Everything Happened at Once
by Choi Jin-young
translated by Soje
Early Review
September Book Club Read
Europa | Out: May 11, 2027
This was a sad, horrific and bleak, but surprisingly captivating book. So much so that I found it incredibly difficult to put down. I read it in two sittings, and it probably would have been one if I hadn’t had another ARC I needed to finish.
A virus has killed huge numbers of people and left the world almost completely broken down. People are moving across countries looking for food and somewhere safe. Violence has become ordinary, and there is very little left to stop someone stronger from simply taking what they want.
Dori is traveling with her deaf younger sister, Joy, and her entire focus is keeping them alive. She trusts almost no one, watches everything happening around her and is always prepared for whatever might come next. Then she meets Jina.
Jina is traveling with her extended family, who have food, transportation and at least some degree of protection. She convinces them to allow Dori and Joy to come with them, and somewhere in the middle of this awful world, Dori and Jina fall in love.
Their relationship is incredibly sweet. That probably sounds strange considering everything surrounding it. Trust is dangerous in this book, and Dori knows that better than almost anyone. Letting Jina matter to her means allowing herself to depend on someone other than Joy, and in a world where people disappear constantly, that is its own kind of risk.
Their love becomes one of the few genuinely hopeful things in the story. It does not stay untouched, but very little in this book does.
What Happens to Power When Everything Falls Apart?
There is a great deal of violence in this book, particularly violence against women. Rape and sexual exploitation become frighteningly ordinary once the structures that offered some protection disappear. Choi Jin-young writes about it very directly. It is not hidden or softened, and I think this could be an extremely difficult book for some readers because of that.
One of the things I kept noticing was how quickly old ideas about power returned even when almost everything else had fallen apart. Men still tried to control their families, women and anyone weaker than themselves. New hierarchies appeared almost as quickly as the old ones disappeared.
Jina’s father became one of the clearest examples of that for me. At one point, his understanding of Jina’s safety essentially comes down to the fact that she is his daughter and he is the person in charge. Inside the little world he controls, his authority seems absolute.
But that certainty becomes almost meaningless when they encounter larger, more organized groups with more power than he has.
Even after seeing just how fragile his position is, he begins trying to understand the next hierarchy and where he might fit inside it. I kept thinking about how small these men actually were while they were creating so much misery around them. The world has collapsed, but some of the ugliest ideas about who gets to control whom are still very much alive.
Seeing the Same World Through Different People
The chapters move between different characters, which is a structure I have really come to enjoy. Each perspective gives you another piece of what is happening rather than simply repeating the same story.
Dori and Jina remained the emotional center for me, but the other characters gave the world depth.
There was Geonjji, who had already experienced violence before the apocalypse, making it clear that bad things happened even before society collapsed. For some people, the old world was already dangerous. Ryu brings in another perspective on family, loss and everything people assume they will have time for later.
Their stories made this world feel larger and reminded me that every person entered the disaster carrying a life that had already shaped the way they understood survival.
Soje’s Translation
Soje’s translation was incredibly smooth. There is a lot happening in this book, and the story moves between several narrators, but I never struggled to follow it. The pacing moved quickly and the voices carried me from one chapter into the next.
Definitely Worth the Read
This is absolutely not going to be for every reader.
The sexual violence is frequent and direct, and I would take the content warnings seriously. There are also murders, executions, exploitation and a general sense that safety can disappear almost instantly.
But underneath all of that brutality is a story about people continuing to choose one another. They protect and share what little they have, trust people when trusting anyone might be dangerous, and fall in love even when love gives them one more thing to lose.
For me, the darkness made those moments of trust and love matter even more.
Definitely worth the read.
Content note: This novel contains frequent sexual violence, rape, murder, executions, exploitation and violence against women.
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