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(4.18/5)A girl is found dead at school and her best friend is the main suspect. This book is by a really popular YA author and this is probably her best book imo. I had a lot of fun reading it.
The structure is quite unique and leads the reader through the twists and turns of the case in a way that is easy to get hooked into.
As a learner the chapters are all short and from one specific POV (named in the chapter title) which makes it a good pick if you aren't confident with books yet and want something you can read in short bursts. The plot is very tightly contained and language mostly familiar everyday vocab and speech (outside of a few law-related terms.)
The biggest challenge for a low intermediate learner might be that it uses very spoken language (a lot of the chapters are essentially interviews) and there is a lot of quoting "apparently / i heard that..." type structures but on the other hand it's very good practice for that kind of language.
Fast-Paced, Tragic, and Exciting
While I've read one nonfiction book in Korean, this was my first proper novel. It wasn't in my usual genres of fantasy/romance, instead being a thriller/murder mystery, but I ended up really enjoying it! I read along with the audiobook which was fun, since the book is written mainly as verbal testimonies, either to a broadcasting station or in court. The story is very twisty and exciting, and constantly keeps you guessing by presenting new information from different perspectives. The main theme of the book is probably the question of what truth is and how it can be manipulated by the mass media and different people's perspectives/opinions.
Since the book is mainly dialogue centered around a single topic and a limited number of characters, a lot of the vocabulary is repeated. However, the grammar felt a bit more complex to me and I can tell that while I got the gist of the story, I definitely missed some of the nuance. With that being said, I'll probably reread this in the future to see how it reads with more books under my belt.
Overall, definitely recommended! The story is well written, fast paced, and exciting. 5 stars.
This is a gripping crime/murder mystery story, sort of presented in the style of a televised broadcast. The narrative unfolds through the perspectives of various individuals involved in the case, both central and peripheral, which lends depth to the storytelling, offering readers a multifaceted view of events.
Despite its moderate level of difficulty, the novel is highly enjoyable, thanks to its well-crafted plot development. One notable aspect is the diverse array of characters who contribute to the story, including high school students, detectives, lawyers, or even a convenience store owner. This diverse cast provides exposure to different speech registers and language uses, making it an enriching experience for language learners. While perhaps not the easiest novel in the author's YA book it's definitely a very rewarding read!
We love a good mystery. The format of this book makes it really easy to fly through with all the different POVs jisawed together. I felt that was written in a pretty straightforward way. However, each person gives their own opinion and version of what happened, so it's up to the reader to make their own judgement...and then rearrange their thoughts with new tidbits of info as they come in lol (ok so also if you don't comprehend it well, you might miss some important info/hints/revelations so super low sentence level comp might make this less enjoyable.)
Overall I think this was a great short read. Would recommend for those wanting to read a first or second book in Korean (though it does have some legal jargon that would need looking up) as it felt pretty accessible to me. And the storyline is pretty engaging, which is also important for starting to read IMO.