It seems like cozy Korean healing type stories have been all the rage but I think I really need this right now. Maybe many Korean people do too. I really loved Welcome to Hynamdong bookstore so this book felt like a great way to stay on the bandwagon of person who quit their job and goes to do something meaningful. 

I rather enjoyed this book as I was reading it, the calming vibes were there and I loved all the ways the author was linking pottery with the main character's life. I felt that it was a great metaphor as a whole about how we should live. Being patient with clay, working slowly and controlled. Not feeling like we have to chase or catch up to anyone. 

This book is very much a more focused book, not really an ensemble cast though a few characters do make an appearance very often, such that we kind of get attached to them too. I loved the store owner's warm demeanor as well as the various sunbae's the main character encounters. 

However, I did feel like there was some disjointedness. One particular one I felt was the backstory of

the main character and a girl whose parent her dad killed by accident. I felt that it kind of detracted from the MC healing through pottery. And I thought a connection of her current state to her past with this friend should be better established so the resolution felt more important than it ended up becoming. The 'romance' was also nice but I do wish that there can be more articulation abaout why she starting having feelings for this guy. It seemed like it was the first eligible guy and she goes ahead and likes him. I also feel like that one character with the cat and MC was forming some sort of relationship - like maybe mentor and mentee or just good friends between an older and young person - but then she disappears? I wish that pairing could have been explored.

Overall though, I really enjoyed reading it and felt like I was living in that small town with the chestnut burrs. The writing is beautiful and vivid. I felt comforted while reading it.