Body Image

The novel explores how body-image issues created by the entertainment industry affect young women in Korea. Plastic surgery is presented as the most insidious aspect of culture in Korea. All the popular actors and musicians in the novel are reportedly clients of the Cinderella Clinic, which is the most prestigious plastic surgery clinic in the country. Because the young female characters grow up with televisions in their home, they are all indoctrinated into the belief that people must be impossibly symmetrical and beautiful in the traditional sense to even have a chance at happiness.

The novel shows the allure of plastic surgery and its horrific payout through the characters of Kyuri and Sujin. Kyuri and Sujin are born with “plain” faces that do not attract others. They both have devastatingly painful surgeries that turn them beautiful, that leave them with permanent numbness in their face...