“This Christmas, I’m gonna be dead!”

The coming-of-age novel Time-Limited by emerging author Baek Eun-Byul is a delicate portrayal of adolescents a step away from spiraling and falling deep into depression. Through the perspective of a 15-year-old, the book exposes the harsh realities faced by students in South Korea who voluntarily choose a “time limit" for their lives.

According to recent statistics, suicide has been the leading cause of death among South Korean teenagers for 11 consecutive years (Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, 2023 Youth Statistics). The twin issues of "teen depression" and "teen suicide" have become inseparable from the lives of today’s youth. While adults often dismiss their struggles as mere immaturity or fleeting emotions, the depression experienced by adolescents is much deeper than adults can fathom.

As a fellow teenager, Baek Eun-Byul portrays the feelings of despair, confusion, and thoughts of death that many young people grapple with through the characters in Time-Limited. Not only do the main characters, Soo-ah and her close friend Yoon-Seo, carry these burdens, but her other characters also bring to us their worldviews, putting a spotlight on the endemic issues of youth depression and suicide.

Time-Limited, which achieved an exceptionally high amount of funding on Korea's Wadiz crowdfunding platform, has garnered much love and support from both teenagers and their parents since its publication. The story of the protagonists, traumatized and voluntarily “time-limited", aims to offer comfort and a message of hope to those who too may be struggling with thoughts of death.