Synopsis:
In an unassuming Seoul workplace, IT technician Junyoung’s network reaches throughout the entire building. He sees every entrance. Every lobby. Every bathroom. The women in this building may be cold and dismissive, but he can always pull up his favorite images of them and remember who holds the real power. Until one, Dahye, sets herself apart from the rest.
Dahye, ever the romantic, yearns to be cherished after years of living in the shadow of her perfect older sister, who tragically drowned years ago. Only her boyfriend seems to appreciate Dahye. He’s rich, handsome, and generous—and she’d do anything to hold on to the happiness he brings her.
But when a hidden camera scandal rocks the city’s elites, Dahye’s dreams of a fairy-tale romance twist into a grotesque nightmare. Her boyfriend abandons her. Her parents reject her. Her grip on reality begins to shatter as visions of her dead sister suddenly appear. And as Junyoung’s interest in Dahye turns to obsession, and the truths of their troubled lives are revealed, Dahye must go to extreme lengths to bring the truth to light . . .
Review:
The title of Monika Kim’s latest and truly harrowing novel “Molka,” is derived from the Korean term for these insidious little cameras, installed by voyeurs to capture dehumanising and compromising videos of others, and it really is an epidemic. The first point to make is that the subject matter is utterly vile and disturbing, just really revolting. The second and main point to make is, considering the furious, feminist horror lane Kim carved out for herself with her debut, and thinking about how utterly detestable the types who install these cameras absolutely are… how could “Molka,” possibly be anything short of justifiably, incandescently rageful and subsequently, really very cathartic? Yes, this book is about victims of a truly invasive crime, but it’s also about what can be done back. A novel sharpened to an avenging edge, with many an abhorrent man, “Molka,” will get your molars grinding, your fingers itching, and is easily one of the more grim and upsetting things I’ve read this year… fortunately it has the bloody pay-off to match. This one is out April 28th from Kensington Books in the US and April 30th from Brazen Books in the UK. Prepare accordingly.
Junyoung is a miserable and misogynistic man, all around reprehensible, who lives with his mother and works in an office as tech support. To his colleagues he appears as, if not a little strange, helpful, but what those colleagues don’t know about are the cameras he has installed in the women’s bathrooms, the illicit feeds of which he flits back and forth between to keep him occupied during the day. Dahye is his favourite of his victims, and he’s all too optimistic about his chances with her. In the world beyond his grubby fantasy she is already dating somebody, and that somebody happens to be Hyukjoon, the heir to YS Media Group, Korea’s biggest media company. She can’t believe her luck, he is charismatic and charming and takes her to Seoul’s most exclusive clubs and restaurants. Dahye feels incredibly lucky, until molka footage of the two of them is released. Alone, feeling used and watched, things veer into exactly the bloody direction you’d hope.
Now, “Molka,” does, (more in its periphery) have a supernatural element to it, but the menace of that is but a drop in the ocean compared to the human monsters in this novel- the men. Junyoung is the very first narrator we meet, and his perspectives feel entitled and slick with something oily and unpleasant from the very first page. The way he thinks about his female colleagues, speaks to his mother, and generally sees the world has that incel sourness to it. He is a self-mythologising and grotesque man who believes he is owed affection, obedience and applause. “Molka,” addresses explicitly the issue of those hidden cameras, but this can be more widely applied to the issue of gender and machismo. Pretty much all of the men, but most obviously Junyoung are a pinhead for toxic masculinity and rampant misogyny, with him idolising his… ironically absent father with the same pathetic fervor as teenage incels-in-training look at morons like Andrew Tate. The men in this book are just loathsome, but also really the selling point of “Molka,” for it’s seeing the respective, deserved fates they meet at the hands of those they seek to possess and control, catharsis of the most raw and primal kind, that really makes it as great as it is.
A bloody, rageful, vindictive beast of a novel, Monika Kim’s latest scratches that same itch as “The Eyes Are The Best Part”- this time meditating upon misogyny, how it can transcend class, the “boys will be boys,” mindset, the harm that stems from it, privacy, the violation of it, and the inaction of the government to acknowledge or punish that. An intense and staccato revenge story that has the same texture as Kim’s debut, that being serrated and barbed, those who loved Eyes will adore this, and those who are going in completely blind will be in for a nasty but delightful surprise.
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