The Noh Family by Grace K. Shim

 

All Chloe Chang, 18, knows about her father is that he died in a car accident before she was born, and her mother refuses to talk about him, and she just assumed there were no relatives on the Noh side of her family. So when her two best friends, Seb and Hazel, give her a DNA kit as a joke because of her resemblance to their local TV weatherman, Ted Takahashi, no one was surprised when the results showed Chloe to be 95% Korean. After all, both of her parents are from Korea.

Chloe, Seb and Hazel have just graduated from high school, and while Seb and Hazel are having elaborate family parties to celebrate, Chloe is home alone. Her mother is a nurse and often works double shifts. Money is tight in the Chang household and though Chloe's dream is to study at Manhattan's Fashion Institute of Technology, where she has been accepted,  she will be going to the local community college instead in her Oklahoma hometown. 

But when Chloe gets a message from Noh Jin Young through 23andme.com, everything changes. Jin Young claims they are first cousins. At first skeptical, Chloe realizes that DNA doesn't make mistakes and she must indeed be related to him. Not only that, but there is a large extended family in Korea and Chloe is related to them all AND they are the wealthy owners of a successful high end department store. 

Naturally, when the Noh family offers Chloe a trip to Korea to meet her, she jumps at the chance, but doesn't mention any of this to her mother until the last minute. Her mom isn't happy about all this, but can't stop Chloe and after all, it's only for a week. 

But what a week it is, beginning with a first class flight to Seoul, South Korea, Chloe is soon thrust into what feels like a fairytale life when she meets her Halmonie, and a bunch of cousins, she is even settled into a guest house with a personal chef. But as the week progresses, and despite the access to family, meeting Miso Dan, who turns out to be a good friend, having access to all kinds of lovely clothing she could only dream about before, and the promise of paid tuition to FIT, something dark begins to creep into Chloe's consciousness. She is not simply there to meet her long lost family, they want something from her which required taking a DNA test to find a match. Now, all she wants is to go home to her mom and get away from her controlling Halmonie and the rest of her newly found family.

The Noh Family is Grace Shim's debut novel and based on the Korea dramas (K-dramas) that she used to watch. I know that the long lost family trope is pretty much overdone, but the fact that Chloe is Korean and the story plays out in Seoul makes all the difference. Although the fashion part of the story didn't do much for me, I did love the descriptions of Korea, its people, culture and food. I gave the book to my Kiddo to read because she has been to Seoul and loves it. She is also into K-dramas, so I know that she enjoyed that aspect of the book a lot, especially the description of the Dramatic Pause. 

I did find the story a little slow in places, but not enough for me to put the book down. Chloe is a nice, but headstrong character, and I wondered how she could simply take off on an international adventure so quickly and with little thought that there could be danger ahead. On the other hand, having watched her friends enjoy some of life's luxuries that she has been deprived of, including family and having a more accessible mother, makes Chloe's impulsiveness feel appropriate for her age. 

This is a fun, if predictable coming-of-age story and one I had a particular interest in - I, too, had a surprise in my DNA.

Thank you, Layne Mandros at Books Forward for providing me with a copy of this book for review purposes.