Specs
Reviews
(1/5)January 28, 2025
January 25, 2025
One of the worst books I've read in any language in recent memory. Don't be fooled by the first 30 pages, which are very intriguing. The plot is extremely repetitive, cliched, and missing any sort of worthy resolution. There is no suspense to be found. There is no mystery, no payoff. Do not read this book.
How can there be 7 separate murders that are all skipped with some slop about how it took x days to put the plan into action, the murder was perfect, and there was no evidence left behind? This book committed many sins, but chief among them was simply being boring.
Gradings
Why can't I grade this item?
Activity
No activities
All I knew about this book going in was that it was a crime novel about the “perfect” serial killer. The premise was quite interesting, a young boy gets obsessed with how it feels to kill someone and eventually commits a murder. Upon doing so he realises: 1 he is extremely good at killing without getting caught and 2 he does not get any pleasure from it.
This experience as a teenager kind of ruins his life in a way, he never does well in school, ends up in a dead-end factory job and never develops any social skills to speak of so doesn’t have friends or a girlfriend.
From this point the book takes a turn. The main character goes on (in convoluted circumstances) to get embroiled with a corrupt chaebol and commit more murders. None of the killings are ever on-page though, instead the prose focuses on his descent into the underbelly of society and his slipping sanity as he starts to realise he is a pawn in the hands of bigger monsters than him.
I think the author tried for some social commentary with this but it didn’t really hit for me. If you like Brett Easton Ellis or Chuck Palahniuk then you might well vibe with this.
However if you are looking for a realistic or gritty crime mystery this isn’t for you, because how he commits the murders or gets away with it are never discussed.
Having said all of that the language was actually pretty good for learners because the majority of the book is simply describing his actions as he follows orders and plans crimes in a very straight-forward way.