Seven Years of Darkness
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15
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Average rating5
"You-Jeong Jeong is a certified international phenomenon . . . Genuinely surprising and ultimately satisfying . . . Seven Years of Darkness [bolsters] the case for Jeong as one among the best at writing psychological suspense." —Los Angeles Times NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF SUMMER 2020 BY CRIMEREADS, BUSTLE, and AARP.org The truth always rises to the surface... When a young girl is found dead in Seryong Lake, a reservoir in a remote South Korean village, the police immediately begin their investigation. At the same time, three men--Yongje, the girl's father, and two security guards at the nearby dam, each of whom has something to hide about the night of her death--find themselves in an elaborate game of cat and mouse as they race to uncover what happened to her, without revealing their own closely guarded secrets. After a final showdown at the dam results in a mass tragedy, one of the guards is convicted of murder and sent to prison. For seven years, his son, Sowon, lives in the shadow of his father's shocking and inexplicable crime; everywhere he goes, a seemingly concerted effort to reveal his identity as the reviled mass murderer's son follows him. When he receives a package that promises to reveal at last what really happened at Seryong Lake, Sowon must confront a present danger he never knew existed. Dark, disturbing, and full of twists and turns, Seven Years of Darkness is the riveting new novel from the internationally celebrated author of The Good Son.
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Choi Hyonsu is awaiting execution for the murder of his wife, an 11 year old girl, and her father. He would also be charged for opening the Seryong Dam floodgates which wiped out half a town and drowned 4 policemen. Ever since, his son Sowon has pinballed from place to place. Anytime he would get comfortable, magazine articles would mysteriously appear on classmates desks, on landlord's doorstops, and dropped off at places of work. Revealed as the dead-eyed son of a mass murderer, Sowon would find himself forced to move again. It seems his only ally left in the world is Mr. Ahn.
Until Mr. Ahn disappears leaving a manuscript that recount the days leading up to the Seryong Lake Disaster. There's clearly more to the story than what Sowon has already pieced together.
What little mystery promised by the setup is easily teased together and so it becomes more an examination of moving forward when everything is already lost. How one reacts to personal tragedy - from retreating inwards to lashing out. It's that Korean obsession with outsized emotions and the work of struggling through the days. An existential thriller that spirals out into an overblown, climactic summer movie nail-biter.
