In May 1980, the South Korean military fired upon students demonstrating against the closing of a university in Gwangju. The next two weeks saw militias and grieving mothers alike organizing to protest the brutality of the country’s de facto president, Chun Doo-hwan. Human Acts, the third of Han Kang‘s novels to be translated into English, centers on a single death in the weeks of violence: that of Dong-ho, a middle school student killed in the military’s last attack on civilians. Continue reading
Category: Reviews
The Impossible Fortress: A Review
Combine Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One with Ellen Wittlinger’s Hard Love, add just a dash of Milk Money, and what do you get? The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak, a light read about teenage programmers in late-20th-century New Jersey that proved to be unputdownable. Continue reading
Universal Harvester: A Review
The Mountain Goats lead singer John Darnielle is back with another nostalgic horror novel. Universal Harvester, the unrelated follow-up to Wolf in White Van, pitches readers into a VHS rental store in Iowa, where someone is taping cryptic and appalling scenes over the cassettes. Continue reading
Spaniel Rage: A Review
In 2003, an artist living her post-college life in New York City made it her mission to draw one thing every day. Vanessa Davis didn’t always manage to meet her goals, but the resulting book, Spaniel Rage is well worth the effort. Continue reading
Binti: A Review
In many ways, Binti resembles the kind of “exceptional child goes to exceptional school” story that has become popular in the post-Potter age. But Nnedi Okorafor‘s Afrofuturist novella has much more to offer readers than a trite fantasy. It’s the story of 16-year-old Binti, a member of the Himba people, who defies her family’s wishes to attend Oomza Uni, the Harvard of intergalactic schools. When tragedy befalls her transport ship, Binti is the sole survivor, and must face off against the Meduse, an alien race who have a legendary conflict with the founders of the university. Continue reading