Book Review: ‘Snowglobe’ by Soyoung Park

Snowglobe is a South Korean novel that features a dystopian society struggling to survive in a frozen post-apocalypse world. The majority of the population are forced create energy and resources for Snowglobe – a city encased in a protective dome and the last warm place left. In exchange for living in luxury the residents of Snowglobe must entertain the masses through the medium of reality television. Disappoint the audience or producers and you’ll be cast out into the cold with the rest of the population.

With an obvious social commentary on the volume of reality TV we consume and the celebrity status reality stars can wield, Snowglobe has a wild yet fun concept. What I loved the most about the world Soyoung Park created was that this was not a straightforward poor versus wealthy social structure (like the divide between The Capitol and District 12 in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games). Instead any member of the population can apply and earn a place in Snowglobe – potentially forever if they are popular and successful enough – and anyone already in Snowglobe can be evicted if their show gets cancelled or they are considered difficult to work with. It showcases a society that can be viewed as shallow and self-serving to us as readers (not to the characters themselves) but one that oddly has more equal opportunities for the wider population than most dystopian novels I’ve read.

But what is Snowglobe actually about?

Goh Haeri, the city’s biggest reality star, is dead. In order to protect this secret, and the ratings, an enterprising director comes up with a solution – a lookalike. Enter protagonist Jeon Chobahm. She is whisked away from her life and her family and promised everything she could ever dream of. All she has to do is keep up the ruse that she really is Haeri. As Chobahm desperately tries to adjust she soon learns that life inside Snowglobe isn’t as perfect as she believed and now she must survive the deadly power struggle happening inside paradise.

As a protagonist Chobahm is flawed yet relatable. She knows the power that Snowglobe wields but she doesn’t want to change the world or fix society – she wants to join it. Although her love for her family is never in doubt, the invitation to join Snowglobe is a dream come true for Chobahm. She wants to go, wants to stay, wants to become part of this world. Certainly for much of the novel Chobahm is not a hero, just a survivor. But if the choice is between living in a frozen wasteland and living in luxury then can we really blame her? Would any of us have honestly made a different choice? It is only later when Chobahm learns just how far the corruption in Snowglobe spreads for the sake of preserving these television shows that she decides to act.

Snowglobe manages to pack a lot of world building and characterisation into its story without ever feeling rushed. Although there are a lot of characters within the book everyone feels relevant to the story in some way. We also get to see different aspects of this dystopian society as Chobahm travels through this desolate part of the world.

The novel could have been perfect but for the inclusion of the mirrored portals that led to pocket dimensions within Snowglobe. Since dystopian fiction falls under the science fiction genre its feels odd criticise the portals for being ‘too sci-fi’ but they felt very out of place with the rest of the story. While a city-size temperature controlled dome is a futuristic idea I can still imagine it as something humans could build whereas the portals and pocket dimensions felt too ‘out of this world’ and not in keeping with the technology shown elsewhere in the book.

Despite this one main complaint I still really enjoyed Snowglobe overall. There was a good balance between the social commentary aspects of the story, strong character moments, world building, and the mysteries and reveals.

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