If I Had Your Face

by Frances Cha

What It’s About

If I Had Your Face follows four young women living in Seoul, each navigating life under the weight of Korea’s beauty standards, economic pressure, and limited choices. Their paths are different, but they intersect through shared spaces and shared constraints.

This is a contemporary novel rooted in realism. It doesn’t soften the conditions these women are living under, and it doesn’t rush to offer easy solutions. Instead, it shows how beauty, money, and survival become tightly linked, especially for women without much room to maneuver.

What Stuck With Me

I loved this book, even though parts of it were hard to read.

The extent to which these women were willing, and sometimes forced, to go in the name of beauty stayed with me. Not just cosmetic surgery, but the way beauty became a kind of currency. A way to earn money. A way to access safety. A way to move forward when other options were closed off.

What made it work for me was that the book never felt sensational. The choices the characters made felt possible. Even when they were bleak. Even when I wished they had another way out. The writing stays true to who these women are and the realities they’re living inside.

The tone is raw in places, and often sad. Bleak, even. But it isn’t hopeless. There’s a quiet sense that something could still shift for them, even if it hasn’t yet.

Would I Recommend It

Yes.

I would recommend this to readers interested in contemporary Korean fiction, women’s lives, and the social pressures surrounding beauty and work. It’s especially relevant if you’re curious about how beauty standards operate not just culturally, but economically.

This is not a light read. If the topic of beauty, judgment, or bodily scrutiny feels too close to home, this book can be cutting. I know people who had to stop reading early on because of that. That doesn’t make it a failure. It just means it asks something real of the reader.

For me, it was worth reading.

Where to Read:

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