Welcome to Litsy!

This might require a second read to really GET all of it. A fever dream that starts a little slow as the main character—who wakes up to find his mother dead in a pool of blood—tries to make sense of his surroundings. So many questions to answer & not enough time as he tries to figure out what happened before people start asking questions. This is a tension filled read, dark & full of mystery with twists which keep you guessing until the very end.

Sunday morning reading and coffee while the family sleeps. Love this quiet time!

I built up this book up so much in my head. Then I read it. It was okay. I liked no one, which was the point. The writing was halfway decent. The story was okay. I think I just built it up too much.

I made japchae while listening to The Good Son. I had a lot of the ingredients on hand, since Korean dishes and Chinese dishes (which I cook a lot) have many ingredients in common, but this was my first time cooking sweet-potato noodles.

#FoodandLit @Catsandbooks @Texreader

This psychological thriller set in South Korea is a low pick for me. On the one hand, the story was extremely disturbing and the narrator both unreliable and unlikeable. On the other hand, I couldn't stop reading once I started!

#FoodandLit @Catsandbooks @Texreader
#gottacatchemall @PuddleJumper (prompt 76, Corsola: Someone dies)
#52bookclub24 (prompt 9, A character-driven novel)

Hiding from the heat in the coffee shop by devouring this thriller and iced coffee. Stay hydrated everyone.

A classic Fichtean Curve drives the tempo of this novel. Trapped inside the narrator‘s head, I thought, early on, the story was getting boxed in with no room to realistically break out. Interestingly compared to Highsmith in the blurb, *she* famously felt bogged-down in 1st-person-singular stories but, without giving away spoilers, things do (realistically for thrillers like this), start to get pieced together & resolved. I‘m glad I stuck with it.

I have mixed feelings about this. It was really well written and an intense read, very much a psychological thriller.

It was what it was, if that makes sense, there were no twists and no surprises and it was quite a tough book to get through

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was the perfect weekend read - something that was engrossing and a fast read. A 25 year old guy wakes up to find that a terrible crime has occurred in the house. It‘s a bit dark and gory, but I don‘t want to say too much more because I think it‘s best to know very little ahead of time. I recommend for a medium paced thriller.
This was a #gettbr recommendation.

#BeginsWith @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

I had to be a little creative since I didn't have a book on my TBR that began with #You.

This book is disturbing. I couldn't put it away - it goes from fascinating thriller to deeply thought-out reflection on sociopathy, difficult family relationships, crime and responsibility for actions. Or the absence of it. It was not easy to read, and it left behind a feeling of wrongness, but it gave a lot to think about. And the bloody fit cover was made by Russian publishers 😖 #SouthKorea #thriller #psychological

#curiouscovers #redandwhite #littenlisten

#littenlisten week 1 totals! 3:55 for ZONE ONE and 8:22 for THE GOOD SON. So 12:17 rounded to 12 hours and 12 points total!

18 of 2021. Wow! This book is a shocking story of what happens when lies and living in denial destroys a family. Without giving too much away, I couldn‘t fathom the way the mother in this story chose to deal with what was going on in the family. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#thriller

I wanted to read this for an around the world self-challenge and couldn‘t find through any library services. A few weeks later this particular South Korean horror book is at a dollar tree in the Midwest.

This was a book totally to my liking. An unreliable narrator, a case worked on backwards and mindgames played - what more could I ask for? This is a bloody story, nothing for people who cannot or want to deal with the darkest secrets hidden in a persons mind. No feel-good story, but a thrilling book about dark secrets hidden in your family's closet.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaOfBooks
#Scarathlon2020 #TeamSlaughter @Clwojick

I'm also joining the #ReadYourWay #Readathon - so I have two readathons going on, the other one being #Cocoturns50

I might get some points for #TeamSlaughter

We were busy yesterday, therefore I couldn't do my weekly overview. That one will hopefully follow today. Since Hubbie and I both have the week off, I'm not sure what I will accomplish. But I'm planning to at least finish the tagged book.

@TheSpineView @CocoReads @Clwojick

Autmm dessert while reading for the #CYOReadathon and #scarathlon2020

A thrilling book that totally fits the #TeamSlaughter theme 🎃

@Clwojick @Sace

I'm so sorry that I'm late @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks - thank you so much for the tag! It's Thursday already AND October! Unbelievable! 😱

1. Depends on the story and how well written the characters are, but I'd say I like them both.
2. I read about all of them, but if I had to choose, I'd go with the witch. Especially the Terry Pratchett ones 😁

#Two4Tuesday
@TheSpineView

This was good. It was slow-moving as Yu-jin tried to figure out what had happened. It does make me, a little bit, not to want to walk by myself at night (though not possible for me to always avoid, as I don‘t drive).

This book frustrated me to no end....I have mixed feelings about it overall so I‘m going to rank it as a so-so. It was a bit of a ride and anxiety inducing.

#AcrossApril Dark Intentions
TKWK was my initial pick for this prompt BUT You-Jeong's book is so Dark Good!

1. Yes. I mean, one of the functions of a cover is information about genre. If I see cowboys or lusty couples then I judge it's probably not for me.
2. Tagged, a $1.99 Kindle sale.
3. NYT, WaPo
4. Snooze
5. My most recent followers who haven't played yet: @monalyisha @Reynosa8701

Thanks for the tag, @craftysilicate !

#friYAYintro @4thhouseontheleft @howjessreads

1. Yes
2. Found out it was on sale through Kindle, thanks to a Liten's post
3. Houston Chronicle, Huffington, online local news websites, etc
4. I do not
5. @Kayla.Adriena
#friyayintro
@4thhouseontheleft @howjessreads

I heard good things about this book so couldn't pass up this deal!

A boy wakes up drenched in blood and finds his mother death. At first, he remembers nothing. Has he had a fit and killed her, he wonders. Then his memory slowly comes back. Of what happened in the past few ours as well as in the years before. Bit by bit this fast-paced Korean thriller unravels a lot of mindf**ing things. Scary, disturbing and unputdownable.

Such a great birthday present Jessie, thank you again for sending me this one! 💕

I hesitate to give a truly negative review to a book I read in translation. Maybe this works totally differently in Korean. However, I felt like this one dragged for me, even though it was short. It's very dark. There were parts I liked, but I felt like most of the plot twists had been done elsewhere before, and done better. Plus I got tired of the claustrophobic feel of being in the main character's messed up head for 300 pages.

Nightmarish reading - yet compelling ! Everything is revealed bit by bit. This was extremely creepy... the tension !! I‘d read another of his now , but just looked Jeong up & his next book isn‘t out till 2020. I have it pre-ordered 👍🏻. I thought it was really ‘good‘ @erzascarletbookgasm , Thankyou for your review, which was why I stacked it

#AYUpAugust #Tequila I‘m out drinking coffee ( not tequila) & will start this book later .... there is tequila on the shelf behind my kindle ... I asked permission, I‘d say they think I‘m mad 😳

The first line draws you in and holds your attention throughout. Reading it feels like watching a film..we watch nervously as the protagonist fills in the gaps of his memory while swinging feverishly back and forth between states of oblivion and consciousness. Unnerving and intense, it delves into the dark human soul. Well plotted and suspenseful narration. TW bloody crime scene.

You-Jeong Jeong‘s psychological thriller (translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim) is a weirdly stilted, soap opera-style affair that‘s more why-do-it than who-dunnit and filled with overdone emotions, motivations that stretched credibility and although there are some interesting moments as it seeks to get under the skin of a psychopath, ultimately I struggled to hold my attention on it until the end and wouldn‘t rush to read Jeong‘s other work.

It me 🙋‍♀️ still waiting for a first person single “unreliable narrator” in a psychological thriller to not include a journal... I get it. I understand the need to add it in. But no one writes that verbosely in a journal. Trust me. Maybe writers do, but not the characters keeping the journals! So please, please, be more original or add a second perspective 😑

You know that saying “people are the same everywhere?“ Apparently so are psychopaths. I always enjoy a 'bad seed' type story and reading it from a Korean prospective added to my interest. I read a marketing blurb that described this as 'The Bad Seed“ meets “The Talented Mr. Ripley.“ I agree.

Not at all what I was expecting, much better actually. Unique and disturbing. Can't say much more without spoiling it, really good, read it.

Every time I try to listen to this audio book I fall asleep! Maybe reading it on the Kindle will help?

Extremely cool thriller. Unreliable narrator who learns about himself and what happened during a missing time in his memory.

I‘m about 100 pages from finishing The Orphan Master‘s Son, when my book club pals call me laughing “We‘re reading the wrong book!, it‘s The Good Son” Luckily this was an easy one to fly through. Page turner, suspenseful and interesting though a bit gory for me. It wasn‘t one I‘d recommend for enjoyment, but it would make a long flight whiz by for sure. 3/5

I‘m not sure how I feel about this. It was a good read - kept me interested and fast-paced, but I was disappointed in the ending. And the depiction of mental illness didn‘t sit well with me, but that‘s a personal peeve of mine. Definitely not one of my favorites for the year, nor the one I want to end my reading year on. Off to find a quick read to finish on a better note!

The shifting timelines were a bit confusing but that could have been due to the translation. Or maybe it was just me.
One isn't waiting so much for the mystery to be unraveled, as there isn't much of one, but rather we are waiting to see what our protagonist does next.
Either way, a very dark and compelling tale.

Taut & intensifying, The Good Son explores the mysterious death of a mother, & delves deep into her baffled son‘s mind. Jeong builds suspense & intrigue throughout the novel, slowly peeling away layers of Yu-Jin‘s personality like an onion. The unreliable narrator is one of my favorite plot devices, & I never knew if I could trust Yu-Jin‘s perception of the world. This made for a fast, edge-of-your-seat thriller that I couldn‘t put down.

Recent #crime #thrillers I enjoyed for #LitWorld2018GB

#Belgium #SouthKorea #readaroundtheworld

I didn't expect this book to get under my skin the way it did. Chilling & bleak, this is a whydunit instead of a whodunit & boldly digs deep into the dark, ugly aspects of the human psyche. It's got a Dostoevskian vibe in evil in its menacing portrayal of psychology, brotherhood, & family ties. Bonus: the story plays well with the unreliable narrator trope & it does not involve a woman with a drinking problem! Well-paced & cleverly constructed.

Yu-Jin, a young man with epilepsy who, one morning, wakes to a metallic smell, and finds blood everywhere. He finds the body of his murdered mother and himself covered in blood. He has no memory of what happened, but cleans up and hides the body. He tries to piece together what happened, but wonders if he is the villain. You-Jeong Jeong tells complex tale that tries to give us a deeper understanding of Yu-Jin and his past. A great read

From start to finish you will keep the uncertainty and tension. It draws you right in. This is You-Jeong Jeongs first book translated in English and I am hoping and will keep looking for more.
This would be an awesome horror movie.
Highly recommended.
Full review@ goodreads.com/overtheedge

A guy wakes up covered in blood and finds his mothers bloody body......did he have another seizure and not remember it happened.....or????

The writing on this was very strong, but the story was way too dark and disturbing for my taste.

Current read. My TBR has gotten a wee bit out of control and this library hold came in that I had forgotten about. This is a pretty short read so I'm hoping to finish it this weekend while I'm at my mom's. Has anyone read this?

Wow! What a stunner of a book! I am not really sure how to describe it as it just kept me so engaged from the get go and I could not believe what I was reading. It it such an intense thriller and I kept wanting to scream at certain characters in the book to run! The writing was excellent and was well paced and suspense non-stop. This was a great read and highly recommend.

#Audiobook on my lunch break. There a blurb calling this author South Korea‘s Stephen King which is good enough for me to give it a try!

#Korea #translation