Mothersucker Review

Sometimes You Need a Monster

by Kim Bohyun
translated by Archana Madhavan

I received an advance copy of this book from Vintage. Some of the book links below are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. All opinions are my own.

Publisher: Vintage
Publication Date: September 1, 2026

Sometimes you need a monster to get rid of the real monsters. That was pretty much my first thought when I finished Mothersucker.

I went into this knowing almost nothing about the story, which is normal for me. I usually don't read book descriptions unless I'm trying to decide whether I want to pick something up. Between the title and that fantastic cover, I expected dark vampire horror, maybe a vampire running rampant with all the blood and chaos that comes with it.

What I got was something very different. At the center of the story is Geum-hong, a mother whose daughter was brutally murdered, along with a vampire who has started going after men who have harmed women. What happened to Geum-hong's daughter was heartbreaking, and the way that loss was described hit me particularly hard. I couldn't help thinking about my own daughter while I was reading it.

There is so much grief here, but there is also anger, and I understood that anger. These men have hurt women, sometimes horribly, and suddenly someone is making sure there are consequences. I felt sorry for Geum-hong, but I also felt this strange sense of camaraderie with the anger behind all of it. Obviously I am not suggesting anyone start murdering people, but the feeling behind it? That part I understood completely.

That was probably the biggest surprise for me. I expected the vampire to be the frightening part. Instead, the violence women experience and the ways those crimes can be mishandled or ignored were far more disturbing. The supernatural side of the story never felt like the thing I should be most afraid of.

There is also a women-led investigative team trying to figure out what is going on, and I really liked that part too. Their investigation gives you another angle on the murders, but by then I was already much more interested in why these men were being targeted than in whether the killer would be caught. That probably tells you where my loyalties were.

The book moves between different characters and points in time, which could have become confusing very quickly. Thankfully there is a character list at the beginning. I actually tagged that page because I kept flipping back to it whenever the perspective changed, and it helped a lot.

Archana Madhavan's translation read smoothly for me, especially with a structure like this. There is quite a bit to keep track of between the different voices and timelines, but I never felt like I was fighting the writing to understand where I was.

I did stumble a little later in the book. There are a couple of transitions where the story suddenly opens up and explains more of what has been happening, and then another shift as it moves toward the final sections. I understood what Kim Bohyun was doing and what she wanted those moments to say, but the ending did not land quite as strongly for me as everything that came before it.

What stayed with me afterward was the satisfaction of it. This is a serious book. It is sad and heavy in places, and the violence against women underneath the vampire story gives it real weight. But the vampire element gives all that anger somewhere to go. Instead of finishing the book completely wrecked by everything Geum-hong had been through, I finished it thinking, good for her.

If you like revenge stories, vampires, murder mysteries, angry women, unlikely heroes, and horror with something much more serious underneath it, Mothersucker is a strong Worth the read for me.

Where to Purchase

Bookshop.org | Amazon | Libro.fm

If you liked this you may also like

• Come Down to a Lower Place by Yi Seoyoung, translated by Janet Hong: Korean feminist horror full of anger, bodily unease, and women pushed too far.

• The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim: Female rage, misogyny, and revenge taken to a very bloody place.

• Molka by Monika Kim: A dark revenge story about voyeurism, scandal, and a woman pushed past her limit.

• What Hunger by Catherine Dang: Grief, generational trauma, and a hunger that turns increasingly dangerous.

• Walking Practice by Dolki Min, translated by Victoria Caudle: Strange, dark, and monstrous, with gender and desire at the center.

I received an advance copy of this book from Vintage. All opinions are my own.