for taking the girls is but one mystery that needs to be solved, as is the location of Detective Min, and who can be trusted is unknown. Because people are often weakened by their fears and their ineptitude, evil can show its horrific face any time. But evil can be subtle or it can be the stuff of nightmares. Making things right, though, that's what Hwani and others learn is the key.

Doing what is right, it is so utterly terrifying. And yet so freeing. (pg. 307)

The Silence of Bones

Written by June Hur

Feiwel and Friends

978-1-250229557

336 pp.

Ages 13+

April 2020

The eyes that stare out from the cover of The Silence of Bones are haunted. They are the eyes of sixteen-year-old Seol, a girl indentured to the Capital Police Bureau, who has lost her parents, wants to find her brother or his grave, and is far too curious about those she serves and the investigations in which she must assist. In 1800s Korea, time of the Joseon dynasty, Seol knows her place and, like all servants, knows to "Be cautious. Cross no one. Obey always." (pg. 14)

As a police damo, Seol goes where she is needed to help with female criminals and victims whom the male police are forbidden from touching, according to Confucian tradition. When Lady O, daughter of Cabinet Minister O of Southerner faction, is stabbed and her nose cut off, Seol finds herself talking to her maid, Soyi, and learning about a man and a letter that took the young woman to her death. When Inspector Han discovers Seol eavesdropping and trying to learn more about the murder, he informally mentors her about motives for murder, how to tell if someone is lying, etc. After she saves the inspector's life from a tiger and the two share stories of their families, Seol becomes devoted to Inspector Han. So when evidence is revealed that a man in the blue robe of the inspector was seen near the scene of the crime, Seol tries to help. But the mystery is complicated and Seol begins to wonder if the man she has grown to respect is guilty after all.

Sometimes my reviews cannot do justice to the complexity of the story and such is the case for the extraordinary historical mystery of The Silence of Bones. June Hur has woven countless characters, each with their own motivations revolving around class structure, religion, and family, into an intricate story in which the honourable may not be and the lowly may be of the highest integrity, and vice versa. Amidst the class hierarchy, largely based on birth, in which there are aristocrats, palchŏn (low class), and even baekjeongs (outcasts), June Hur's characters are real but flawed, looking for family and acknowledgement for their efforts, humble and otherwise. But among those characters is evil and...

"...evil comes from the unfulfilled need for significance." (pg. 192)

This is June Hur's debut novel and it is an accomplishment of plot and writing, taking readers into the Korean dynastic kingdom of Joseon at the turn of the 19th c., a time of Confucian traditions, prohibition of Western teachings, and the persecution of Catholics. From behind the covers of the book, you will cheer for those who looked beyond their station, ignoring censure–"This is what happens when a foolish girl thinks she can be someone of consequence. She creates chaos, utter chaos." (pg. 131)–and search for truths, to honour the dead and the living, while you suspect character after character of murder and misdeeds, never guessing where June Hur will take her story. The Silence of Bones has given us a new voice in YA CanLit for which I'll be listening from now on.