Marigold Mind Laundry | Jungeun Yun

 "perhaps the only thing we never have to work for is the morning, which comes around to greet us every day."

    We meet Jieun; a woman with magical power who accidentally has caused her parents to vanish. She has been through many rebirths and has been looking for her parents for an untold amount of time. In her journey to heal her grief by providing a laundry service, the eponymous Marigold Mind Laundry, that can erase any painful memories or one’s emotional trauma as stains on T-shirts. They can then choose to completely wash away the stains into a whirlwind of flower petals which later would drift into the air and lose the memory permanently, or just iron out the creases, reducing the effect of the memory on their psyche. Here she comes into contact with 5 strangers whose souls she transforms.

    The plot is centered along Jieun’s perspective and those individuals that she met; of one’s life struggles and emotional mess that can be both relatable and too heart-wrenching. I liked how their friendship built and progressed heartwarmingly for Jieun. The individual stories weave in patterns of human sorrow and regrets that we desperately wish to forget. Despite the lesson and all, it engraves itself as hurt and pain. The story many inspirational quotes that made ponder on the very essence of life and our actions.

    Reading this felt like I was sitting in a room with an advisor giving me a list of tips on how to live my life well and be more grateful. It was so rich with life advices and was more like a healing self-help book rather than a magical realism fiction to me.

    It's a sweet, somewhat sentimental story, but people showing each other kindness makes me happy and I refuse to see stories like this as corny or bad in any way. I certainly wished there was such a laundry in the real world that could help me take stock of my life and get rid o some of the negativity put upon my own soul.

    The only complaint I have is the heavy use of “quotable lines” – sentences that truly feel like they were put in place so they could be quoted in Instagram posts out of context by people who have no idea as to their meaning and want to sound deep. We all know those people. Aside from that, it is a touching story that made me stop and think for a second – though maybe I should set your expectations straight – don’t expect any lasting change.