Yolk

By: Mary H. K. Choi

Narrated by: Joy Osmanski

“Sneaks up on you with its insight and poignancy.” —Entertainment Weekly

From New York Times bestselling author Mary H.K. Choi comes a funny and emotional story about two estranged sisters and how far they’ll go to save one of their lives—even if it means swapping identities.

Jayne and June Baek are nothing alike. June’s three years older, a classic first-born, know-it-all narc with a problematic finance job and an equally soulless apartment (according to Jayne). Jayne is an emotionally stunted, self-obsessed basket case who lives in squalor, has egregious taste in men, and needs to get to class and stop wasting Mom and Dad’s money (if you ask June). Once thick as thieves, these sisters who moved from Seoul to San Antonio to New York together now don’t want anything to do with each other.

That is, until June gets cancer. And Jayne becomes the only one who can help her.

Flung together by circumstance, housing woes, and family secrets, will the sisters learn more about each other than they’re willing to confront? And what if while helping June, Jayne has to confront the fact that maybe she’s sick, too?

Critic reviews

"Listeners will appreciate Osmanski’s dramatic flair, which allows listeners to feel the conflicts between the two sisters in this contemporary story of sibling rivalry."

Messy honesty

I love the messy honesty and dark humor of this book. I don’t have a sister but this novel makes me long for one. The dialogue is intimate and profane, the way only closest family members can talk to each other.
Although this is written from a Korean American point of view, anyone with a dysfunctional immigrant family will be able to relate strongly.

Great story about two sisters struggling with demons

A lovely tribute to second gen Korean Americans, this book is touching and heart wrenching, and beautifully written. It stays with you. Well done

Narrator’s change of tone is completely unnecessary

It is very generalizing and kind of arrogant of the narrator to presume a speaking voice for each character as it hinders the readers to understand the characters for themselves. Consequently all male characters regardless of age and personality all sounded like the same cool (or pretending to be cool) guy because she only knows one way, which is lowing her voice, for male voices.

So good!!!!

Wonderfully written story of two Koran American sisters and their struggles to become independent adults in NYC. Well drawn characters show us their family relationships, and internal conflict, and insights as they navigate school, work, and romance.

WHO LET MARK HK CHOI BE THIS GOOD AT WRITING !!!!!!!!!!!

wow. i am speechless. never have i ever met a book that is so wholly encompassing of my human experience on earth before laying my hands on a copy of Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi. i inhaled this audiobook in one sitting, i couldn’t listen to the story fast enough, i had to know what was going to happen next immediately and it simple could not wait. each sister is so tender to me and achingly human in their imperfectness but are trying their best to survive the cards that life dealt them with dark witty humor and a good head on their shoulders. Choi handles trauma, ptsd, body dysmorphia, and eating disorders (specifically bulimia) in a way that is so generous, vulnerable, considerate, compassionate, kind, and honest, all while being truthful to her own experiences with body dysmorphia and eating disorders, which she shares in the opening content warning note as well as during her #koreadathon 2022 panel with Kat Cho, bookswithchloe, and monica kim. a must read, and super important, super special book for teens to people in their 30s, struggling with their relationships, in therapy, figuring out life.