Shelter

"The combination of grisly James Patterson thriller and melancholic suburban drama shouldn’t work at all. Yet Ms. Yun pulls it off . . . The proximity of Kyung's parents and the atmosphere of grief and panic launch him on a spiral of self-destruction that’s impossible to turn away from."—Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

". . . Yun's debut may be a family drama, but it has all the tension of a thriller. It's a sharp knife of a novel—powerful and damaging, and so structurally elegant that it slides right in . . . it gets better and richer with every page . . . Like the writer's version of a no-hitter, Shelter is a marvel of skill and execution, tautly constructed and played without mercy."—Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times

“[A] beautifully crafted, deeply moving first novel.”—Chicago Tribune

"Gripping . . . Yun shows how, although shelter doesn’t guarantee safety and blood doesn’t guarantee love, there’s something inextricable about the relationship between a child and a parent . . . Shelter is captivating.”—The New York Times Book Review

“[A] harrowing hybrid of wrenching domestic drama and nail-biting crime procedural—Ordinary People meets In Cold Blood.”—Passport

“Yun keeps the suspense and family drama racing neck and neck . . . Shelter is a suspenseful, illuminating first novel.”—Jane Ciabattari, BBC

"In other hands, this material could fall apart or lose steam, but Jung Yun keeps it together through pitch-perfect, but flawed narrator Kyung and a high-tension storyline . . . An unexpected page-turner."—The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

"Yun's emotional perspicacity and tensile prose combine to turn it into something deeper than mere family melodrama . . . Shelter emerges as rich and multi-layered."—The Toronto Star

“If you want high stakes and suspense, you've found your book (I mean, just look at that cover). Jung Yun writes about family and identity and the tight bond between them—especially when circumstances change in startling ways . . . Shelter will get your heart beating for sure.”—Bustle

"This troubling, moving work from Yun explores what it means to be part of a family, even if it’s nothing close to the one you might choose for yourself."—DuJour

“Poignant, spellbinding, and profound, Shelter will keep you up until the wee hours. In her brilliant debut novel, Yun skillfully untangles this snarled web of family lies, tragedy, identity, and loss. Redemption is hard-earned, and kindness comes in rare and unexpected places, but hope shimmers just beneath the surface. This is a book of heartbreaking genius.”—Mira Bartók, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and bestselling author of The Memory Palace

“Magnetic, searing, insightful, Shelter is a mic-drop of a debut: a story of post-financial crisis America that establishes Jung Yun as a necessary new voice in American fiction.”—Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night

“Arresting . . . A strikingly suspenseful debut novel, Shelter digs into the secrets and troubles of two generations in a Massachusetts Korean-American family."—Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“With each page, Yun takes us deeper into Kyung’s troubles . . . As the crime drama unfolds in the background, Yun expertly explores what it means to be an immigrant in America, the true value of tradition, the parent-child bond, what makes a good marriage, and the need for forgiveness . . . Yun introduces us to a man riddled with anger and self-doubt, leaving the reader to judge whether time can truly mend what’s broken.”—BookPage

"Shelter maintains its narrative momentum right to the end . . . [A] valiant portrayal of contemporary American life."—Kirkus Reviews

"Skilled [and] deeply disconcerting . . . A work of relentless psychological sleuthing and sensitive insight."—Booklist

“Like Celeste Ng’s super-lauded best seller, Everything You Never Told Me, also about a dysfunctional mixed-race family’s tragedy, [Shelter] should find itself on best-of lists, among major award nominations, and in eager readers’ hands everywhere."—Library Journal (starred review)

“In her intense debut, Yun explores the powerful legacy of familial violence and the difficulty of finding the strength and grace to forgive . . . This family drama [is] rife with tension and unexpected ironies.”—Publishers Weekly