The Hunger Games meets Squid Game in Soyoung Park's dystopian thriller Snowglobe
In Soyoung Park's Snowglobe, the world is frozen.
That may sound bleak, but the residents of the titular Snowglobe have everything they could ever need: fame, fortune, and safety from a frozen wasteland. Those living outside of the domed city must endure the -50 degree Fahrenheit temperature that keeps the globe running. How do they comfort themselves throughout a lifetime of bitter cold? By watching TV.
In exchange for warmth, the Snowglobe residents have their lives broadcasted to the less fortunate who watch eagerly, hoping to become actors themselves. Chobahm is one of many who lives for the time she spends watching her favorite shows — until one of the globe's biggest stars is found dead, and Chobahm is chosen to take her place.
It's the opportunity of a lifetime. But as any dystopian connoisseurs have probably guessed, the Snowglobe is not the luxurious safe haven it claims to be. The society is hiding dark secrets that Chobahm must uncover for herself.
As Chobahm begins her thrilling journey, the YA novel grapples with climate change, socioeconomic inequality, and personal identity. Written by Soyoung Park and translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort, Snowglobe is the first part in a critically acclaimed dystopian duology originally published in South Korea. Today, EW can exclusively reveal the novel's cover.
Snowglobe hits bookshelves on Feb. 27, 2024, but you can check out an exclusive excerpt below.
***
In the mudroom, Ongi and I struggle to pull on our heavy snow boots. It's made all the more difficult by the layers of insulated clothes—tops, pants, and tights—we have on under our thick snow bibs. Next come out parkas, expedition-weight mittens, and ski masks. Then, finally, the hoods go up, and we're ready. "We're off, Granny! See you later!" Ongi calls toward the living room in his usual upbeat tone.
But as he turns the doorknob, Grandma's urgent voice stops us short.
"Wait! My goodness, Ongi! Chobahm is on TV!" she cries. Ongi and I exchange a look as she coos at the TV. "Aww...
Chobahm! My sweet baby girl."
I don't have to look to know that it's Goh Haeri on the screen. Ongi refuses to acknowledge it, but the beloved actress and I look very much alike. We even share the same birthday, and for what it's worth, it so happens that we're both lefties. But no one, except for Grandma, would ever mistake me for her, what with my rough cheeks perpetually inflamed from daily exposure to bone-dry, subzero air, and my coarse hair cropped short for quick washing in frigid water. In contrast, Haeri's porcelain skin, rosy cheeks, and trademark long, shiny hair radiate her Snowglobe pedigree.
About Snowglobe. With the world now at an average annual temperature of -50°F, Snowglobe is the only place with a temperate climate—the only location with warmth and color—in the whole world. It's a special settlement that was built atop a geothermal vent and is enclosed in a gigantic weatherproof glass dome. But not just anyone can live there. Its lucky residents are actors, whose unscripted lives are recorded in real time and edited into shows, which are then broadcast to the open world for entertainment. Goh Haeri isn't just an actress, she's a megastar, and she's just been named the new weathercaster—one of the most coveted jobs in Snowglobe. She'll set the record as the youngest weathercaster in the history of the settlement.
I turn a flat gaze to the TV screen. Dressed in a stylish suit, Haeri looks like she was born to fill the position.
"Hi, it's Goh Haeri," she greets the viewers in a buoyant tone. "I'm so excited and honored to be serving our community as the new weathercaster. Make sure to tune in to News at 9 on New Year's Day!"
Here, she treats us to her perfect smile, and then the camera cuts away.
I wonder, not for the first time, if I'll ever be able to meet her in real life. If my hair grew in proportion to my desire for a life in Snowglobe, I could shave my head bare every night and I'd wake up the next day with it sweeping the floor. Sometimes I wonder if my intense longing for the place might be responsible for Grandma confusing me with Haeri—as though she can see my soul yearning to f lee this godforsaken icebox in favor of Haeri's life in Snowglobe.
Ongi turns back to the door, clucking his tongue in distaste.
"What?" I hiss, glowering back at him.
"If only you hadn't talked so much nonsense about how you might be Goh Haeri's lost twin and—"
"Stop." I cut him off with a cuff to the ribs. I can feel the color rising to my face at the memory. "Unless you want to dig your way out of a snowbank!"
But he's wearing too many layers to be warned off, and he boldly resumes running his mouth. I shove him and he shoves me back, and then we're snatching at each other and ducking and banging into walls—until we finally end up laughing too hard to keep fighting and we pull ourselves together, then open the door and step outside.
Fifty degrees below zero. The frozen world welcomes us by snatching the breath from our lungs. My nose instantly freezes and stings, and within a few blinks, ice crystals form on my eyelashes and cloud my view.
"It's so damn cold," Ongi says with a full-body shudder.
From age six, my twin brother and I accompanied each other to school every day for ten years. Since graduation in February, though, our daily commute has been to the power plant.
I look up at the marbled sky, its gunmetal gray promising a second squall in three days. In the bleak world below, squat log cabins dot the white expanses between tall pines, their branches heavy with snow.
Ongi and I start for the bus stop. Our commute to the power plant could be made on foot, but with a brooding sky like this, the bus is safer. We trudge through the ankle-deep snow, and before long, my breath turns my ski mask into an icy mess over my mouth and nose—though better the mask than my face. A few feet ahead, Ongi pauses under a tree and waits for me to catch up. He can be so sweet, I think. But no sooner do I arrive than he jumps up to a branch to send an avalanche of snow down on my head and shoulders, laughing hysterically.
Seething, I scoop up a handful of snow and pack it into a tight ball. He bolts, shouting, "Race you to the bus stop!"
"Wait!" I shout, already on the move. "Jeon Ongi, you cheater!"
Snow traps our boots with each sinking step, rendering our best effort at a dash into more of a lurching shuffle.
"Loser does laundry for a month!" Ongi yells. "Oh... You're so done, Jeon Ongi!"
I struggle through the clinging trap of snow with everything I have. And when we dive for the bus stop, it's my hand that touches its bent pole first.
"Ha! Who's laughing now—" I say victoriously, gasping for breath. Sure, I won by a hair, but a win is a win. I'm bent over with my hands on knees, catching my breath, when Ongi snatches my arm and jerks me behind him.
Startled, I straighten to see him narrowing a hard gaze at a figure ahead. Just another commuter waiting for the bus, is my first thought, but then the person turns in our direction, and when she acknowledges us with an awkward dip of her head, neither Ongi or I return it.
The woman is Jo Miryu, a former Snowglobe star. Discovered at nineteen, she lived in the settlement for seven years, starring in a hit noir series. She returned home a few years ago when the network abruptly canceled the series, and yet, at twenty-nine years old, she still has the face of a wood sprite and a frame that is five foot seven inches of pure grace. Her youthful innocence makes it all the more difficult to believe that the success of her series was due to the multiple homicides she committed throughout its run. By the time it was canceled, she had brutally murdered nine men, and her director had snatched the National Medal of Arts for outstanding directorial achievement. Like millions of her fans, I can recite a long list of other trivia about the starlet. I even know her blood type, which is A.
When Miryu returned home, however, she was shunned for the brutality she had dealt in Snowglobe. Even her own family fled to another town upon news of her homecoming, unable to swallow the idea of welcoming a killer into their midst. Ongi and I were thirteen back then. I remember the whole town twitching with hysteria. Kids were being warned against her—we weren't to speak to, or even make eye contact with the woman, if we happened upon her on the street.
I don't know what it says about me, but I've always been more intrigued by her than terrified. There's so much I'd like to ask her about Snowglobe. Ongi, who knows me like no other, digs his heels into the snow and shoots me a warning glance: Don't even think about it.
Text copyright © 2020 by Soyoung Park. English Translation copyright © 2024 by Joungmin Lee Comfort.
Check out an extended excerpt with additional chapters, and find out more on the official Snowglobe book page.
Related content:
- Susan Sarandon sees her Blue Beetle villain as the embodiment of imperialism
- Star Wars series The Acolyte will feature 'a lack of guns'
- Myah Ariel's debut novel, When I Think of You, is inspired by her own past as a Hollywood assistant
- The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On season 2 first look reveals new couples facing existential crises
