paola_fi
1/1/2015
A quick read with a straightforward plot and enough sex & violence for a movie. Seoul as a setting for a story was interesting, but I felt the author didn't know how to best utilize the elements she had.
Seoul / the Koreas were just a backdrop for the story. It would have been interesting to have a local protagonist; now all the main characters (Sydney, Damien, and Johnny) are western. The local women featured in the story are either without a voice of their own (especially Lee Mee Hee and the other North Korean women) or very black-and-white (Dr Kim).
The story revolves around who gets to shag Sydney and how badly Johnny is able to batter her. When things get really bad, Dr Kim is there to offer a honey-drink to make everything better. I wish the author had spent more time on the doomsday cult, on North/South Korea divide, on preparing for the catastrophe, instead of taking the easy way out through blond hair, beating fists, and erect nipples.
(Roll-Your Own Reading Challenge 2014: Women of Genre Fiction)