Summary:
Early one morning, twenty-five-year-old Yu-jin wakes up to a strange metallic smell. He soon discovers his mother's murdered body, lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs of their stylish Seoul duplex. Having suffered from seizures for most of his life, Yu-jin often has trouble with his memory; all he can remember of the night before is his mother calling his name. But was she calling for help? Or begging for her life?
Thus begins Yu-jin's frantic three-day search to uncover what happened that night, and to finally learn the truth about himself and his family.
My Thoughts:
I love reading unreliable narrators, so I snatched this book up pretty quickly after seeing it. Yu-jin suffers from epilepsy, but he hasn't been taking his medication because he hates the side effects. This is important to note from the beginning. When he wakes up to the smell of blood and discovers his mother's body, he is slow to notice things due to his seizure he had the night before. Eventually, he realizes that the bloody footprints are a perfect match for his feet . . . but why would he kill his own mother? Yu-jin embarks on a journey of trying to remember the night before, which leads him to discover family secrets as well.
The book was written pretty well and was easy to read. Although it is primarily a murder mystery, it is also a character study of Yu-jin. We learn a lot about him and his family through his thoughts and encounters. Even though he is the prime suspect from the beginning, I found myself rooting for him to get to the bottom of how and why it happened. However, it does feel like it spans longer than three days with all the things going on in the book, which created a sort of disconnect for me in terms of believability. Despite this, it was a very fun book to read and I would definitely recommend it.
My Rating: 4 stars
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