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dandelionsteph's review
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
I'm subtracting some points on the out-of-place profanity, oddly euphemistic ways of referring to excrement, and very uncreative way of making Jiok look just like New York City and Cheongdang looking just like Los Angeles. So, so many stories take place in New York City: it's almost the default for U.S.-made fantasy trying to depict a modern city.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Chronic illness, and Violence
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Torture, Animal death, Death, and Excrement
It's mentioned that the hells (Jiok) used to torture people, and there are brief mentions of exactly how (though they are not largely not realistic), but when the protagonist enters Jiok, she finds the system has changed to a vacation package-like setup, so there isn't any "on-screen" torture. "Chronic illness" is used for Hattie's mysterious magical condition of sleeping for days and visiting the afterlife while unconscious. The "Suicide Attempt" is listed for the benefit of very sensitive readers: the protagonist uses a faulty love potion which she knows will stop her heart for two hours, allowing her to enter the afterlife, and she has some limited cause to believe it will not cause lasting damage. Still, this is acknowledged as dangerous. The protagonist gets aboard a soul train full of dogs in the afterlife, so obviously there is pet death before the story starts, although it's a minor element, and the dogs seem fine about it and happy. I believe there's some minor body horror about the people forced to eat nothing but fried food for a very long time: they are not merely obese, but seem miserable and unhealthy. Injury detail is for the protagonist's wound from an inugi, which has a sharp acidic tail. Since the protagonist is in the afterlife, obviously, the majority of people there are dead. There are one or two mentions of excrement, conveyed by euphemism (which is odd, given how it treats other topics). There is one instance of profanity, which is very odd, given the tone of the book, the age of the person using it, and the audience, and how easily it could be replaced with something else.
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