Reviews - Bir Katilin Güncesi

633 reviews for:

Bir Katilin Güncesi

Young-Ha Kim

3.63 AVERAGE

anlytampere's review against another edition

3.0

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I picked up this book primarily for the first short story about the murderer with dementia, but it never quite grabbed me the way I expected. The fragmented narrative style effectively conveyed the protagonist's mental deterioration, but I found myself getting lost in the tangled relationships between the daughter, the mysterious other man, and the police.

However, the second short story completely caught my breath. The kidnapping tale was painfully realistic, depicting a family's devastating collapse with raw intensity. Just when I thought I had it figured out, the story twisted, only to reveal that the real surprise wasn’t a twist at all. Brilliant.

The final story also left a strong impression, even if I didn’t fully connect with the protagonist. The closing scene had me torn between shock and a strange kind of awe. It is exactly the kind of morally complex, emotionally charged writing that lingers long after the last page. While the first story didn’t work for me, the latter two made this collection undeniably worth the read.

breez's review against another edition

3.75

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

alex_blue's review against another edition

3.0

The title story, about a serial killer with Alzheimer's, is astounding. The other three stories, less so.

dannybailey's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

izzatiidrus's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious 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: Yes

This is a compilation of 4 short stories and you know how such compilations go – some are better than others. I have actually watched the movie adaptation of the short story Diary of a Murderer prior to reading this book. However, I realized that the adaptation was not true to the book but I understood why they took liberty with it. The way the story was written in the book would not have translated very well on screen, it being diary excerpts of an ex-murderer with dementia. For the movie, rather than placing the mystery solely on an unreliable narrator, they had to make it more exciting.

The Origin of Life is basically about a selfish man’s point of view of life. How choices come with consequences. How some people, like the narrator, do not care about anything beyond themselves surviving in the world.

In Missing Child, we see what could happen to a family if a kidnapped child returned to the family who had by then dedicated their whole lives to finding him. Now that the goal was reached, could they move on and live happily ever after like they dreamed they could? Would the child, who was now much older be able to assimilate to the family’s way of living?

The last story, The Writer was my least favourite. Why on earth do they like to put the worst of the bunch as the last story? Always leaves me with such a bad aftertaste. Anyway, the story is about a male writer trying to focus on writing but always got seduced by somebody else’s wife to have sex with. It’s mostly just about cheating, sex and someone going crazy (as in medically, mentally). I feel like this is one of those times a male author wanted to get rid of his sexual frustrations because my goodness, how many times have I read the same type of short stories by male authors.

All in all, if you like to read about the ugly side of human beings, then this book would probably be perfect for you.