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bookeared's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
oxuria's review against another edition
3.0
ciekawa, (nie)codzienna opowieść o staruszce, zdecydowanie warta uwagi!
marzi's review
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kristymarie's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
elysehallett's review
3.0
If you’re looking for a charming Quentin Tarantino-like story, this books it!
It’s different, but I was sucked in from the opening train scene. An interesting take on society’s treatment of the elderly, made even more stark by placing the female protagonist in such a physically demanding occupation. I really enjoyed her as a character. Just had a hard time really following all the threads and nuances.
I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys a good fight scene
It’s different, but I was sucked in from the opening train scene. An interesting take on society’s treatment of the elderly, made even more stark by placing the female protagonist in such a physically demanding occupation. I really enjoyed her as a character. Just had a hard time really following all the threads and nuances.
I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys a good fight scene
alannabarras's review
5.0
I went into this blind and let me tell you, it was a great choice. If you’re in the mood for a tightly wound thriller, stop now and just go get it - you can come back and let me know what you think after.
The Old Woman With The Knife follows Hornclaw, a senior citizen who is getting to where she’s about ready to retire from her long standing career… as a contract killer, or ‘disease control specialist’. She’s noticed her reflexes are starting to slow, and her joints hurt more than they used to. Even worse, she’s not sure she can trust her own mind anymore. Add to the mix a young buck chafing to prove his mettle, and you end up with a fabulously stressful tale balanced on a knife edge. Hornclaw might be locked into the fight of her life as the next generation aims to supplant her, or maybe the young rising star in the office is just rude.
The interlacing power dynamics inherent in age, gender, physical strength, and force of personality are pulled together to showcase how quickly the solid ground beneath you can turn into quicksand if you misjudge any single factor in a high-pressure situation. Hornclaw brings the audience along with her as she fights to remain in the present even as she’s pulled more and more into the past, recalling her history as though each decades-old memory happened only yesterday.
This book is like nothing I’ve read before but everything I wanted a thriller to be. I paired it with a fresh sliced Palisade peach because I ended up craving fruit every time Hornclaw visited the fruitseller’s stand, and because it was peach season when I read this and they’re my absolute favorite fruit. Three cheers to Gu Byeong-Mo and her translator Chi-Young Kim, both of whom did an absolutely incredible job!
For more reviews like this check out www.lonslibrary.com
The Old Woman With The Knife follows Hornclaw, a senior citizen who is getting to where she’s about ready to retire from her long standing career… as a contract killer, or ‘disease control specialist’. She’s noticed her reflexes are starting to slow, and her joints hurt more than they used to. Even worse, she’s not sure she can trust her own mind anymore. Add to the mix a young buck chafing to prove his mettle, and you end up with a fabulously stressful tale balanced on a knife edge. Hornclaw might be locked into the fight of her life as the next generation aims to supplant her, or maybe the young rising star in the office is just rude.
The interlacing power dynamics inherent in age, gender, physical strength, and force of personality are pulled together to showcase how quickly the solid ground beneath you can turn into quicksand if you misjudge any single factor in a high-pressure situation. Hornclaw brings the audience along with her as she fights to remain in the present even as she’s pulled more and more into the past, recalling her history as though each decades-old memory happened only yesterday.
This book is like nothing I’ve read before but everything I wanted a thriller to be. I paired it with a fresh sliced Palisade peach because I ended up craving fruit every time Hornclaw visited the fruitseller’s stand, and because it was peach season when I read this and they’re my absolute favorite fruit. Three cheers to Gu Byeong-Mo and her translator Chi-Young Kim, both of whom did an absolutely incredible job!
For more reviews like this check out www.lonslibrary.com
quartzmaya's review
2.0
“The average life span can’t be the yardstick against which to measure an old person’s health. The increase in average life expectancy is merely due to the ability of science and medicine to delay death. As the focus is on prolonging life without having fully considered its quality, an old person living in a society with an average life span of one hundred years is like a prophetic shaman who forgets to include “pretty and young” when praying for eternal life and forever ends up with a wrinkly face and a hunched back.”
When I picked up The Old Woman with the Knife, I was excited about the premise: a 65-year-old female assassin reflecting on her twilight years while still wielding her knife with ruthless precision. It sounded fresh, introspective, and maybe even a little thrilling. But after finishing it, I felt more lukewarm than anything else—disappointed, really, by the unfulfilled potential of what could have been a knockout story.
Hornclaw, our aging assassin, is an intriguing character on paper. She’s solitary, methodical, and cold, with a dash of vulnerability creeping in as she grows older. The idea of her grappling with her mortality and questioning her past is compelling. However, in execution, her portrayal felt frustratingly uneven. One moment she’s a steely professional lamenting her physical decline, the next she’s scaling trees and surviving life-threatening situations with near-superhuman resilience. It was hard to reconcile the narrative's insistence on her fragility with her actual actions.
Worse still, the story struggled to create a sense of urgency or investment. Much of it plods along, more interested in Hornclaw’s internal musings than in crafting a truly gripping plot. The commentary on ageism and societal expectations for older women was interesting, but it was so repetitive that it began to feel more like a lecture than an organic part of the story.
And let’s talk about the supporting cast—or the lack thereof. The characters surrounding Hornclaw felt flat, like props rather than fully realized people. Even her antagonist, the younger assassin Bullfight, came off as cartoonish, never managing to feel like a genuine threat. Without dynamic relationships or interactions, much of the story felt emotionally hollow.
The writing itself didn’t help. It was clinical and detached, which might have been a stylistic choice to mirror Hornclaw’s personality but ultimately made the book feel dry. For a story about a knife-wielding assassin, there was surprisingly little tension or suspense. Even the action scenes felt muted, lacking the visceral punch you’d expect.
To its credit, the book does have moments of poignancy. Hornclaw’s relationship with her dog, Deadweight, added some much-needed warmth, and her reflections on a lifetime of violence were occasionally thought-provoking. But these moments were too few and far between to make up for the novel’s shortcomings.
In the end, The Old Woman with the Knife felt like an over-stretched novella. It had an intriguing premise but lacked the energy and depth to truly deliver. If you’re drawn to stories about aging and introspection, you might find something to appreciate here. But if you’re hoping for a sharp, action-packed thriller, this one might leave you unsatisfied—like a cup of decaf when you were craving espresso.
When I picked up The Old Woman with the Knife, I was excited about the premise: a 65-year-old female assassin reflecting on her twilight years while still wielding her knife with ruthless precision. It sounded fresh, introspective, and maybe even a little thrilling. But after finishing it, I felt more lukewarm than anything else—disappointed, really, by the unfulfilled potential of what could have been a knockout story.
Hornclaw, our aging assassin, is an intriguing character on paper. She’s solitary, methodical, and cold, with a dash of vulnerability creeping in as she grows older. The idea of her grappling with her mortality and questioning her past is compelling. However, in execution, her portrayal felt frustratingly uneven. One moment she’s a steely professional lamenting her physical decline, the next she’s scaling trees and surviving life-threatening situations with near-superhuman resilience. It was hard to reconcile the narrative's insistence on her fragility with her actual actions.
Worse still, the story struggled to create a sense of urgency or investment. Much of it plods along, more interested in Hornclaw’s internal musings than in crafting a truly gripping plot. The commentary on ageism and societal expectations for older women was interesting, but it was so repetitive that it began to feel more like a lecture than an organic part of the story.
And let’s talk about the supporting cast—or the lack thereof. The characters surrounding Hornclaw felt flat, like props rather than fully realized people. Even her antagonist, the younger assassin Bullfight, came off as cartoonish, never managing to feel like a genuine threat. Without dynamic relationships or interactions, much of the story felt emotionally hollow.
The writing itself didn’t help. It was clinical and detached, which might have been a stylistic choice to mirror Hornclaw’s personality but ultimately made the book feel dry. For a story about a knife-wielding assassin, there was surprisingly little tension or suspense. Even the action scenes felt muted, lacking the visceral punch you’d expect.
To its credit, the book does have moments of poignancy. Hornclaw’s relationship with her dog, Deadweight, added some much-needed warmth, and her reflections on a lifetime of violence were occasionally thought-provoking. But these moments were too few and far between to make up for the novel’s shortcomings.
In the end, The Old Woman with the Knife felt like an over-stretched novella. It had an intriguing premise but lacked the energy and depth to truly deliver. If you’re drawn to stories about aging and introspection, you might find something to appreciate here. But if you’re hoping for a sharp, action-packed thriller, this one might leave you unsatisfied—like a cup of decaf when you were craving espresso.
misspurpleann's review
2.0
I think the story was too slow, nothing much happened, but maybe I don't understand the deeper or hidden dark jokes?
letiloyeti's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stelline ☆
Un buon romanzo, di cui ho apprezzato principalmente la caratterizzazione del personaggio principale e le riflessioni sulla vecchiaia.
Un buon romanzo, di cui ho apprezzato principalmente la caratterizzazione del personaggio principale e le riflessioni sulla vecchiaia.
karinbb's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Reading this book feels a little clunky because it's a translation but that doesn't hamper the flow or quality of the plot. And some of the metaphors are just drop dead gorgeous. (pun intended). The main character has a career that most would say makes her a bad person and yet we get a good sense of what brought her to it and we see that she has a set of values within that bad-person-ness. She's complicated but overall sympathetic, credit to the author because that is some kind of trick to pull off. Finally, the book is an overall enjoyable read with plenty to think about.