The Magic of The Rainfall Market

I did not have an introduction to Korean folklore on my 2025 Bingo list, but I am glad I got to check that box off. In The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang, we join young Serin on her journey through the mythical market, where Dokkaebi guide her through their fantastical realm as she searches for a better future for herself.

Serin is lonely. The kind of lonely that haunts your steps, that you carry around with you like a heavy package. Her mother is always at work, the other children stay at arm’s length, and the neighborhood she lives in is under constant threat of being torn down. She takes care of the small joys in her life, her classes, feeding a stray cat, but longs for a “golden ticket.” Not the Willy Wonka kind, but the actual physical ticket to the mysterious Rainfall Market, where it was said that any hopeless life could be completely changed. All you have to do is write your misfortune down and send it to a particular address. If chosen you will receive a ticket, and on the first day of the rainy season you will be granted entry to the market. Serin doesn’t just receive a ticket, she receives a rare, actual, golden ticket, which also grants her the assistance of a magical cat named Issha to help guide her through the market, searching bookstores, perfumeries and restaurants for the ideal life of her dreams.

Serin is a child, but this is not a child’s journey, and her final destination is one that most adults can spend a whole life in search of. The morals of the story are not subtle. You can see the lessons she learns at each stop in the market as clear as the nose on your face. But they are engagingly written, and you grow to care for the girl with each lesson she learns.

The Dokkaebi themselves are a wonderful thing. The book begins with a small guide to the main Dokkaebi that Serin will encounter. A pictorial key to some of the key players in her story, though their world goes far beyond the few that are highlighted here. Among others we are introduced to Toriya, The Rainfall Market gatekeeper:

“Although he is a mountain of a man with fists the size of boulders, Toriya is meek and gentle, and does odd jobs for the Rainfall Market. He is afraid of insects and adores flowers.”

And Popo, The gardener at the mischief-tree grove:

“An elderly Dokkaebi who brings flowers into bloom and raises towering trees with the sweat and tears humans shed in pursuit of their goals.”

The Dokkaebi collect things from humans and turn them into something else. One Dokkaebi collects forgotten memories and bakes them, another takes away the temptation to give up. At first it feels kind of sinister, evoking the same feelings I had as a child reading Roald Dahl’s The BFG and imagining the giants sneaking into the human world to eat children. But fears are very quickly assuaged as we meet more and more of these amazing creatures, the personifications of each of the human experiences that they steal. Ultimately we are shown that these mythical creatures are as human as we are, subject to the same wants, desires, loves, and troubles. Also that the things that they take form an essential part of our experience, and often help us.

“You’re the one who takes old memories from people so they don’t remember what it was like to be young” …
Tut-tutting Bordo retorted, “They’d never get married and have kids of their own if I let them keep those memories. They’d know how hard it is to raise children”

The story is beautifully told and propels you along in a lyrical adventure that makes you want to keep reading and not put the book down. Until she makes her final decision, I had no idea what decision Serin was going to make, but as she travels through the market and explores her own ideas of what life could be, you see more and more of her character, how kind of a person she is, and you desperately want her to make the right choice. It poses a question that will stick with you, that I’m sure everyone has wondered at least once when staring at the lottery tickets in the grocery store. If you could swap your life, or part of it, for a better one, would you?

The tone of the book, its warmth, kindness, and gentle storytelling, reminded me of Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Tales from the Cafe series, which I devoured last year. For fans of that time traveling tale, this book is bound to appeal. I look forward to more from Yeong-Gwang, and will definitely be seeking out more tales and history of the Dokkaebi.

The Rainfall Market will be available on January 21st. GeekMom received a copy for review purposes.