Sea Change

by Gina Chung

A novel about a woman tossed overboard by heartbreak and loss, who has to find her way back to stable shores with the help of a giant Pacific octopus.

Ro is stuck. She's just entered her thirties, she's estranged from her mother, and her boyfriend has just left her to join a mission to Mars. Her days are spent dragging herself to her menial job at a mall aquarium, and her nights are spent drinking sharktinis (mountain dew and copious amounts of gin, plus a hint of jalapeno). With her best friend pulling away to focus on her upcoming wedding, Ro's only companion is Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus who also happens to be Ro's last remaining link to her father, a marine biologist who disappeared while on an expedition when Ro was a teenager.

When Dolores is sold to a wealthy investor intent on moving her to a private aquarium, Ro finds herself on the precipice of self-destruction. Wading through memories of her youth, Ro has one last chance to come to terms with her childhood trauma, recommit to those around her, and find her place in an ever-changing world. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Animals, Adult

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2023

About the author

Gina Chung is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in New York City. She is the author of the novel Sea Change, which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a 2023 B&N Discover Pick, and a New York Times Most Anticipated Book, and the short story collection Green Frog (out March 12, 2024 from Vintage in the U.S. and June 6, 2024 from Picador in the U.K.). A recipient of the Pushcart Prize, she is a 2021-2022 Center for Fiction/Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School. Her work appears or is forthcoming in One Story, BOMB, The Kenyon Review, Literary Hub, Catapult, Electric Literature, and Gulf Coast, among others.

Reviews

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

i too am 1 octopus best friend away from a full mental breakdown.

this book helped.

i love thoughtful books where everything is sad and then is hopeful, eventually, in a realistic way and not a happy ever after way. and this is that!

although it is, really, very sad. and there isn't THAT much octopus action.

bottom line: life is sad and sometimes hopeful and so is this!

(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)

[Mai H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of you won't like this. There's just something so inherently similar about the immigrant experience and generational trauma that I relate to so well with various Asian American stories.

Ro and her boyfriend Tae have broken up. He is preparing for a mission on Mars. She is stuck in a rut working at the aquarium that houses Dolores, the octopus her father once found. Dolores is the only thing that brings her joy. As an aside, her father is also missing. Her mother seems to have moved on.

Ro has a bit of a drinking problem. Her apartment is sloppy. She has let go of most ties to family and friends. She is in a bit of a rut. Does she seem unlikeable? Yes. Do I also empathize with her situation greatly? Also yes.

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage

[Sujoya - theoverbookedbibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Publication Day - March 28, 2023*

“I’ve often wished that human bodies were as clever as those of octopuses. If we could divvy up the work of one heart among three, if we could have a semiautonomous brain in each of our appendages, perhaps we’d be more efficient with our time, less likely to waste it on grudges and hurts and all the things we feel we can’t say to one another.”

It has been fifteen years since Ro’s (Aurora) father, a marine biologist employed with a local aquarium disappeared, on a research trip. Her father’s love for marine life is something he shared with Ro ever since she was a child. Ro’s fascination with sea animals prompted her to take up a job in the same aquarium in the field of animal husbandry. Ro, now in her thirties and employed with the aquarium for over eight years, feels a special connection to Dolores a giant Pacific octopus that was one of her father’s finds and feels that Dolores can understand her and vice versa. Ro misses her Apa and harbors hope that one day he will return. Her relationship with her mother is strained and her best friend Yoonhee, who is also employed with the aquarium is busy planning her wedding and seems to be distancing herself from Ro. Ro, heartbroken after her recent breakup with her boyfriend Tae who was selected for a mission to Mars, is struggling with her loneliness, memories of her father and tension-filled exchanges with her mother. As the narrative moves back and forth between the past and present we get to more about Ro’s Korean immigrant parents, and their troubled marriage which has impacted how she perceives commitment and relationships. Adding to Ro’s unhappiness is the fact that the aquarium, hard-pressed for funds, is negotiating the sale of Dolores to a private buyer who wants to add Dolores to his private collection. The narrative follows RO as she navigates through all these changes occurring in her life, deals with past trauma and disappointments and rethinks her priorities, finding a way to accept all that has happened and make plans for her future.

Sea Change by Gina Chung is a moving story that touches upon themes of family dynamics, loss and grief, love and friendship and self-acceptance. Ro is flawed and in that she is real and relatable. Her struggles mostly stem from her past trauma and her inability to be kind to herself, which holds her back from investing in her personal relationships and prompts her to drown her sorrows in alcohol. I was particularly moved by how the author addresses the complicated relationship between Ro and her Umma and the factors that contributed to their strained relationship. I loved the descriptions of the animals in the aquarium and the information on sea animals and cephalopods in particular. The author draws our attention to the state of animals in captivity and how kindness and compassion are imperative in not only nurturing human relationships but also our relationships with all living creatures and the environment in general. The author also touches upon how the increase in environmental pollution and climate change is adversely impacting the living conditions of marine animals. I would have enjoyed more scenes with Dolores and maybe I was expecting more of those interactions. But ultimately this story is about Ro. The author balances the melancholic and depressing tone of the novel with splashes of humor and I’m glad that the story ends on a hopeful note. This is an impressive debut novel and I’ll be looking forward to reading more from the author in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, for the digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg… for all my fellow sensitive souls with abandonment issues… this one is for us!

Ok, a plot summary before I fanboy/girl further: Ro is stuck. She’s a Korean American woman entering her thirties, spending her days in an unfulfilling job at a mall aquarium and drinking herself to sleep at night. People have left her, like her father who went missing on an expedition several years ago and her boyfriend who recently joined a mission to Mars. Ro struggles with the people who haven’t left, too, like her mother, who she doesn’t speak to, and her best friend Yoonhee, whose upcoming marriage has eclipsed their friendship. Ro feels a connection with Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus who’s also Ro’s last link to her father. But when Dolores is sold to a wealthy investor who plans to take her away, Ro is faced with the choice to stay submerged in her unaddressed grief and trauma or to reclaim the parts of her life worth living.

Anyone who’s followed me for any period of time knows that I love a well-developed angsty character arc, and Sea Change blew that out of the park. There’s a lot going on in Ro’s life, including the upcoming sale of Dolores, Ro’s melancholy distant relationship with her mother, her conflict with Yoonhee, and more. Gina Chung does an excellent job of keeping the ball rolling with all of these elements of Ro’s life in the present while also portraying how Ro’s grief about her father’s disappearance and her breakup with Tae have gutted her emotionally. Chung’s use of flashbacks was excellent; her scenes set in the past felt vivid and provided important, heartrending context for Ro’s present circumstances. I’d describe Chung’s writing style as understated yet effective, as I cared deeply for Ro and felt for her across all her relationships.

With that said, I want to highlight that Ro as a character won me over. Unlike her best friend Yoonhee, Ro isn’t flashy. She’s just trying to live her life, and I loved that for her and about her. I felt compelled by her messiness and compassion for her struggle, like her calling Tae in a bout of missing him and her submerging her grief in alcohol. Ro’s growth throughout the novel moved me so much, and her realizations about grief, connection, and attachment had me teary-eyed at least a couple of times toward the end. As someone who’s faced multiple instances of deep grief in my life, I felt so connected to Ro and her journey of recognizing that grief isn’t something you can avoid nor is it something you ever fully get over even when you do address it. Grief can feel better with time though it often has to feel worse, first.

I also enjoyed the Asian American (specifically Korean American) representation in Sea Change. The representation didn’t feel overly in my face, rather, it’s these three-dimensional Korean American characters living their day-to-day nuanced lives, and I loved that. I liked and resonated with the complexity in which Chung portrayed Ro’s parents’ immigration experience and how that went on to affect Ro’s own psyche. Ro’s parents felt like full people and not stereotypical Asian American parents, thank goodness. Also not to be thirsty in a Goodreads review but where can I get a gay or bi version of Tae lolol anyway I’m wholesome.

Overall, highly recommended. In my top two favorite books I’ve read this year so far. Gina Chung is an author to watch and I am highly anticipating her short story collection coming out next year. Also, for those who’ve already read Sea Change, the scene where Dolores splashes the white man who’s trying to buy her and Ro starts laughing was SO funny I literally giggled while reading this book at like 10:30pm in my bed made me laugh, I appreciate Chung for including it.

[Dorie - Cats&Books :) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is going to be a DNF for me at about 40%. I was hoping that this would be mostly about the octopus and how climate change affected sea creatures.

Well up to 40% this is a really slow starter and really centers around Ro. This felt like an adult coming of age as Ro goes over and over her story and how is she going to cope with her boyfriend going to Mars!!

OK I admit I was hoping this would be at least a bit like Remarkably Bright Creatures -- it's not. The octopus story seemed like just an added part of the story and I couldn't relate to Ro at all.

I'm struggling to relate to how this is a 2023 highly anticipated book!!

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀

this was so close to being something more

“Love was paring myself down, again and again, until I was as smooth as a block of new marble, ready to become whatever the next one needed me to.”

Sea Change is yet another addition to what I liked to call the She’s Not Feeling Too Good subgenre. These books focus on women in their 20s, sometimes their 30s, who are unable or unwilling to reconcile themselves to life; so they drift, unmoored from others, alienated from social conventions and expectations, their passivity occasionally giving way to something nastier, more misanthropic, yet they remain mired by ennui, burdened by a sense of otherness. If they have a boyfriend he is either too kind, too well-adjusted, or he is the opposite, a right wanker. Their solipsistic nature and self-sabotaging tendencies make them into bad friends, yet, they are desperately lonely and often long to be someone else, someone happy, someone capable of traversing the murky waters of adulthood like other people seem to do. While you could easily argue that once you read a few of these books, you’ve read them all, they do often implement an element or revolve around a specific event that differentiates them from one another. In the quintessential she's-not-feeling-too-good book, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, the main character plans on sleeping for an entire year. In Woman, Eating the protagonist is a vampire. In Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead the narrator is death-obsessed. You get the gist.

“Other people’s joys have always seemed more solid to me than my own. I’ve never trusted happiness, have trouble with the very notion of it.”

What makes or breaks these books is the protagonist. I find characters who are flawed to be compelling, even when they are as nasty as the unnamed narrator in MYORAR or self-destructive like the leads in Luster and in You Exist Too Much. Sure, not all of the main characters populating this subgenre have that dark, mordant, sense of humor that makes their social commentary and internal monologue so wickedly funny and on point. Some, like Writers & Lovers by Lily King, Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu, and Tell Me I'm an Artist by Chelsea Martin, present us with narratives that are more grounded in reality, and characterized by a sad, occasionally wistful tone. And to some extent, Sea Change offers something to that effect as it is quietly reflective work. However, it ultimately felt flat, insubstantial, and monotonous, in a way that the books I just mentioned by King, Wu, and Martin didn't.

“No one is going to fix you for you, I thought to myself when I got home, giving myself a good hard stare in my bathroom mirror. But like all revelations, it didn’t last long.”

Ro is in her early thirties and has been working the same ‘menial’ job at the same mall aquarium her father, a marine biologist, used to take her to visit. There, he introduced Ro to Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus. After her father is declared missing during an expedition, Ro latches onto Dolores, seeing her remaining link to her father. Over the years, Ro’s unwillingness to change, to break away from her lonely routine, pushes away her boyfriend, Tae, who leaves her to train for a mission to Mars, and Yoonhee, once her best friend. Estranged from her mother, Ro often spends her nights drinking herself into being numb, removed from heartbreak and grief. After Ro learns that the aquarium is planning on selling Doloros to a rich investor, who will move her to his private aquarium, she slips further into depression and grows resentful of her mother and Yoonhee. She longs for her father, often imagining what-if scenarios, where they are eventually reunited.

“In the end, I know, no amount of wishful thinking can ever bring him back, and nothing we say or do or promise to one another can inoculate us against loss or leaving. But in the meantime, there is still so much of this world to see and hold on to, to care for and care about, to love in spite of— or because of— the fact that none of us are here for very long.”

Like most she's-not-feeling-too-good books, Sea Change is definitely not plot-oriented. The story instead sets out to immerse us in Ro’s life. Similarly to Win Me Something and You Exist Too Much, there are chapters giving us insight into her childhood and her adolescence, where we gain not only an understanding of the dynamic between Ro and her parents, but we see how her idealization of her father often saw her dismissing her mother’s feelings. We also how Ro’s friendship with Yoonhee has never been easy, or smooth, as her friend seems to find Ro’s more introverted nature a ‘downer’. And, of course, we also get to see the making and unmaking of Ro’s relationship with her ex. Facts about animals, be it penguins or octopuses, are interjected through the narrative, and there is even this water-motif that succeeds in making certain scenes or thoughts more evocative.

“Some days, wandering through the aquarium’s blue halls, I start feeling like maybe I don’t exist, like my body is just this translucent membrane for water and light to rush through, day in and day out, just like all the other creatures here.”

But the more I read the more I found the whole past/present chapter structure predictable and so Ro’s ‘journey’. I kept waiting to feel something more, to be surprised even. But Ro’s story unfolds in a very conventional way. The people around her never come into focus, so those moments of fracture and/or of reconciliation felt underminingly flat. Sure, the author succeeds in articulating the worries and uncertainties many people feel when they feel that their adult life is not going how it should, or when they feel unlike other people, they will never be able to ‘fucntion’, to be ‘normal’. But much about Ro and her story felt ‘safe’, I wanted more opaqueness, more ambiguity, just more, especially from Ro herself. Her strained, eventually tentative, bond with her mother was a much more compelling dynamic than her relationships with Yoonhee and ex. We see how Ro's loyalty to her father, pushed away her mother, and we see how things like generational and cultural differences as well as a language barrier can be both a source of tension between mother and daughter but eventually allow them to recognise the ways they have both failed to really see each other. I wanted more of that, less drama about her friend getting married and Ro not being supportive. Or the whole ex going to Mars thing. That whole thing was just a gimmick.

Then again, I recognise that having read my way through many of these books and having even spent months of my life writing a dissertation on a selected few of them, I may have simply been overexposed to this type of story. The focus on the aquarium, on animals, on Dolores, which should have made Sea Change stand out against a lot of similar ‘alienated-disaster-woman’ type of books, actually brought to mind Mindy Mejia's The Dragon Keeper, which I read a couple of years back. So, maybe if you haven’t read that one or if you have simply read only a couple of books with this type of ‘vibe’, maybe then you'll find Sea Change to be a less conventional read than I was.

“If every hurtful or careless thing we ever said to one another manifested itself visually in the body. Would we be any different than how we are now? Would we do more to protect each other, ourselves?”

[Amy Biggart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book REALLY worked for me

I'll be a little bold with this review and say that there were personal reasons why this story worked really well for me. And, since my ex-boyfriend isn't on a one-way space trip to Mars and my dad isn't lost at sea and presumed dead, you may be able to guess why this worked for me.

I really love in-depth character studies about grief, and this is exactly that. Most of this book really revolves around two (maybe three) central conflicts within Ro's life. First, her father's disappearance and her inability to communicate about this loss with her mother. Second, her ex-boyfriend suddenly signing up for Earth's first trip to colonize Mars and breaking up with her. And, I guess to a much smaller degree, her aquarium's octopus being sold to a private buyer.

That's the right order, in terms of how much space each of those conflicts take up in this book. This book is kind of sparse, and I'm partial to the sad-woman-moving genre that this book fits into. There aren't enough stories about thirty-something people struggling in dead-end careers, losing relationships, and behaving erratically. This is that. You also see a very vivid picture, via flashbacks, of Ro's childhood spent tiptoeing around her parents' feelings and trying to prevent their fighting. You also see some of her parents' experience as first-generation immigrants.

I could talk for hours about what I loved about this. It's Pizza Girl + Sorrow and Bliss + If I Had Your Face, and I loved it a lot.

[Karine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ro is stuck in a quarterlife crisis. Although her father disappeared years ago, she is still grieving his loss as she has never been able to accept his absence. Her life is held together by very fine thread only and it doesn't take much to make it all fall apart. The only thing that brings her some kind of joy is caring for Dolores, the last specimen of the Pacific Octopus on earth. If you are a diver like me, you'll know that there a many Pacific Octopuses left, but the story takes place in a not so far away future, where our planet has taken some more backlash and species have disappeared. And I give absolute kudos to the author to manage to make an octopus a believable character !

The main themes in the book are obviously grief and its consequences, and displacement in all its forms. It's about Ro's parents who left Korea for the US to carve out a better life, without really knowing what that means. It's Dolores who has been fished out of the poisonous Bering Vortex and put in an aquarium tank. It's Tae - Ro's boyfriend - who will leave Earth and try to colonize Mars. These themes have been written in an easy but beautiful prose and it made me understand and sympathize with Ro instantly.

This book has left a little dent in my heart and Ro and Dolores are characters that will linger for a long time. The next time I'll meet eye to eye with an octopus in the wild, I'm sure I'll think back to both of them.

A heartfelt thank you to NetGalley, the publisher Vintage and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

when your first book of the year is a winner 🥂✨

[Sunny Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asian American women’s lit yas!

[theliterateleprechaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is “a thing” now, right? Cephalopod friendships. It’s the second one in a few months. I had total FOMO after missing the opportunity to read the other popular octopus book, so I wasn’t taking a chance passing up on this one.

An impressive debut by a Korean American author, Sea Change will grip you and won’t let go. It’s fresh and unique and quirky. It’s edgy, too, with some swearing and some ‘right in your face uncomfortable’ prose to see if you’ll blink. So Millennial.

You’ll meet Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus, who happens to be Ro’s best friend and her last link to her father, a marine biologist who disappeared on an expedition. Ro is going through a tough spot right now and, thankfully, Dolores is there to ‘lean on.’

Author Gina Chung discusses difficult family relationships, love, loss, abandonment, and climate change. She explores the need to confront and then come to terms with childhood trauma in addition to the importance of fully committing and being present in our relationships with others.

I love the focus on seeing anomalies, such as Dolores, as beautiful. We’re all beautiful anomalies. Let’s embrace it.

I’m glad I took a chance on this fabulous book about a giant Pacific octopus and a girl who struggles to find her place in an ever-changing world.

Plus, now I can say I’ve read a book about Enteroctopus Dofleini …

I was gifted this advance copy by Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

much love for this super-painful and meditative aquatic-themed story about a mess of a woman trying to get through her days. flashback chapters gradually give us more and more understanding of how and why she entered this dysfunctional and self-destructive period of life.

the book is filled with heavy grief, abandonment issues, heartbreak, intergenerational trauma, and beautiful sea creature imagery. ro works at an aquarium, where her only friend is an enormous mutant octopus named dolores. ro drinks herself to sleep every night, grieving her damaged relationship with her mom, her dying friendship with her childhood bestie, the loss of her father who disappeared without a trace when she was a teenager, and her recent breakup with her boyfriend who left her to travel to mars. this is a character study and grief study, and i have so much empathy for ro.

at one point ro talks about how much she adores "i'm not in love" by 10cc, a gem of a song, and says "it made a perfect kind of sense to me that sometimes the best way to tell someone how much you need them is to tell them the exact opposite, defining your feelings for them the way you'd describe the shape of something by using the negative space around it."

i like to think that as we see more of ro's childhood and understand her troubles more deeply, she is also processing all the pain she carries. i cheered at the spot where she starts to fold herself an origami frog for every day she goes without drinking, and eventually makes herself a small family of frogs.

i also enjoyed picking up on the fact that the story is set in the near future, not present day! at first i thought there were some anachronistic errors, until i realized it makes sense that the oceans are a little warmer, the weather on earth is a little less hospitable, and mars is a little more reachable. the subtlety of this is phenomenal. gina chung is skilled and i'm excited to read more of her work.

the magnificent writing is a joy to read:

He kissed me like a sailor about to go away on a long journey. It was a kiss of salt spray, breaking waves, pink horizons. I thought of dark water and sun-warmed surfaces as we rose and fell, again and again, bobbing against each other like two small boats in a storm.

[Paperback Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This gave me Crying in H Mart vibes with both protagonists having tenuous relationships with their mothers, along with overcoming childhood trauma.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1POfiEoZEU

Ro is navigating her thirties like a confused GPS. Her dad’s been missing - presumed dead - for about 15 years and her bf has been selected to go live on Mars. But Ro finds solace in Delores, the giant Pacific octopus who she confides in everyday at the aquarium where she works. But when some rich dude decides to whisk Delores away, Ro’s life begins to unravel..

A story that tackles themes of solitude, inertia, childhood trauma, and the potent force of love that transcends species.

[acupofteaandabookplease · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What an adventure! I mean, the main character didn't travel the world but her own past, present and most certainly she grew up page by page. I had some struggles mid-book to continue because the description of her depression was quite vivid (especially the alcohol addiction)... I have never felt so down myself in my life but I would recommend the readers to discover this beautiful story when their spirit is great... it may be a little too much if you have a down period in your life...
But that said, I loved to discover some facts about marine fauna, to jump a little bit in the Korean culture and most definitely to share this human feeling that, somehow, we all go through life and try to do our best but still fail sometimes. It's definitely a book I would recommend to people who would like to read a slow developing story centered about feelings and how the main character is dealing with every day ups and downs...

[johnny ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

ro and her boyfriend tae have just broken up. tae is going on a mission to mars, and ro still works at an aquarium at the mall in animal husbandry. dolores, a large octopus, is the only constant factor in her life. her father once worked at the aquarium and found dolores on one of his expeditions. ro’s father was lost at sea when she was fifteen. when she finds out that dolores is going to be sold to a private buyer, she rebels.

this novel includes the topics of intergenerational trauma, immigrant stories, and anti-asian rhetoric. i became a bit fatigued with ro’s inability to move forward and heal, but it was charming at the same time. i was also not very impressed with the ending and i wish it would have been a more powerful moment.

[Ashley (wickedreads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story itself is very mundane but the writing was just so lovely

CWings: alcoholism, grief, racism, neglect

[Barry Pierce · Rating 2 out of 5]

there's simply just too much going on here.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was drawn to this by the references to the protagonist's relationship with an octopus, and the presence of the novel on many a "most anticipated books of 2023" list. Now if I had been aware that this was more of a disaster woman story (think My Year of Rest and Relaxation and The Pisces to name a few) I would have perhaps thought twice about giving it a go... those novels are now ten a penny and a lot of them haven't really worked for me.

Given what I've said above, maybe it's best to take my review with a pinch of salt (and read some more positive ones if you're interested in the book!) but I didn't find much to enjoy here. I struggled to care about much that happened in the story and found the octopus plot to be shoehorned in (and almost as if it was forgotten about later on in the book). Not for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Knopf for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good adult coming-of-age novel, and this one about a Korean American woman was so well done. Inspired by her estranged father, Ro works at an aquarium looking after its resident octopus.
Fans of last year’s hit Remarkably Bright Creatures should enjoy this, but I also think this book’s biggest flaw is its similarities to that one. it definitely gives a different perspective since it’s an AAPI MC but the aquarium portions of the book felt a bit deja vü after reading RBC.

[Jamie Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t believe I bothered finishing this. It was so boring. There was really no story in these 277 pages. And the octopus on the cover was a damn tease.

[Sofija · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a comforting read.
The main character is Aurora, or Ro, a messy, thirty-something Korean-American woman working in an aquarium. Her childhood best friend Yoonhee works there as well. They had a good relationship until Yoonhee declared she was getting married at the same time as Aurora's, boyfriend broke up with her. She was too devastated and in denial to feel happy for her friend and refused to help her plan the wedding. That caused them to drift away. Despite working at the same place, they barely spoke to each other. Yoonhee often ignored Ro's attempts to communicate. I liked this part of the story because it showed how people become bad friends when dealing with a lot in their life. Not everyone knows how to handle life's situations and juggle their crippling sadness, which develops into mild depression and other people's joy. Ro never wished to hurt her friend. Her life ruled by negative thoughts and behaviors, did not lead anywhere. Her coping mechanism was alcohol. The future was something she never gave a second thought. In the end, Ro slowly crawled out of her shell and took control of her life. Ro and Yoonhee broke the mutual silence when they realized how much they missed each other and wanted to grow old together.

Another subplot is Ro's relationship and subsequent breakup with Tae. Their relationship started wholesome, with Tae being caring, kind, and supportive. The main reasons for its downfall are Ro's insecurities and trust issues. Some of her insecurities stem from witnessing her parents' tumultuous marriage and their constant fights. Her parents weren't a great match, and Ro was aware of that from a young age. Her umma mentioned she only came to America because of her husband and how she wishes she hadn't done that. It seems that she never found happiness in her new home.

Ro's apa was a biologist who specialized in marine life. During one of his journeys to the Bering Vortex, his crewmates caught a giant octopus. Apa named her Dolores and donated her to the aquarium. In the present day, while working at that same aquarium, Ro takes care of Dolores. They have a special bond. Dolores often changes her color in response to Ro's monologues. Ro loves to reach her hand in Dolores' tank so the octopus can wrap one of her tentacles around Ro's hand. Those were touching moments.
When Ro was younger, her dad disappeared on one of his journeys to the Bering Vortex. They never discovered his or his crewmates' bodies. She never truly accepted what happened, and even into her adulthood, Ro still believed her dad was somewhere out there and that he would return. On the other hand, apa's disappearance completely shattered umma. Despite their constant fights and mutual intolerance, her heart crumpled into pieces. It seemed her soul would never see another sunny day. Ro was angry at her mother's depression and neglect of her motherly duties. That complex situation left deep marks on Ro's psyche. Their relationship was never the same, and the rigidity of their relationship grew every year.

Part of the reason why Tae broke up with Ro was that he applied for an astronaut mission to Mars. Ro believed Tae would never pass any tests and interviews, and there was no way their relationship would end. Ultimately, that was what happened. Ro could not accept that reality either. Long after their breakup, Ro drunkenly messaged Tae to check if he missed her. He was the best relationship she had ever been in, and after it ended, she could not let it go. That is a common and somewhat normal reaction. In times of insecurity and vulnerability, we continuously reach for something or someone who makes us feel the safest. Parting with someone you had an amazing relationship with, and having experienced genuine love, is challenging. It physically hurts. You are willing to gaslight yourself into believing the breakup never happened. The mind is a powerful trickster and goes to great lengths to protect its sense of normalcy.

Anyway, this is a lovely book with wonderful writing. The sad thing is that there weren't enough octopus moments. I wanted more interaction between Ro and Dolores, no matter how mundane. I love octopi with all my crooked heart, so naturally, I wanted more octopus content.

"One of the things I’ve missed most about working at the aquarium is getting to feed the animals. There’s something so simple and pleasurable about watching an animal eat, witnessing the matter-of-fact alchemy of turning food into energy. When an animal eats, it’s not thinking about anything but the food at hand; it’s simply trying to absorb it as quickly as possible. There isn’t much time, out in the wilds of nature, to wonder too much about anything other than eating, hunting, mating, and surviving.
But Dolores, as soon as she’s done eating, wants to explore. I stick a tentative hand into the water and close my eyes as I feel her curl one arm around my wrist. Octopuses can recognize the distinctive tastes of everything, including of different people, and I wonder what I taste like to her, what she remembers about me."

[enzoreads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Franchement je me suis FORCÉ c’était boring et je ne retiens absolument rien de ma lecture je suis trop désolé :/ et je pensais vraiment que la pieuvre allait avoir une vraie importance et au final pas du touuuut bref je donne deux étoiles par respect

[Dessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

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Many thanks to NetGalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those novels that is really hard for me to rate, and I'm settling on 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3. I enjoyed reading it; I found it relatable on many points; the writing was good; the characters felt complex and real enough to me... and yet. It was a thoughtful novel about growing up but not much more than that, which tends to be a common issue for me with most literary fiction novels.

The story is set either in a maybe-not-so-distant future or in a soft-balled dystopia - one where the disasters of climate change are nearing an irreversible point and humankind is on the brink of colonizing Mars. This is the setup for the three main things that upend Ro's life: her father's disappearance 15 years ago in the fictional "Bering Vortex", a highly polluted zone of the Pacific ocean; the upcoming sale of Dolores, a giant octopus born in that zone that, due to pollution, is more fantastical than your regular giant Pacific octopus; and Ro's ex boyfriend's upcoming expedition to Mars. And in that sense, the setting is important: both Ro's father and boyfriend have gone to a place Ro can't follow. But it's also... not that important, nor does it have any bearing on the rest of the story. Her father could have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle or the Mariana Trench, and her boyfriend could have gone on to live in a colony in the South Pole or joined a cult to a similar effect, and regular octopuses are still pretty damn rad.

So, Ro is struggling with abandonment on multiple fronts. Here are some bits that hit me hard (I enjoyed):

- The complicated relationship between Ro's parents and how it shapes Ro's understanding of herself and her relationships, her feeling that nothing good can last, her fear and discomfort at expressing love and need because it was so sparingly expressed in words to her (LOVED the reference to 10cc's "I'm not in love").

- Ro struggling with the fact that her mother's choices could have been different if she hadn't gotten pregnant with Ro, wondering if things wouldn't have been better for everyone if she hadn't been born, and feeling cheated because all she ever wanted to do was talk to her mother, and when her mother wants to let her in, Ro has too much resentment to react anything but poorly.

- All of this congealing into a feeling of inadequacy in her romantic relationships, a fear that she'll turn out just like her parents, that she can't let another person really see her because then they'll see the worst of her, too, that it's better to just let go.

Like, geez, was this written specifically for me??

While I enjoyed all of these things and even more -the way Ro decides to move forward with her life and her existing relationships, the animal facts- I also am left wanting more. More answers, more world-building development/purpose (since the author chose to use this setting and it is labelled as fantasy), more twists...

But again, I understand this is what literary fiction is like in general and that I'll always be expecting more than the genre is able to give me. it's certainly a well-written, thoughtful book that makes for an interesting (if somewhat gloomy) read.

[Mai · Rating 5 out of 5]

i related to ro so much as she recalled the details of her childhood and how the different experiences shaped her as a person in adulthood. this book, to me, is a reminder of how those things can change you but that you ultimately still have control over your life and choices. this one definitely holds a special place in my heart

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this so much. The premise was promising and the cover is *gorgeous*. Buuut at the end of the day, it’s not for me. There was essentially no plot, ergo no real movement through this story. It relied on flashback scenes to help build character, but even at that…with no real momentum to take the story anywhere, those chapters fell flat.

This felt like watching a wave roll in, one that you think is going to be very big and take your breath away as it crests, and instead, it just seems to collapse on itself.

Definitely not the book for me.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this story of coming to terms with loss and one woman’s journey toward self-acceptance. When Gina Chung’s SEA CHANGE opens, protagonist Ro is struggling to cope with the end of a relationship and drinking excessively. The only positive force in her life seems to be Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus Ro’s father discovered decades earlier who is currently housed at the aquarium where Ro now works. When plans to relocate Dolores are approved, Ro is forced to confront the pain of her past and present.
I truly loved Ro as a character and appreciated her honest and darkly humorous voice. If you go into this novel expecting another REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES, you’ll probably be disappointed. However, SEA CHANGE deserves recognition in its own right as an honest look at the profound impact of loss and abandonment in childhood. I finished the novel feeling hopeful that Ro would find peace. This is a fantastic novel.

[Jaclyn~she lives! catching up on reviews~]

I want to read this because the title is the kind of title I would use if I wrote a novel.

[Claire Fuller]

Gina recently interviewed me at McNally Jackson bookstore in New York, because...octopuses of course. Ro is struggling her way through life while working in an aquarium looking after a giant pacific octopus. Several years ago her father disappeared at sea, but interestingly Chung doesn't make this a novel about Ro looking for him, but more immersing herself in her own memories to escape real life, where her ex-boyfriend has a one-way ticket to Mars and her best friend is distracted by her own wedding. Original, wise and funny. Thanks to the publisher, Picador for my copy.

[Poppy (thepagesofpoppy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"How embarrassing it is, to be so undone by such small things."

Sea Change is the coming-of-age story of Ro, an uninspired woman in her early 30s as she tries to navigate an ocean of heartbreak and grief. Ro's only meaningful companion is Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus in the aquarium Ro works. Dolores is Ro's main link with her father, a marine biologist who disappeared on a return expedition to the area of the ocean where they once caught Dolores.

To say Ro is stuck is an understatement: her boyfriend just left her to join a groundbreaking mission to Mars, her relationship with her mother is rocky and her best friend Yoonhee has grown tired of Ro letting her down. The turning point for Ro is when she finds out that in order to prevent financial insecurity, the aquarium have plans to sell Dolores to a filthy-rich businessman with an interest in marine life. Sea Change is a stunning exploration on what it means to be human.

Sea Change is so so compelling, and beautifully written. It is also weird in all the best ways (who wouldn't want an octopus for a best friend?) I cannot believe that this is Gina Chung's debut and I am so excited to see what she does next. Thanks to Net Galley and Picador for the advance copy of this!

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sea Change is a book about a woman who is stuck in a rut and friends with an octopus, but needs to try and change her life before she drifts away. Ro is in her thirties, works in an aquarium where she looks after an octopus who her now-disappeared dad discovered, and is struggling to deal with her boyfriend leaving her to go on a mission to Mars. She's drinking too much and barely makes time for her childhood best friend, but when she finds out that the octopus, Dolores, is being bought by a rich guy, it becomes clear Ro can't go on like this.

This is a book with a pretty weird premise—woman whose dad disappeared and ex-boyfriend left to go to Mars is friends with an octopus—but it tells a pretty down to earth story of someone hitting rock bottom and needing to change their life. Ro hides behind the past and the people who've left her or let her down, and the novel moves between the present and the past to explore the things that happened that have led her to this point. Though the novel doesn't have a huge amount of plot, as this kind of narrative often doesn't, and doesn't resolve any of the big plot elements that run throughout, meaning that you can end up a bit 'so what' by the end, Ro is a gripping character and the unusual backdrop of the novel that is used to tell a story of a downward spiral brings something fresh to the book.

I chose to read Sea Change because of the weird sounding premise, and it does deliver on being partly about a friendship with an octopus. It's easy to read and enjoyable, exploring a character needing to adapt to change, and though it could go deeper or have more going on, the sense of drifting through it does match up with Ro's mental state in the book.