A review by coldprintcoffee
The Plotters by Un-su Kim

4.0

Always, I take the Goodreads rating with a grain of salt, and here's another book on which we disagree. While the first half is a bit slow, it does a solid job of worldbuilding and letting us sink into the world of The Plotters and assassins and the rules along with that, which hovers between a grounding reality that we do know and the fanciful ideas of one we don't. There's a jerky sensation during reading, bizarre whiplash, but lets you sink in to the gritty atmosphere. The main character is at once aloof, detached, introspective, flat; it's nihilism with moments of reflection and even tenderness, or as close to it as he gets. There's a satisfaction in what it doesn't spell out for you, what it chooses not to say about its characters. Up until the middle, it's a 3/5 - the second half does a great heel-turn in action and suspense but still with that dreamy, detached feeling that spins it into a 4 for me.