I did a post about a year ago with the same idea: Top 5 books that correspond to popular k-dramas. I really enjoyed making it and I decided to post it on Instagram recently. The response I got to the post was really heart-warming and I wanted to make a part two, considering how much I enjoyed making the first one.

Hotel Del Luna and The Diviners Series by Libba Bray

I watched Hotel Del Luna a good few years ago and really enjoyed it. The Diviners series is one that I am still in the process of reading, but I have loved books one and two. I believe they that both stories have many similarities:

• Fantasy elements: Hotel Del Luna is mainly set in a Hotel for ghosts, in the modern day world. The Diviners is set in 1920’s New York, where there are people with abilities known as ‘Diviners’. Both have the fantastical elements of magic and the supernatural – with the presence of ‘ghosts’ being integral to both stories.
• A wide cast of characters: There are many main and recurring characters in both works. Hotel Del Luna has the main characters of Manwol and Chansung, but it also has the Hotel workers and guests. The Diviners has many characters that are integral to the plot of the story, with Evie being the main and the others appearing alongside her, and also getting their own POV’s throughout the series. Both works also have a found family aspect because of this.
• Complex female main characters: Both Manwol and Evie are extremely complex characters. They make mistakes, have questionable motives, and are overall very interesting characters, yet they’re never villainised for this.
• Romance and Horror elements: The romances in both of these stories are an important feature of the story – as much as the fantasy and horror elements are. Each genre is balanced and blended well together. There are many horror elements involved in the works, one being the supernatural and eerieness involved.

The Eighth Sense and Heartstopper by Alice Osemen

I love both of these stories. I think they’re both truly incredible and emotional queer romances and their vibes feel very similar to me in a few ways:

• Mental Health Representation: Both Jaewon and Charlie struggle in their respective mental health journeys. Jaewon struggles with depression and suicidal ideation, and Charlie’s anorexia nervosa and OCD make it very difficult for him to cope in the later volumes of Heartstopper.
• The romances in both stories are beautifully written and feature supportive partners, ‘sunshine’ love interests, and chemistry filled moments.
• Educational settings of College/ University and Secondary/ High School respectively.
• Bullying and problematic friend groups: Both Jihyun and Charlie have amazingly supportive friend groups, yet Jaewon and Nick have friend groups that are neither supportive nor ‘amazing’ at the beginning of their stories. Both Jaewon and Nick endure friendships with people who consistently deplete their energy and make them into shell’s of themselves. Alongside this, Charlie endures bullying at the beginning of Heartstopper.

King the Land and King of Pride by Ana Huang

King of Pride is one of my all-time favourite romance books, and King the Land is a show I watched a few years back and immediately fell in love with. I feel like these two romance stories have a lot in common, apart from just their titles.

• ‘Heir to an empire’/ CEO male leads: Kai Young and Guwon have a few traits in common with one another, one being their professions. Both Kai and Guwon are heirs to their parent’s respective empires – Media and Hospitality. Apart from that, both Kai and Guwon initially appear quite aloof and reserved, but hide a charming and lovable nature.
• Forbidden romance: In King of Pride, Isabella works at the Valhalla club in which Kai is a member. Fraternisation is forbidden between employee’s and members of the club and so Kai and Isabella keep their attraction and subsequent romance under wraps. In King the Land on the other hand, Sarang is an employee of a hotel under the King group, of which Guwon is the heir.
• Inheritance/ CEO battles: Guwon and Kai feature in a battle of inheritance/ for the title of CEO of their parents’ companies. These plots are central to both King the Land and King of Pride.

When Life Gives You Tangerines and Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

When Life Gives You Tangerines is a beautifully nostalgic and heartfelt k-drama that deserves the recognition it gets in the genre. Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a story of love, loss, and human connection told through time travel. At a glance, these two stories might not feel very similar, but I think they share a lot of similar traits:

• Time as an integral theme: Time-travel is the main idea within Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Time-travel produces a dialogue on how time can change both everything and nothing about oneself and life in general. When Life Gives You Tangerines on the other hand, shows time in the parallel storylines of Aesun and Gwansik, and their daughter Geum-myeong.
• Familial bonds: Family is undeniably one of the most important themes in both stories. In When Life Gives You Tangerines, Aesun and Gwansik’s romantic relationship is just as important as the bond they share with their children. Before the Coffee Gets Cold shows different familial relationships in each story, most notably that of two sisters and of a mother and child.
• Love and loss: Love, in it’s many forms, is the central idea for both stories – the romantic relationships of Aesun and Gwansik, and Nagare and Kei; the parent-child relationships; and the many other types of love (even that of one’s love for a place, or a particular time). Alongside that is the constant companion of love: loss. Loss is central to both stories. In a story of time-travel, there is bound to be a loss of some kind, whether it’s a person or a connection. When Life Gives You Tangerines shows loss in grief, in the loss of autonomy, and in the loss of one’s circumstances.
• Nostalgia and ‘slice of life’: Both stories succeed in producing a nostalgic atmosphere. The constant reference of times within history or in one’s person life, alongside the descriptions/ imagery seen, help to create that atmosphere. Both stories also have that ‘slice of life’ feel to them – they feel like ordinary people, enduring hardships and having ‘normal’ lives.

Bloodhounds and the All for the Game Series by Nora Sakavic

Bloodhounds is one of my favourite k-dramas, and All for the Game is one my all-time favourite book series – it seems fitting then, that they have some things in common.

• Sports-centred storylines: Sports are significant in both stories – Boxing for Bloodhounds, and Exy (a fictional game) for All for the Game. These sports feature heavily in both works and the characters within them are heavily involved.
• Ambiguously close male friendships: Gunwoo and Woojin meet at the beginning of Bloodhounds and immediately become inseparable. Various circumstances force them into developing a bond unlike any other they might have and their relationship doesn’t fit under any individual label. Similarly, any of the friendships in All for the Game could be seen the same way (apart from the explicitly romantic relationship of Neil and Andrew).
• Found family: A chosen family is an important feature for both Bloodhounds and All for the Game. Gunwoo and Woojin accumulate an array of people that they trust in both seasons of Bloodhounds as they navigate the dangers of the world they’ve become involved in. The characters in All for the Game are a mismatched group of outcasts who have various traumas they are in the process of recovering from and find a home within one another.
• ‘Mafia’/ Criminal gangs: The characters in both series are involved (involuntarily) with criminality. Gunwoo and Woojin are in the money laundering business in the first season, and an underground fighting ring in the second. Neil and Kevin, along with a few others, are involved with the ‘mafia’ (aka the Moriyama criminal empire) in All for the Game.