emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark sad tense medium-paced

This dragged a bit and there were some weird elements near the end, but overall I felt that this was really well done and explored its themes really effectively, while also weaving in the horror elements in a subtle way that really made them pop. I especially loved the final scene. While this isn’t manga, I think fans of Junji Ito will love this.

3.4
dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre is an absolutely bizarre surrealist horror from Cho Yeeun. This novel is a fever dream set in a Disney-esque theme park and is just wonderfully weird.

Jelly Massacre is set during an especially hot day at a South Korean theme park. We follow several perspectives from people impacted by the fateful jelly, ranging from children, to couples, to cats. There’s not much story to be told, and don’t expect any mysteries to be solved - this is just a weird little story about people melting together.

Cho Yeeun manages to describe the heat of the day in sweltering detail, the most disgusting parts of the story for me were the descriptions of sweat and stickiness - and this was before we get to the jelly. The body horror left a little to be desired for me, I think I just wanted a little more trauma to be peppered into the perspectives.

Jelly Massacre is a simple read with some vile adjectives, I think it’s a fantastic read if you’re new to surrealist body horror.
dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Really enjoyed the strangeness of this book with its switching POVs. Made for an engaging read
dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: No