I have a bit of a case of Mixed Thoughts™ about this one. There were some aspects that I... well not enjoyed, because it's pretty messed up, but we'll say certainly piqued my interest and kept me reading. On the other, there were times I wanted to throw this book at my wall, except I was reading on my Kindle and that would have been an expensive foible. Anyway.

What I Liked:

I mean, it was exciting and fast paced and you all know I love an end-of-the-world story. This was definitely a creative apocalypse, too, even if I couldn't quite wrap my head around how these orbs worked- neither could anyone else, so it tracked. There were also a ton of twists that made the story quite readable. The atmosphere was also good, as you certainly could feel the isolation and desperation. The story definitely excels at the creepy, messed up vibe, and I am bummed that it disappointed in other ways.

What I Didn't:

Okay so the main character kind of sucks? And so does everyone else for the most part. I had kind of hoped that there would be some epic character arc but that simply wasn't the case. It was all just so depressing, especially considering our current state of the world. And honestly, I think that had our MC been nuanced and kind of an ass, it could have worked. But he was just boring and also an ass, which did not. Like- antiheroes can work! But in this case, sir was just dull and miserably unlikable. He cares only about his status and ego, which is pretty dumb at the end of days, and he legit has the personality of a piece of bread. The end piece, too.

There is also a lot of really messy stuff happening (think assault) that should definitely have some trigger warnings included. The thing that bugged me is not that this stuff occurred, it was more how it was glossed over without any actual handling of the situation(s). Add to it, a lot of my questions simply were never answered.

Bottom Line: I think we were maybe supposed to be rooting for the orb?

It was an overall enjoyable read but Jeong-su is insufferable. He is very narcissistic and not a good person. The whole story definitely feels like a satirical take on how the world would respond to this type of dystopian crisis. I just couldn’t get into the story as much because of the main character. Chapter 14 is a great look at how the world would likely respond to a crisis like the orbs with their online posts and conspiracy theories. The narrator of the audiobook certainly made this a more enjoyable read so I thank him for the great voice work!

“These Orbs of Despair consumed every human on earth, including myself. We’ve known death, pain, grief, fear, powerlessness, and, most of all, despair.“

a special thank you to Net Galley & MIRA for allowing me access to an Advanced Reader’s Copy of Unloved by Ewhan Kim (translated by Sean Lin Halbert)!! it’s an absolute privilege to receive an ARC & i’m so honored to be able to share a honest review in exchange.

🌃 publication date: february 4th, 2025
review: ★ ★ ★ .5 (02/01/25)
a strange sci-fi novel on the darkness human nature with many rhetorical questions. (be sure to read the acknowledgement to get insight in the author’s intentions, missed this in my online ARC)

as someone who loves korean apocalyptic shows/movies (ex. train to busan, sweet home, all of us are dead, etc), this novel read so quickly.

it was interesting to read bluntly about jeong-su’s experiences. as readers, we slowly understand more of his true(?) nature as the situation worsened. however, likely because the current politics in the U.S., this message didn’t as impactful as expected.

it’s difficult to be an optimistic when human nature is shown to be so cruel (and self-serving). i couldn’t help but consider what it would be if the black orb appeared in the U.S. i fear the situation would be far worse, to say the least.

there were graphic & hard-to-read scenes, which (unfortunately) added to how realistic the book is. this is especially true for details like the chaos of the internet prior to, during and in the aftermath [chapter 14 felt so so relevant to today.]

although i wouldn’t recommend this to everyone, especially if you hate problematic main characters or up-to-interpretation endings.

The Black Orb, by Ewhan Kim, translated by Sean Lin Halbert, is a fast-paced adrenaline rush of a book in places, but it’s also deeply thoughtful about control, or rather, about reactions to losing control, whether that’s due to surreal danger, panicked reactions, cynical human predators, or toxic male environments. This book, coming out from HarperCollins on Feb. 4, isn’t for everyone, with its weird horror, violence of various kinds, a problematic main character, and mysteries that never really get resolved; however, it absolutely kept me interested and engaged, and presented a lot of ideas to consider.

Per the publisher: One evening in downtown Seoul, Jeong-su is smoking a cigarette outside when he sees something impossible: a huge black orb appears out of nowhere and sucks his neighbor inside. Jeong-su manages to get away, but the terrifying sphere can move through walls, so he’s sure he won’t be able to hide for long. … Impervious to bullets and tanks, the orb splits and multiplies, chasing the hapless residents of Seoul out into the country and sparking a global crisis with widespread violence and looting.

Jeong-su isn’t a hero, but he doesn’t think of himself as a bad guy, either. His initial funk is replaced by a determination to get to his elderly parents and try to protect them, and he actually helps a couple of random strangers along the journey. But although he thinks of himself as someone who’s learned to be tough and do unpleasant things to survive and succeed, he also sees himself as powerless in many situations, from the compulsory military service of his youth to mandatory after-hours socializing as a businessman. Later, when he’s trapped for a long time with another, younger man, one incident (after a long period of stress) turns him into a bully passing on abuse and trying to justify the toxicity he has absorbed. And anyone in a Prisoner’s Dilemma with him should be deeply concerned!

I don’t know what the prose of The Black Orb is like in the original Korean. In this translation, it’s vivid and direct, fast-paced where it should be, conveying uncertainty and grim claustrophia well in other chapters.

Aside from a couple of brief passages in the beginning, showing how other people react in the beginning of the crisis, everything is told from Jeong-su’s point of view (third person past tense), but the reader hears from various other people through him as he wanders and looks for his parents. Particularly interesting is a community of refugees he encounters, who have figured out a way to work together to safeguard themselves from the black orbs, but they are very secretive about their methods and discourage outside communication. (The media and governmental broadcasts stop soon after widespread absorptions disrupt society, and many people distrust the broadcasts anyway and put their faith in soothing rumors instead.)

Later, crowds are frantically searching for scapegoats, although people don’t put it that way. Their reasoning is that if they can find someone immune to the orbs, they can get an explanation for what’s been happening, and thereby protect themselves, and then maybe life can go back to normal, for the survivors. But what they really want is someone to blame, and to hurt to repay their sufferings.

Nobody finds out what the black orbs are, or why they do what they do, although some characters spend time researching black holes. In some ways, these mysterious antagonists almost might as well be dragons who suddenly appear and start eating people. So it’s tempting to classify this book as more of a surreal horror novel rather than science fiction, or even science fantasy. But other than the orbs, everything feels very grounded, and the explorations of personal choices by the hero-victim-villain and other individuals, and portrayals of various group-dynamics reactions (cooperation, censorship, rumor-mongering, panic, and violence) do have a lot of relevance for the present time and near-future scenarios. However one thinks this book should be categorized in publishing terms, it’s extremely well crafted, exciting, and darkly intriguing.

I went into this book thinking it would be a cool sci-fi, apocalyptic read, but it rapidly became a reflection on the dark side of the human condition. This apocalyptic event brought out the worst of human nature.

The premise: there is suddenly a big, black orb in Seoul, South Korea, that slowly moves about the city and absorbs people into it. Any attempts to destroy it are unsuccessful and this orb can pass through solid material, so nowhere is safe. Then the single orb starts to replicate, and each one after that does the same.

We follow Jeong-su in first person POV as he along with the rest of society breaks down into chaos. With nothing to stop the orbs, many abandon any morals they have and become animalistic, giving in to their primal urges. Jeong-su goes from being an ok guy to a very unlikeable person by the end of the book.

While the story was very engaging, it was like a train wreck that I couldn't look away from. In the end I was left feeling disgusted with the characters, the story and myself for actually finishing the book. I would not recommend unless you are a fan of a dystopian story with a dystopian ending.

For fans of speculative apocalyptic fiction, Know, however, that this is pretty much a downer-and that there isn't really anyone to root for because the protagonist isn't likable let alone someone I wanted to root for. This also feels heavy on philosophical arguments that were going over or pasty head. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I DNF but I'm sure there's an eager audience for this..

Jeong-su is the first person to see one of the black orbs, but he doesn't know what it is. Frightened, he ends up missing work, but doesn't tell anyone what he's seen. The black orb eventually becomes many orbs, which absorb all the humans they come into contact with.
Jeong-su doesn't always do what would be considered the right or good thing because he is focused on self-preservation. This brings up a lot of questions, especially as more and more people are gone.
This was a very weird book and I enjoyed it a lot and didn't want to stop reading. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

This was...weird. I don't know if it's the translation or what, but this came off as so over the top. It has plenty of in your face commentary about the base desires of humanity and all our faults and cruelties. But I didn't come out of this feeling like I learned a lesson or felt any hope. If you put general social media complaints about culture and politics into a scifi scenario you get this and it's not fun.

A fairly decent read. This kind of reminded me of the kdrama Dark Hole, except there were orbs and not a hole. But the feel was similar. Lots of eerie dread. The reader is on a wild ride with Jeong Su here, and all of his bad decisions along the way. I enjoyed the weird time cuts and felt it made the story flow in a creepy way.

Jeong-su is smoking a cigarette in the alley behind his home when an older, well-dressed man bumps into him and gives a warning, "Youngester, watch out for..."but Jeong-su never hears what for, and after glancing around and seeing nothing, he decides it was nothing. That is until he sees the orb. A black, perfectly spherical orb just floated in the street. His curiosity soon turns to horror, then when it *absorbs* a woman. Terrified, he runs into his home, puts a bag together, and flees, not knowing that there is no place safe on earth from the Black Orbs.

Okay, this seemed incredibly cheesy at first and came across the same way watching The Blob with my parents when I was little did. And then the last hour or so it goes absolutely sideways. And I genuinely loved it.

So there's a lot going on here; commentary about trusting the government, commentary on trusting the media, commentary on simply trusting each other, commentary about internet rumors, I mean I could go on for pages. It's genuinely a ton to unpack. And quite frankly, I can't even comment on much of it because I'm not S. Korean. But what I will 100% comment on is the running themes is Jeong-su is a selfish prick. And just when you think that *maybe* he might start thinking about someone but himself for thirty seconds, he opts not to. This genuinely isn't terrifying or unsettling or whatever you want to call it because of the Black Orbs. It's because of how being self-centered affects everyone around you. This man had the opportunity to do the right thing up until the very end, and he still just didn't. I genuinely don't think I've hated a character so much in my life. Because it's not that he actually physically hurts anyone, he doesn't even when he has ample opportunity, too. It's that he just uses everyone. One person who only cares about himself could literally bring about the destruction of the entire world.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Absolutely a roller coaster of emotions from the very beginning. I spent the whole time hoping one guy might finally do the right thing and being horribly disappointed every single time.

As always, thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the eArc!

What would you do if a massive black orb appeared out of nowhere and swallowed your neighbor whole? This chilling question sets the stage for an apocalyptic nightmare in “The Black Orb” by Ewhan Kim, translated by Sean Lin Halbert. Set in Seoul, the novel follows Jeong-su, a self-absorbed office manager. As mysterious orbs multiply, consuming people and plunging the city into chaos, Jeong-su embarks on a harrowing journey to find his parents, navigating looters, cultists and desperate survivors along the way.

Using the relentless orbs as a metaphor for modern anxieties — financial burdens, societal expectations and toxic masculinity — Kim has created a fast-paced and chilling thriller that merges dark humor with sharp social commentary. Through Jeong-su’s morally ambiguous journey, the story explores humanity’s fragility and the tension between societal connection and individual survival.

A young man in Seoul, Korea runs across a black orb, that ingests anyone who touches it. After a time the orb starts dividing and more and more people die. Eventually he is the only man in the world left non ingested.

So, I had to sit with the one after I read it to get a feel for how I felt about it.

In this novel, we follow a man named Jeong-su, who, after seeing a mysterious black orb absorbed a woman, flees to Y-City to get to his parents. What starts off as one orb, that follows anyone near it and will not stop, turns into a terror of epic proportions. The orbs multiple, and there is no way to stop them. Jeong-su is desperate to escape and hide, and will do anything to ensure he survives the orb apocalypse.

On one hand, this is an interesting take on a catastrophic world event, and the psychological experiment on human emotions. How would we act in the face of death and fear? It is also a unique story of a world-ending situation, how the government chooses to hand such a situation, and what it would do to society as we know it. In the other hand, Jeong-su is a prime example of desperation bringing out the worst in people, and making them amoral. He teeters between rational, calculated thinking, and willingness to end life to save his own skin. He also treats others with contempt and, in some incidents, hatred. You’re not sure whether to sympathize with, or loathe, him.

I will say that I thought the ending completed the circle of fear fittingly. Humanity cannot be satisfied without answers that make sense, even if those answers bordered along the lines of conspiratorial thinking. When answers cannot be found, anger rises and seeks vengeance-however wrong it is.

I liked this novel but I’d say the biggest downfall was the lack of overall likability of the main protagonist. Some of his actions put him in a-hole territory, with no redeeming qualities-despite the authors aim at showing the pitfalls of “every man for himself” thinking. Jeong-su just didn’t quite work. But the overall story was interesting and decent apocalyptic journey. 3.5 stars

Ewhan Kim’s South Korean horror, The Black Orb, starts off in grand fashion, hitting the ground running with the feel of a classic monster movie with a nifty sci-fi twist. Jeong-su is taking a smoke break in the alley outside his home when he first notices the titular black orb approaching, watching in horror as it violently absorbs the people it comes into contact with. As Jeong-su flees, his attempts at warning others falling on deaf ears because people think he’s crazy, much to their detriment. Kim channels a slasher horror vibe almost immediately, with Jeong-su being stalked through the streets of his Seol neighborhood, as if he’s being pursued by Jason by way of a kaiju. It’s a brilliant, engaging, and intense opening.

And then it’s all pretty much downhill from there.

As the orb consumes more and more Koreans, it eventually begins to undergo mitosis, multiplying to such a rapid degree that there is no hope for humanity the world over. Kim’s monster mash quickly dovetails into the post-apocalyptic, with Jeong-su among the small handful of survivors. There’s plenty of interesting scenarios to contend with, as he tries to adapt to life on the run from the orbs, gets taken in by one group only to be exiled again, and running into gangs pillaging whatever has been left by those who were absorbed.

The longer it goes on, though, the less engaging it becomes. The orbs grow into such a monumental existential threat that we eventually become inured to their danger, and one can’t help but wonder what metaphor Kim is striving towards here. The black orbs eventually are labeled The Orbs of Despair, giving us at least one on the nose interpretation, in which society is threatened by a general malaise. The Black Orb could certainly, and perhaps most easily, be viewed as a work written in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, or even the rise of far-right politics that threaten to destroy us all the world over, especially in the book’s latter chapters which see the survivors seeking revenge and trying to place blame on somebody, anybody, for the horrors that befell them. One might even view it as a response to our lack of proper actions being taken globally against the climate crisis. Even now, with the Palisades wildfires rampaging across California, one can’t help but think of MAGA’s attempt to blame wokeness, diversity initiatives, and women as the primarily culprit behind this climate disaster rather than face scientific facts. The Black Orb is rife with this kind of broadly sweeping, one size fits all social commentary.

However, readers looking for singular answers will likely find plenty to be disappointed in. Kim offers nothing in the way of explanation regarding the orbs appearance, where they came from, or why they do what they do, letting them operate purely as a metaphor du jour. There’s a sense of timelessness to be found in this approach, of course; read The Black Orb in another twenty years and you’ll likely find plenty of socio-political concerns to relate it to as you can today, presuming we’re still around, of course.

I wasn’t particularly bothered by the lack of answers regarding the orbs, and found myself largely pleased by Kim’s commentary on society in general. But as the book went on, I couldn’t help but wonder how Kim was going to resolve the multifaceted issues raised throughout The Black Orb. Jeong-su is a selfish and self-serving protagonist that progressively grows harder to root for the more we learn about him, eventually twisting toward the downright vile as his homophobia toward another survivor he becomes mutually dependent upon grows violent and abusive. What fate would be in store for a man such as him, in a post-apocalyptic Seol ruled by violence and its demands for bloodlust to be satiated?

The simple answer is, there is no answer. Kim simply ends the novel. There’s no definitive statement, no judgements, no emotional or moral resolution. It’s the kind of weak, open-ended anticlimax that made me wish I hadn’t slogged through so much tepid, shallow character work, repetitious ideas, and vulgar sexual abuses. After getting my hopes up with such a strong opening, Kim’s lack of definitive closure, particularly as it relates to Jeong-su, feels cowardly and trite.

A part of me can’t help but wonder if something got lost in translation, or if perhaps my total lack of cultural awareness of Korean society disserved me here. It’s certainly possible I’m too much the “ugly American” to fully appreciate Kim’s commentary, and that whatever he was striving for has fallen on the deaf and ignorant in this US reader. It’s also possible that this is exactly what Kim was striving for, if we’re to view The Black Orb on a metatextual level, with his final chapters attempting to capture those feeling of despair with its oblique finale and to leave readers in a fit of discomfort. In that case, it only half-worked. I wasn’t left feeling despair, only disappointment.

Jeong-su sees a black orb consume his neighbor. As more of these orbs begin appearing, he sets out to find his parents. This book had a lot of tension and great world-building, but I didn't like the ending. The characters were so complex and the exploration of catastrophe was great, so the unsatisfying ending really disappointed me.

2.5 stars

This publication of “The Black Orb” is an English translation of the 2009 novel, the title of which better translates to “The Orbs of Despair.” Jeong-su Kim is a successful office employee with an unfortunate smoking habit. While out buying cigarettes, he witnesses a mysterious black sphere absorb a person. The orb begins to multiply and spread everywhere, absorbing people as they go, leading first to the evacuation of Seoul, then a worldwide apocalypse. Jeong-su repeatedly attempts to track down his parents and learn what has become of them. Along the way he falls in with groups of people who are coping with the apocalypse in various ways: by forming a cult that believes it can control the orbs, by sacrificing others to the orbs, by attempting to find a location safe from orbs, and others.
This book is a fascinating exploration of human morality and ethics in the face of unavoidable crisis. There are so many implications here about individual responsibility and selfishness. Jeong-su himself is an interesting lens into these issues, as he has lived his entire adult life making reprehensible choices and claiming he had no actual choice in the matter. He is clearly not intended to be a moral character; in fact, he’s completely impossible to root for. Very few characters in this story actually appear to be worth saving. This is also clearly not meant to be a book that is enjoyable; it’s bleak, desolate, and gritty. While understanding the intentions behind the story, I still didn’t particularly like reading it. The prose felt very stilted and awkward, and sometimes I felt that the moral conundrums characters were presented with had too clear of an “answer” for the reader and not enough was left up to interpretation.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Black Orb by Ewhan Kim is a third person multi-POV Korean sci-fi horror. Jeong-su watches as his neighbor and several other people are swallowed up by a black orb that randomly appeared in the middle of Seoul. The orb cannot be destroyed and is able to multiply, slowly swallowing up the entire population of the world. As Jeong-su runs from them, he witnesses some of the worst of humanity and comes to terms with his own flaws.

This reminds me a lot of the works of Junji Ito: taking one specific element that feels almost absurdist and then giving it a horror spin in order to explore humanity and the ways we change under slow-moving, constant stress. If you’ve read Uzumaki, you’ll probably know what I mean. The orbs move at a walking pace so you can technically outrun them or use your car to drive away, but they don’t have to rest and they will eventually find you. The opening pages are quite vivid and I could see the imagery Ewhan Kim was conveying, which doesn’t happen often for me. The premise is simple and it's executed very well.

Over time, we get a pretty deep exploration of Jeong-su as a character and he has a lot more flaws than I initially thought, but he’s also running from orbs trying to kill him and people who will kill him. I spent a lot of time sympathizing with him as he tries to find his parents and he misses his ex-girlfriend, but by the end, he’d done enough things that I didn’t sympathize with him anymore. I can see how a reader might still feel bad for him, though, as the world is falling apart around him but he did so many of his worst actions before then.

The pacing is fairly slow though the book as a whole is a pretty fast read. Several chapters are quite long and serve to explore the new situation Jeong-su has found himself in, such as at a school where other people are living as a community. Usually, a horror will build-up to the horrific and spend its time creating the atmosphere, but, here, the supernatural/sci-fi horror is on page one and the atmosphere comes from how humanity is behaving.

Content warning for depictions of homophobia, abuse of power, cheating, murder, and mentions of sexual assault

I would recommend this to fans of sci-fi horror and Junji Ito and readers looking for an in depth character exploration that could change their entire opinion of the lead

I wanted to like THE BLACK ORB more than I did. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure what it intended to say, I didn't enjoy my reading experience, and I was left with a feeling of uncleanliness after finishing. So if that was the author's intention, then yay?

THE BLACK ORB follows Jeong-su Kim, a 30-something-year-old single manager leading a relatively dull life in an unspecified time in recent South Korea. One evening, he witnesses a 2-meter-tall floating black orb come out of nowhere, absorb any human it touches, and then go after the next closest human. As the black orbs continue to multiply and spread throughout the world, Jeong-su, along with everyone else, flees Seoul, ostensibly on a journey to find his parents. Along the way, he meets a religious cult, murderous thieves, and other humans of varying degrees of depravity, all the while trying to figure out what the heck is up with the orbs.

At first I was into this absurd story. THE BLACK ORB moves us quickly along in the plot, and the appearance of the black orbs bring out the worst in people. I felt there could've been some interesting commentary here about how quickly the thin veneer of civility in our lives tears the moment something apocalyptic occurs, how quickly social systems that are meant to protect us--the police, the military, the government--are revealed to protect no one in the face of danger.

However, the book's themes just never coalesced. Instead, Kim chose to introduce more and more absurd/unpleasant elements, especially in Jeong-su's character. It is clear from the beginning of the story that he is rather self-centered and individualistic--he doesn't have any close relationships with anyone, and his actions are more or less self-serving. However, later on there is a strong plotline that brings out his homophobia and toxic masculinity, and I just... don't know. Like, yes, there are people in the world who are clearly homophobic, but I felt that this aspect of Jeong-su's character was shoehorned into that moment of the story because the plot needed it to be there, rather than something that had been built up all along. Jeong-su's homophobia also constitutes a large part of the ending, and it all just felt... icky.

I guess what I'm trying to say here in my review is that a character can be homophobic and/or toxically masculine, but that has to kind of be consistent across the whole story and/or relevant to the book's themes. I couldn't figure out if THE BLACK ORB was trying to comment on the amoral, individualistic nature of contemporary South Korea, or specifically on Korea's problem with toxic masculinity. Either angle would have been fine, but the book's events seemed to go one way, while Jeong-su's thoughts and actions went the other.

Overall, I felt that THE BLACK ORB had the potential be a scathing indictment of the problems of individualistic capitalist societies, especially in the way we respond to tragedies, but the plot and the MC seemed to want to go a different way, leaving me uncertain as to what the book wanted to say to its audience.

This exciting tale follows Jeong-Su as he tries to avoid a mysterious, two-meter diameter, black orb. This orb moves about with no apparent method of locomotion, it passes through walls, following whomever is closest, slowly plodding along, and it absorbs anyone who touches it. With a solid mixture of horror, suspense, and the absurd, Jeong-Su travels across South Korea avoiding the menace while trying to reunite with his parents. Along the way, we see a variety of responses to the strange black orb by many different people Jeong-Su comes across showing the height of hope and the depths of depravity.

The story moves on at a good pace with a somewhat cinematic feel. There is an urgent feel to the writing which brings the reader right into the mindset of Jeong-Su. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

I know this was supposed to show humanity's lows when society breaks down while being a somewhat philosophical dive into the human psyche in moments of crisis, but it definitely didn't work out for me.

I'm the type of person who needs to root for something in the story, whether it's a plot point or a character, but there was honestly nothing to root for in this novel.

The MMC, Jeong-su, was a miserable bastard to deal with. I thought I'd garner some sympathy for him since he was on a quest to find his parents amidst an apocalypse created by giant killer metal balls. And doing all of that while suffering from his past and current experiences with toxic masculinity and hypermasculinity in the military and his civilian career.

But nothing about him was admirable. He's extremely selfish and homophobic and had zero redeemable qualities. He regularly beats up a younger man that he gets stuck with and doesn't feel remorse for any of it. No spoilers, but his situation with the younger man actually gets worse. And Jeong-su still doesn't feel any remorse for his actions.

With all that, I honestly didn't care if he lived or died. And at the end, I wondered if he was looking for his parents only because he was a man child and needed mommy and daddy's help.

Other than that, this pretty much had all the apocalyptic story tropes, such as a religious cult, a roving gang of murderers, martial law, etc. Nothing new and nothing all that interesting tbh.

Hell, I was even disappointed by the evil black orbs because they weren't fully explained at all. And I wasn't really feeling the black orbs as metaphors for society's ills and societal pressures. It reads like a stretch, but then again, I didn't study literature.

The beginning also read very comical, like the opening to a b movie. I was amused, and not in a good way.

I'm glad that I only wasted one day reading this book.

Thank you to MIRA and NetGalley for this arc.