The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre

by Cho Yeeun

Translated by Yewon Jung

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"This is going to be a wild ride." That's what I told myself before I was even a full chapter into The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre by Cho Yeeun, translated by Yewon Jung.

I read Cho's Shift recently and she's climbing fast toward my "if she writes it, I will read it" list. So when my Fable book club picked this as our July read, I was already in before I knew what I was in for.

At New Seoul Park, a stranger hands out jelly candy that promises an unbreakable bond with the people you love. That premise alone should tell you this isn't going where it looks like it's going. Structurally, it reminded me of Mrs. Shim Is a Killer, each chapter is its own story, but together they work like puzzle pieces: one incident, seen through every set of eyes, with all the causes and effects circling around it. Underneath that, there's something real here about how quickly people forget and how easily things get covered up, both socially and, I'd argue, politically. I don't want to say more than that, I don't want to spoil it, but there's cult culture running underneath it too. This is speculative horror doing exactly what good speculative horror does, using the strange and grotesque to shine a light on something true.

I bought my copy at a small bookstore in Birmingham, UK, and the person working there mentioned his own book club had read it too, but that one of their readers had a rough time with it. That made me a little nervous when my group voted it in. It turned out fine. Everyone who posted about it seemed to genuinely enjoy it, and I did too, thoroughly.

If this hadn't been our July pick, I probably would have saved it for August, when I'm focusing on books written and translated by women. But a book club doesn't wait for a theme, so here we are.

Worth the read, especially if you want your horror with something underneath it.

Where to purchase

Bookshop.org | Amazon | Libro.fm

Other Books by this Author

Shift - see my full review

Teddy Bears Never Die, translated by Sung Rye - on my TBR for August, women authors and women translators month.