Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Diary of a Murderer: And Other Stories

Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Diary of a Murderer: And Other Stories by Young-Ha Kim

7 reviews

sas_ram's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Honestly my rating would have been much better if it was just the first story (Diary of a murderer). I liked how unreliable the narration was and that you never knew what's true. It was really interesting. The second one I honestly barely remember. Same with the fourth. The third one wasn't as strong as the first but much better than the second and fourth. It's about a boy who gets kidnapped as a young child and is returned to his family a decade later. He believes his kidnapper to be his real mother and the family falls apart. I wish it was more indepth. It was just missing something but it wasn't bad.

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anyepagan's review

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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dalmavatai's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The first story/title story in this collection was amazing, so trippy and exciting and twisty. Unfortunately, I had very high expectations for the rest of the stories and I was very disappointed. The concepts/ideas were really interesting but the plot didn't really end up going anywhere, there were no shocking moments whatsoever. They felt more like slice-of-life kind of stories which is fine, but I think the first story doesn't set the reader's expectations right and is not really indicative of the tonality of the rest in the collection. Hope this author has more stories like the first one because I really enjoyed that one!

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alleelei's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

interesting set of short stories, glimpsing into the dark corners of everyday life disrupted by the unusual
diary of a murderer 4.75/5
the origin of life 3/5
missing child 3.5/5
the writer 3.75/5

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muddleufflwe's review

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The first story in the collection (Diary of a Murderer) is probably the most worth-reading, a fascinating exploration of dementia from the perspective of a character who has it. It had made me think and understand the condition better than any other explanation or writing has managed to do- it creates an atmosphere of disconnect fitting for the subject and illustrates the internal struggles of the main character in a way that I've not seen done well often. The Origin of Life is, on the other hand, blatantly underwhelming (with a rather confusing plot), and the story of the Missing Child tries to explore it's (unique and rather interesting) premise but fails in doing it well. A disappointment considering the wealth of a story it could've been. The forth story, The Writer, is certainly an experience (for more than one reason), and an interesting think-piece. It's on par with the first story in the collection despite it's shorter length, and even if it is the grittiness that makes it fail to click with me in any way, it deals with an interesting plot revolving around a writer turned hack writer and their lack of motivation, first few pages giving a sense of depth to the character that the pervious two short stories had failed to do. My favorite part of the book overall would be

Spoiler

the repeating experiences of the main character in the first book and the slight changes that are made to their character over time, such as the growing aggressiveness and paranoia that fits both with the theme of a guilty murderer and dementia patient, and the descriptor for the sudden burst of inspiration that the man gets, and the product of this inspiration. The particular segment had me even wanting for the section to be true so I would be able to read the result of the described book, but alas such a book does not exist (to my knowledge).

An interesting collection if anything, though I was rather disappointed by the cheap 'plot-twists' that were pulled in the third short story.

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areaderheart's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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lyricalreads's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

My brain feels like it’s been wrung out but in a good way. I’m questioning so many things. I think my favorite of the stories was the titular one (Diary of a Murderer). “Missing Child” comes next.

I really found the explorations of family incredibly fascinating and also the characters’ relationships to one another. Kim constantly drives the readers and the characters to dig into these familial relationships and question further.

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