Reviews

The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo

ufohnooo's review against another edition

adventurous reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

janiceinwonderland's review against another edition

mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

this was originally intended to be a quick read to hold me over on another hold that i had, but i honestly loved this read. i enjoyed how matter-of-fact hornclaw was and the cast of characters & circumstances they all met carried me through to the bittersweet end. i’d love to see this adapted into a movie or series tbh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Kidnapping and Sexual assault

bbbarttt's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

kathrinpassig's review against another edition

2.0

Vielversprechende Prämisse (65-jährige Auftragskillerin), aber so langweilig umgesetzt, als bekäme man die Handlung des eigentlichen Buchs nur nacherzählt. Auf sehr langweilige Weise.

theeuphoriczat's review against another edition

3.0

This is the story of a 65 year old female assassin who is known as the best in her field and is currently considering retirement. She lives in a self-imposed isolation with her ageing dog (also I doubt being a contract killer is the kind of job that allows you to keep friends). She works for a 'disease control' agency (a company that is paid to kill people). For the past four decades, she has killed lots of people from cheating spouses to corporate enemies. But one mistake at an assassination job leaves her open to the repercussions of her previous kills.

This is was a really easy one for me to read and I did enjoy it. I have to say that this book is very similar to Kill Bokson, the Netflix show.

ashley_tx's review

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

torivica's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

shai3d's review

Too slow 

raulbime's review against another edition

Although I'm marking this as finished, I've given up on this at the 40% mark, and, as this site informs me, I've been reading this book for six weeks now meaning I'm making little progress and painfully dulled despite my expectations. The premise of the book, a sixty five year old woman working as an assassin for a death dealing agency, attracted me to it. But there's little else that held my attention, which is odd as the book itself is filled with well described details of stealthy murders and violence, and what with our minds being shaped to accommodate this as the most enthralling form of entertainment there is.

In the end this book isn't necessarily to blame for my disappointment, I am. It never pretended to be anything it wasn't. And honestly it was intriguing in the beginning, and might interest those who like stories with a premise like this one. It's not everyday that books about older people, especially women, are written and published, much less translated into English. So reading about an old woman who uses the cloak of invisibility society wraps around the old as it pushes them towards the margins of society to become unseen and unheard as a tool in her trade as an assassin did thrill me, until it didn't. Honestly I've never been a big fan of detective/murder/"action" stories, and only tend to like them when there's more besides killings and when writers delve brilliantly into the societal conditions that produce violence, which is to say I kind of set myself up here. At the back of my mind as I read this, the only thing that echoed was this passage from[b:Transit|1793889|Transit|Anna Seghers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1188429527l/1793889._SY75_.jpg|2283306] by [a:Anna Seghers|262916|Anna Seghers|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1235495804p2/262916.jpg]

"Aren't you thoroughly fed up with such thrilling stories? Aren't you sick of all these suspenseful tales about people surviving mortal danger by a hair, about breathtaking escapes? Me, I'm sick and tired of them. If something still thrills me today, then maybe it's an old worker's yarn about how many feet of wire he's drawn in the course of his long life and what tools he used, or the glow of the lamplight by which a few children are doing their homework."

care95's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0