Thoroughly enjoyed this one even though on paper this should not be the sort of literature I gravitate towards. Like a previous reader and or reviewer, I think sentient robots are extremely cringe-worthy and to a significant extent pretty gross and distasteful, but the elements of grief, sacrifice, love and all things humans balanced the entire narrative up and made everything very palatable. An understatement, that is. This goes without saying but it's a brilliantly written work, approved and recommended by a bunch of other South Korean writers whose work I already love and appreciate. I can totally imagine a film adaptation of this if it's not already made or being made. Spectacularly done in terms of pace, action and taking hold of the reader's attention. While I can't compare fairly since I've not read it in the Korean text, I personally am not a fan of the translation style - so much so that I almost gave up very early into the book, but the plot - which is not something I usually prioritise in a piece of writing - was highly engaging and meaningful. And that sort of made all the difference.

I've been pondering how to write this review because I want it to do justice to A Thousand Blues. But alas, I'm a scatterbrain hot mess so bear with me here. The summary here is that it's a heavy book that will break your heart but also feel like a hug, sort of like Lonely Castle in the Mirror.

Now, I don't want to play the comparison game here, but it's the best way I can talk about this book. Lonely Castle in the Mirror deals with human connection, the brutality of being young, family issues, and bullying (amongst other heavy topics). A Thousand Blues deals with a different set of topics that are equally devastating: animal rights, grief, the people that are left behind once your work is taken over by robots/AI, disability rights, being poor, AND going through life trying to avoid bad feelings.

I know, I know. It's a lot. This book is a lot and I found it to be perfectly balanced.

A Thousand Blues is the story of Coli and Today. Coli is a sentient robot made for the sole purpose of riding a horse (Today) in horse races. Today gets hurt during a race and Coli falls down the horse, getting trampled over by all the horses that ran behind. Therefore, Coli will be destroyed and Today will be euthanized. That is until two sisters come into the scene and work together to save both Coli and Today.

The story is told in POVs: Coli's, the sisters, the mother, and Today's vet. They all go through their own different stories and struggles, which is why this book has so much going on. I found the mother's chapters to be the most devastating for me and I found myself crying more than I'd like to admit. And, as dumb as it is, everything about Today made me furious (and as dumb as this will sound, reading about Today's love for running and the ending just had me sobbing. I love running and I saw myself in there lol).

I came into this book knowing nothing of the story and I almost stopped reading: I hate AI and sentient robots, the fact that the robot is named Broccoli made my eye twitch when I first read it. But I'm so glad I gave it a chance because this is one of the best books I've read in ages.

3.5 The premise of this was intriguing - I love a good robot tale! The robot sections were great but the book was let down by its lack of focus, simplistic writing, and inconsistent pacing.

What worked for me:
👍 Everything about C-27/Coli
👍 Representation and insight into the experience of our character, Eunhye, who uses a wheelchair
👍 Yeonjae, Jisu, and Eunhye were interesting characters. I particularly like the relationship between Yeonjae and Jisu. I loved hearing about Yeonjae’s interest and skill working with the robots!
👍 The translation was solid: I’ve read a few translations from Kim Chi-young and like their work
👍 Social and animal justice themes!
👍 The cover is beautiful

What I wasn’t so keen on:
👎 Pacing is wonky: the story is very slow overall; we’re introduced to the urgently-paced robot/horse thread early so some of the side character chapters (mom, vet) with their slow, repetitive content, felt frustratingly slow and superfluous
👎 The storytelling was dry and simplistic told with simplistic language made this feel like something geared toward kids (I felt the swearing was there simply to stop this being a kids/YA book)
👎 Ham-fisted personal development messages that lacked subtlety and finesse (another reason this felt like a younger read)
👎 I loathed how Bogyeong’s only “purpose for staying alive” after a serious injury was a man
👎 Some of the characters actions don’t make sense: Bokhui recognizes and abhors the gross exploitation of the horses yet assaults a reporter who she thinks is doing an exposé on that very matter, to… protect a corporation? 🙃 Why does Yeonjae approach her former manager to make the horse bet?

There’s a good story here. I wish Cheon had focused more on the robot/racetrack story rather than zooming in to such a macro level with the Kim/Woo family. I’m not entirely sure this works as an adult novel due to the simplicity and slightly twee style.