Excerpt from Snowglobe by Soyoung Park, Joungmin Lee Comfort, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"We're off, Granny! See you later!" Ongi calls toward the living room in his usual upbeat tone.

But as he turns the doorknob, Grandma's urgent voice stops us short.

"Wait! My goodness, Ongi! Chobahm is on TV!" she cries.

Ongi and I exchange a look as she coos at the TV. "Aww ... Chobahm! My sweet baby girl."

I don't have to look to know that it's Goh Haeri on the screen. Ongi refuses to acknowledge it, but the beloved actress and I look very much alike. We even share the same birthday, and for what it's worth, it so happens that we're both lefties. But no one, except for Grandma, would ever mistake me for her, what with my rough cheeks perpetually inflamed from daily exposure to bone-dry, subzero air, and my coarse hair cropped short for quick washing in frigid water. In contrast, Haeri's porcelain skin, rosy cheeks, and trademark long, shiny hair radiate her Snowglobe pedigree.

About Snowglobe. With the world now at an average annual temperature of -50°F, Snowglobe is the only place with a temperate climate—the only location with warmth and color—in the whole world. It's a special settlement that was built atop a geothermal vent and is enclosed in a gigantic weatherproof glass dome. But not just anyone can live there. Its lucky residents are actors, whose unscripted lives are recorded in real time and edited into shows, which are then broadcast to the open world for entertainment. Goh Haeri isn't just an actress, she's a megastar, and she's just been named the new weathercaster—one of the most coveted jobs in Snowglobe. She'll set the record as the youngest weathercaster in the history of the settlement.

I turn a flat gaze to the TV screen. Dressed in a stylish suit, Haeri looks like she was born to fill the position.

"Hi, it's Goh Haeri," she greets the viewers in a buoyant tone. "I'm so excited and honored to be serving our community as the new weathercaster. Make sure to tune in to News at Nine on New Year's Day!"

She treats us to her perfect smile, and then the camera cuts away.

I wonder, not for the first time, if I'll ever be able to meet her in real life. If my hair grew in proportion to my desire for a life in Snowglobe, I could shave my head bare every night and I'd wake up the next day with it sweeping the floor. Sometimes I wonder if my intense longing for the place might be responsible for Grandma confusing me with Haeri—as though she can see my soul yearning to flee this godforsaken icebox in favor of Haeri's life in Snowglobe.

Ongi turns back to the door, clucking his tongue in distaste.

"What?" I hiss, glowering back at him.

"If only you hadn't talked so much nonsense about how you might be Goh Haeri's lost twin and—"

"Stop." I cut him off with a cuff to the ribs. I can feel the color rising to my face at the memory. "Unless you want to dig your way out of a snowbank!"

But he's wearing too many layers to be warned off, and he boldly resumes running his mouth. I shove him and he shoves me back, and then we're snatching at each other and ducking and banging into walls—until we finally end up laughing too hard to keep fighting and we pull ourselves together, then open the door and step outside.

Fifty degrees below zero. The frozen world welcomes us by snatching the breath from our lungs. My nose instantly freezes and stings, and within a few blinks, ice crystals form on my eyelashes and cloud my view.

"It's so damn cold," Ongi says with a full-body shudder.

From age six, my twin brother and I accompanied each other to school every day for ten years. Since graduation in February, though, our daily commute has been to the power plant.

I look up at the marbled sky, its gunmetal gray promising a second squall in three days. In the bleak world below, squat log cabins dot the white expanses between tall pines, their branches heavy with snow.

Excerpted from Snowglobe by Soyoung Park and Joungmin Lee Comfort. Copyright © 2024 by Soyoung Park and Joungmin Lee Comfort. Excerpted by permission of Delacorte Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.