A review by weneedtotalkaboutbooks
Walking Practice by Dolki Min

5.0

What have I just read? 

A shapeshifting alien finds themself stranded on Earth and must eat humans to survive.

💬 “When I was first learning to walk like a human, I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out the difference between men and women.”

Nothing could have prepared me for the journey ahead when I picked up this originally self-published Korean debut. This is an incredibly funny, shocking, original, gory and cruel story.

 

The writing style is poetic and visceral, describing themes of love, isolation and anxiety in a way that sounds colloquial, maniacal and lyrical all at the same time. It will resonate with anyone that has ever felt like they don’t belong. 

💬 “You, dear reader, earnestly play all your parts. The roles that were assigned to you without your consent are stuck to your body like a label: A label that you can’t remove before death. A label that can’t be removed even after death. The labels are invisible. They’re not really there, you know. They’ve melted into your flesh. They may have even made their home in a deeper, more abstract part of you. You won’t be able to fish them out even if you’re sliced up to the point that your bones are exposed and your guts are spilling out of your carcass.”

The story challenges the conventional understandings of sex and gender through the eyes of a violently hungry and lonely alien, trying their best to survive on a planet populated by creatures they don’t understand or like, but that they must interact with, hook up with, and consume to stay alive.

💬 “Happiness is an incredibly rare and dangerous emotion. I'm someone who can't bear the fall from happiness to despair. I need a safety net to prepare for it since the higher I climb, the greater my injuries will be when I fall.”

This is definitely not a book for everyone, but if you like experimental examinations of the human experience (try saying this sentence three times fast), and you are ok with grotesque and graphic scenes, you might want to check this out.

5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟