Crying in H Mart is a memoir that focuses on the loss of Zauner’s mother; outlining the hardship of losing someone to a disease that deteriorates, grief and the grieving process, and how these experiences play a part in who she is today.

I rarely listen to memoirs and when I do, it’s typically ones by people I’m very familiar with—not someone I know of faintly, through a band I listen to every now and again. As soon as I started this one it was love, it sucked me in within the first 15 minutes. Grief is portrayed realistically: in ebbs and flows, normally brought on heavy by something commonplace that reminds you of your departed loved one. Zauner ties memories of her mother to traditional Korean dishes, frequently reminiscing with painful nostalgia, highlighting how these dishes are imperative to her mom’s existence in her mind but, how they remind her of her murky sense self-identity as a Korean-American. Zauner’s writing style isn’t flowery or ornate but, the rawness in the emotions conveyed pack a punch that is insistent and gnawing. If you’ve experienced grief that has fucked you up, I 100% recommend this—there were so many thoughts conveyed in Crying in H Mart that I’ve thought yet never articulated. So so good.