Seven Years of Darkness by Korean author You-jeong Jeong is a thriller that exposes the relationships between family members. What will you do to protect your idea of a perfect family?
Seven Years of Darkness synopsis
A chilling psychological thriller about how far some will go to maintain control–and exact revenge
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.
Book review
To start with the author’s own words: “This novel is about that gray area, about a man who made a single mistake that ruined his life. It’s about the darkness within people, and the lightness made possible by sacrificing oneself for someone else. I am hopeful that we can say yes to life in spite of it all.”
What makes this book interesting from a travel aspect is that it takes place all over South Korea as the main characters mention events happening in many different places. If you’ve traveled around the country then you know where Sowon and Mr. Ahn tried to feel at home. Seryong Lake itself is a fictional place.
The relationships between the characters are presented to us beautifully. The power of this book is in the family dimensions: what you would do for those you care about and what you would accept from your family members because they fit your idea of a perfect family.
Part of the story takes place in the present: I longed for these parts. This is where the action was and where I could really feel the way Sowon must have felt while growing up and experiencing the aftermath of the things that happened before his seven years of darkness.
While I really liked the ‘now’ part of the story, I found the past less interesting. It could be because of the many narrators: all voices sound the same, even though their thoughts are different. I didn’t realize it until the end of the book but that was what was bothering me while reading. The story is told well, the writing style is okay but not extraordinary. Yet I hardly noticed a narrator switch except for the fact that I was following another character. Maybe You-jeong Jeong did this on purpose (because of something I won’t spoil), but I still think that a novel’s characters should have unique voices.
Taking the girl’s father as an example: his character is repulsive, but that isn’t presented subtly enough: his thoughts about how he treats his wife and daughter are shared repeatedly. So instead of feeling repulsed by him, you just matter-of-factly accept it as a given. Befitting the format of the story, the narrative feels like an account of historical events rather than a personal story.
Seven Years of Darkness is a psychological thriller, but instead of slowly leaking information about the personalities of the characters, you know pretty much everything from the start. There’s not enough story to explore and because of the points mentioned earlier, the characters are less interesting than they’re supposed to be. You’re waiting for the story to progress to the point where you learn something new. There was only one thing that I wanted to find out and when I did it simply confirmed my guess. You-jeong Jeong wrote an okay thriller, but there are many better ones out there.
Translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim.
Interested?
Get your copy of Seven Years of Darkness from Amazon.
