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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Although a short novel, there's quite a bit of emotion packed into it. The more you find out about the characters, though, the more difficult it is to like them. I will, however, say that the author convincingly detailed how suffocating isolation can be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Infidelity
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
medium-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
⭐️⭐️/ 2 stars
The Hole is a psychological thriller about Oghi, a man who has lost everything in a car crash that leaves him unable to move.
The story feels more like fiction than horror to me. For me, a horror story makes me feel fear and often makes my heart race. This book didn't, I often times felt unpleasant by whatever was happening. The supposed horror, I think, was really subtle and shown through the actions of some.
The story is also really short and the way of telling the story didn't really work for me. Oghi is the only character who has a name and is spoken to by that name. All the others have a "title" instead; the wife, the mother-in-law etcetera. Because of this the characters seemed like people mentioned in passing instead of important characters to the story.
I also really feel like I was missing an important point of this book. I understood the part about loneliness and dark truths we sometimes want to bury, but it still feels like I missed it. Like their was an underlying point to this book that I should've understood and didn't. Maybe some point were a bit lost in translating the book to English. Also the ending came really abrupt to me and for me, it felt like that shouldn't have been the end. It almost felt like the story ending in the middle of a sentence.
Overall, the book didn't really work out for me. I wanted to try something different from my normal reads, and sadly it didn't really work out. While it was still interesting to read, it just didn't click for me.
The Hole is a psychological thriller about Oghi, a man who has lost everything in a car crash that leaves him unable to move.
The story feels more like fiction than horror to me. For me, a horror story makes me feel fear and often makes my heart race. This book didn't, I often times felt unpleasant by whatever was happening. The supposed horror, I think, was really subtle and shown through the actions of some.
The story is also really short and the way of telling the story didn't really work for me. Oghi is the only character who has a name and is spoken to by that name. All the others have a "title" instead; the wife, the mother-in-law etcetera. Because of this the characters seemed like people mentioned in passing instead of important characters to the story.
I also really feel like I was missing an important point of this book. I understood the part about loneliness and dark truths we sometimes want to bury, but it still feels like I missed it. Like their was an underlying point to this book that I should've understood and didn't. Maybe some point were a bit lost in translating the book to English. Also the ending came really abrupt to me and for me, it felt like that shouldn't have been the end. It almost felt like the story ending in the middle of a sentence.
Overall, the book didn't really work out for me. I wanted to try something different from my normal reads, and sadly it didn't really work out. While it was still interesting to read, it just didn't click for me.
A slow examination of a marriage from the perspective of a paralysed widower. There are elements of psychological terror as he suffers from neglect and abuse, and an overall sense of helplessness that suffocates the reader. I found the parallel of loneliness in both plot lines compelling, and enjoyed puzzling over how far I could trust the narrator. Not a fun read, maybe, but a good one.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I didn’t know what to expect going into this book and I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it or that it was necessarily gripping. But after I finished it, it stuck in my head. It builds subtly and what’s horrifying about it isn’t gore or bloody details but the way it shows how vulnerable we can be in situations of dependency and obligation. This book highlights how the people we love or at the very least are related to have immense power to help us thrive or let us languish.
The main character gaslit and stonewalled his wife for years before she was put out of her misery by the accident. But he gets a taste of his own medicine because when he is physically disabled in said accident his mother in law must step in as his caretaker. He is at the total mercy of his neglectful caretaker and experiences physically the parallel of what he put his wife through emotionally. I loved the parallel and this idea that neglect, while inherently a lack of something positive, is also kind of the presence of something negative. It feels like the author very skillfully tied this in with the way the wife’s garden died because no one watered it. The main character isn’t necessarily a cunning manipulative person, but his lack of accountability and emotional attentiveness is maddening and crazy-making to his wife who resorts to using sticky notes to track his broken promises and distortions of events. When the tables turn, he no longer has control over the narrative, and on top of that he has lost the ability to defend himself or leave. Interestingly, I didn’t feel a pleasant sense of cathartic revenge and walked away feeling bummed out and unnerved. I’d still recommend this book though, because I think it succeeds in what it sets out to accomplish.
The main character gaslit and stonewalled his wife for years before she was put out of her misery by the accident. But he gets a taste of his own medicine because when he is physically disabled in said accident his mother in law must step in as his caretaker. He is at the total mercy of his neglectful caretaker and experiences physically the parallel of what he put his wife through emotionally. I loved the parallel and this idea that neglect, while inherently a lack of something positive, is also kind of the presence of something negative. It feels like the author very skillfully tied this in with the way the wife’s garden died because no one watered it. The main character isn’t necessarily a cunning manipulative person, but his lack of accountability and emotional attentiveness is maddening and crazy-making to his wife who resorts to using sticky notes to track his broken promises and distortions of events. When the tables turn, he no longer has control over the narrative, and on top of that he has lost the ability to defend himself or leave. Interestingly, I didn’t feel a pleasant sense of cathartic revenge and walked away feeling bummed out and unnerved. I’d still recommend this book though, because I think it succeeds in what it sets out to accomplish.
I really loved this book. I’m not entirely sure why I did.
I’m not a big horror/thriller person (in any medium, not just books), and I wasn’t a fan of Misery by Stephen King (a book with a fairly similar plot, to the point that the cover says “a Korean take on ‘Misery’”) so it’s kinda weird to me that I enjoyed this. Since I don’t really know why I feel like this is a Very Good Book as opposed to similar books and the genre as a whole I’m just gonna lay out some things that stood out to me a lot.
1. I loved the writing style (big props to the translator!)
2. All though I do kinda wish this book was a bit longer, this book accomplished a slow burn soo well for a book that barely reaches 200 pages. There was a while in the middle where I was wondering how this even counted as a thriller novel because there wasn’t anything That creepy, but as the story progressed I totally got it.
2.5 I loved the way Pyun dives into the characters as the story progresses and reveals more about who they actually are and their personality behind closed doors, it really added to the claustrophobic vibe and slow burn creepiness
3. I liked that the book didn’t have to be very violent to be creepy. I’m a WIMP and I don’t really enjoy reading super long descriptions of gross violent shit, and I think it’s just kinda impressive that Pyun can creep me out just by having a woman go
I’m not a big horror/thriller person (in any medium, not just books), and I wasn’t a fan of Misery by Stephen King (a book with a fairly similar plot, to the point that the cover says “a Korean take on ‘Misery’”) so it’s kinda weird to me that I enjoyed this. Since I don’t really know why I feel like this is a Very Good Book as opposed to similar books and the genre as a whole I’m just gonna lay out some things that stood out to me a lot.
1. I loved the writing style (big props to the translator!)
2. All though I do kinda wish this book was a bit longer, this book accomplished a slow burn soo well for a book that barely reaches 200 pages. There was a while in the middle where I was wondering how this even counted as a thriller novel because there wasn’t anything That creepy, but as the story progressed I totally got it.
2.5 I loved the way Pyun dives into the characters as the story progresses and reveals more about who they actually are and their personality behind closed doors, it really added to the claustrophobic vibe and slow burn creepiness
3. I liked that the book didn’t have to be very violent to be creepy. I’m a WIMP and I don’t really enjoy reading super long descriptions of gross violent shit, and I think it’s just kinda impressive that Pyun can creep me out just by having a woman go