[DeepL Translation - needs review] The second-generation fantasy literature maestro, Haji Haji, author of "Ice Tree Forest," returns after seven years!
Immediately after launch, it became the #1 ranked book on Kakao Page's Literature tab!
Haji Eun Haji, the author who led the revival of Korean fantasy literature, has released her new book, Always at Night. A fantasy thriller about the love affair between two brothers born as Siamese twins but whose destinies are intertwined, It's Alwa...
I loved this book, very macabre dark fantasy. Imagine if Carlos Ruiz Zafón wrote Good Omens.
There is a good amount of body horror, morally grey or evil characters, some very cool descriptions of the 'dark realm' that some of the chacters come from and (what surprised me the most) some pretty good character work.
As with other 하지은 novels, this is definitely not for everyone. But if you are a fan of gothic fantasy there's a good chance you'll like it.
Some of the language used was a bit hard for me, especially when the demon characters were talking to each other because they used very formal, archaic feeling speech which gave a lot of detail to their characters and backgrounds, but was noticably harder to follow. (It was a small part of the overall book though.) There were also a section with very surreal visuals that I loved, but naturally was a bit trippy to follow.
There was also a very bizarre element to the story that I don't want to spoil as it's a major plot point but it absolutely messed with my head. I don't understand how the author pulled it off so well. Somehow she did because I was at no point confused even though it should have made the story super hard to follow (especially for a non native!). But it goes to show how strong a command the writer had of the prose that at no point did she lose me. (if you read it you will 100% know what I am talking about 😭)