Inhae's blog

아이돌 살인 by 이소민 (Lee Somin)

I really loved the first third of this novel, because I like police procedurals and I thought that’s what this book would be as it opens with police detective Shin Riae investigating a crime scene. But I found that this whole scene was mainly there to establish the three suspects, and then the core of the novel was more about the characters themselves, the relationship between Shin Riae and the three suspects, and of course, the entertainment industry in South Korea.

This last topic is what drawn me to the novel, and it was very interesting, but I also was hoping that the novel would be more about the entertainment industry in itself, but it was rather how this world affects the characters. I found the story was more on a personal level than a social level if it makes sense.

It’s hard to explain why I started losing interest for the story about halfway through, because I think it’s a really good book.

Oh well, it happens, I’m glad I finished it still, and I recommend it if you’re interested in the world of idols and entertainment in Korea.

무덤꺄지 비밀이야 by 안세화 (An Sehwa)

This one was a short and suspenseful novel, and it was exactly what I needed to renew with Korean reading.

Three friends and a stranger found themselves in a dire situation as they were hiking, and because they think they are all going to die, they share their deepest secrets… but, they end up being rescued.

The novel shows how the secret shared by the stranger will affect our three friends, and in particular our protagonist Juwon. Reading this book was such a delight, it’s both a dark comedy and a psychological thriller. It’s the kind of book where you know what’s likely to happen, but it’s the process to get there that is really fascinating. I love stories that show how a perfectly ordinary citizen can have their life and personality dramatically altered when put in certain circumstances.

I loved this book more than I can say, I was sure it would be my favourite book of January, but the three books I read after were all equally good!

밸런스 게임 지옥 by 김종일

This was another really good thriller, more action based, very suspenseful, with a lot more depth than I thought initially.

The pace of this novel is very fast, it starts right away with the first sentence being “dad, save me!”.

Famous film director Jeong Pilgyu has to play the “balance game” (the equivalent of Would you rather?) to save his daughter who has been kidnapped, while trying to figure out who is behind the kidnapping and why this person wants to harm him so badly.

This alone made the novel a very suspenseful thriller, I absolutely loved seeing our protagonist torn between two equally evil choices. And the plot also takes a surprising turn, and becomes even more interesting as new characters enter the stage.

But what made me really loved this novel, is that it’s the kind of book that makes the reader’s opinion on the characters change drastically the more the story progresses. I love this kind of experience. The novel also becomes much more meaningful as it tackles a serious and heavy topic, while still being very entertaining and keeping its fast pace all along.

暗黑者 by 周浩晖 (Zhou Haohui)

This is the first volume of a trilogy that used to be called 死亡通知单, and originally, the titles of the series were:

死亡通知单1 : 暗黑者
死亡通知單2：宿命
死亡通知單3：離別曲
and an additional title called: 死亡通知單外傳：懲罰

But now the publisher is using the subheading of the first book as main title for the whole series 🤷🏻‍♀️ So the first one has no subheading, and then they just use the same as the originals, so we have:

暗黑者1
暗黑者2：宿命
暗黑者3：離別曲
暗黑者外傳：懲罰

It was so confusing, thankfully someone on Mastodon helped me figure it out.

As for the story, it’s an incredible page-turner. I absolutely loved it, I just couldn’t put it down. This was a real police procedural, exactly what I loved, and it was such a suspenseful thriller. The police investigation is great, the on-field operations were really thrilling, and the search to uncover the motives of the antagonist will also reveal shocking secrets. I found it amazing that it was not just a suspenseful thriller where the police is fighting against a serial killer, but it was also a really good mystery novel where we investigate past cases and piece together information to get to the truth.

The first book has its own end, even though the main story is not finished, so I’m going to read other things in Chinese first before I continue the trilogy. But I will continue it for sure!

403小組，警隊出動！by 顏瑜 (Yen Yu)

Yen Yu is probably my favourite Taiwanese author so far!

403小組，警隊出動！was really impressive for a debut novel. We follow young and enthusiastic police officer Chien Yu-wei who greatly admires his senior and partner Wang Shuo-yen, and we learn about their daily work at a local police station. Then a case happens with much bigger implications than the two partners initially foresaw…

I found this book very similar to the other one I read by this author: 七十號，你的鳥歪了, in both cases, we first learn about the daily life of our protagonist (at the police school for one, at a police station for the other), but then the plot gets a much larger scale and takes the reader into a suspenseful case while uncovering internal issues within a system that promotes greed and self-preservation and where low ranked officers are easily sacrificed in the process.

It’s rare to find novels that have well-written characters and a suspenseful plot while giving such good insights into a professional field, showing how the system works and giving an unsparing criticism of its flaws.

I’ll continue reading Yen Yu’s police novels this year!