Snowglobe 2 by Soyoung Park

This is the sequel to Snowglobe, the story of privileged actors who live in comfort under the climate-controlled Snowdome while outsiders struggle to survive in the freezing outer world. But now the temperature inside the dome is far from comfortable as the heat soars and a power outage is imminent. A cast of characters at the front of the book helps orient the reader but we have to wait until page 25 to learn that the narrator is Jeon Chobahm, one of the Haeri clones who star in reality shows which entertain those who live on the outside.  In this engineered environment, both physical and social, everyone is being manipulated and constantly surveilled by cameras gathering footage for the consumption of viewers. Even the Snowdome climate is part of the need for fresh pathos and drama for viewers as natural disasters are engineered. One of the Haeri, Serin, doesn’t fit in and is jealous of Jeon vowing to take what she has. When Jeon stumbles across the recently stabbed Goh Maeryung she suspects Serin is trying to frame her for the murder.  I really struggled, not having read the first Snowglobe and gave up after page 70 when I still couldn’t piece together the story and many characters, made more difficult by the sometimes clunky translation and unfamiliar names. It is one of those books that is probably a great read but you do need to read the first book before the sequel.

Themes: Identity, Social engineering, Reality TV.

Sue Speck