Book Club

There's more to this story than the description's letting on.

I honestly don't think this fits the "horror" genre. Yes, there are numerous scenes which can be considered scary but after reading a few chapters you'll realize that the story is revolving around a mystery and not so much focused on trying to scare its readers, which is supposed to be the main goal of a horror story. I'd also like to reitarte the other review when he/she said that it gave him a sort of "The ring/the grudge" feel because I also experienced that. I'm an avid fan of The Ring series and aside from this book's "long haired scary girl popping out of sth" factor that made it resemble The Ring, the ending in which the male main character was just being used also gave off that feel since it wasn't a happy ending and his efforts were in vain.

Now this story was fairly short and must be finished in one sitting. Yes, 'must'. Not 'can', must. This is because you are forced to keep going once questions start to arise. As the story progresses so do the number of questions you start to have and you're left to wonder if the author, with only a few chapters left, will be able to execute the ending in such a way that all questions are thoroughly explained and not just blurted out in a "half-assed" manner because of lack of planning and or due to the overly complicated story he was trying to build up. To my relief, the author was in fact able to answer the VITAL questions. I enjoyed the story but was left a little bit unsatisfied because there were still key points that have yet to be answered. Some questions if not answered, were tackled so quickly that it didn't really give the audience enough time to feel or connect with the situation. I would have given it a 9 or possibly a 10 if the plot twist, as well as the tiny details, had been executed in a much more profound manner.

All in all, Book Club is worth a read for those with a curious mind; but if you're looking for something to test your courage, this manhwa might not satisfy your "craving" enough. (Which was in my case, hence the score of 8)

I invite you all to give it a shot though!

The manga revolves around a book, as well as the characters of Kyungdo and Eunsae who volunteer to help out the library and find the book individually. The book seems to kill anyone who reads it or leads them to commit suicide so that they may become "immortal"- a promise the book makes them it seems.

Eunsae finds the book first, however, seeing the horror within it chucks it away. Kyungdo also findfs the book later and instead becomes obsessed with it. Seeing this Eunsae tries to help Kyungdo and try and protect him from it. Whether this is because she has an attraction to him or because she's a good person is yet to be seen.

We soon find out that Kyungdo has a dark history with the book, although by the end of the first volume there are still mysteries to unfold.

Rather than this being a horror manga that tries to scare the reader, it is more concentrated the mysteries and disturbing events surrounding the book, making it more of a mystery rather than a horror manga, though it is truely disturbing in parts.

The author seems to concentrate more on plot than horror and the intenseness of it all, not putting any of the main characters in life threatening danger. So, though it may be a good manga with a good plot and great mystery, it lacks what other horror mangas have.

Over all I would say it is worth a read.

Story:
An inundated mess. The first few chapters do a terrible job of setting things up, the middle is bargaining on the exposition to carry a wave, and the finale is such a mess of convoluted choices that I couldn't wait to finish this manhwa.

There's no real clear-cut main character, so when the complicating incident hits, you don't really have an idea who it happens to, therefore you don't really know it's importance. That's rather technical, but in reality, the problem becomes, "What's the complicating incident?" For the most part, I knew what was going on because I read the manhwa's description, but the story shouldn't bank on people reading the back of the book to figure things out. The story needs to plainly describe what's taking place so things make sense.

Characters are caught saying things that don't make any sense. They're merely saying it because it'd be 'funny' despite there being no in-world reason for it. For instance, a detective (or is she a coroner? Do coroners carry gun now?) asks suspects if they think the place is haunted. If you read in later, they had no idea that things were due to anything supernatural. So, why does it happen? It's just poor writing. Not to mention, it's comedic. It omits the horror of the events that just took place and replaces it with some levity. Whenever something horrific happened later, I wasn't scared because I expected levity to come right after.

Now, there IS a story here, it's just translated poorly from the author's mind to the page. If this were rewritten by a better writer, I could see this being quite engaging, but the pacing issues, the confusing events, and the ridiculous dialogue make for a boring, tiresome read.


Art:
Not terrible art, but proportions are absolute crap. Scenery is usually turned into white backgrounds, and I don't really think I can envision any locations other than the school library. The setting never really matters.

Characters have changing proportions, abdomens are uncomfortably long, arms super lanky. Despite their skeletal issues, the characters still look fairly good. I can tell when there are different characters in a panel. I only had one problem with that and it totally threw me off.


Character:
I was bored and found nobody interesting. I found their individual arcs unrealistic and abusive to my intelligence. I would have been better off not reading this at all due to how uninteresting everyone was and how none of them could carry the narrative. What a mess.


Enjoyment:
Marginally enjoyable, but not something I would make time for. I read this to kill time until lunch. Nothing more. Now I'm glad it's over.


((If you liked this review, check out my other reviews by going to my profile and clicking the 'reviews' tab. I review virtually all anime and manga I find!))

The first vol. (6 chapters) was great, interesting, and just plain out weird. Although I cant seem to find the other so called two vol. I hope I can finish this ......... complexed manga. So if you wont weird and horror I say read it. lol