Let’s learn more about the brilliant novel by Seo MiAe! “The Only Child” (2020) Book Review Author: Seo MiAe Publisher: Ecco Length: 283 pages ASIN: B07RGKDR8G One of the first peculiarities of this book is its change of point of view over the chapters. Although the narrative adopted is mostly external, it sometimes switches to internal or even omniscient narration. The first chapter thus begins in omniscient narration, where we follow two men, named Lee SangUk and Yu DongSik. The first works in the fire and rescue service, and is in charge of inspecting places where fires have taken place, while the second is an inspector for the scientific police. The book begins at a specific time: June 17 at 3:37 a.m., when a fire is declared in the Eungam district. It’s the sixth such fire in weeks, but the fire quickly turns into a crime scene when two bodies are discovered. Strange thing? While the two victims are charred in their bed, the blanket covering them is not from the inside… A child is then rescued from the flames, holding a teddy bear in her arms, and asking to see her father, Yun JaeSeong, who is believed to be working at a hospital with an unknown name. Sometime later, he recovers his daughter, and the inspectors tell him that his daughter’s grandparents have tragically died in the fire. This is how this very first chapter ends, which suggests a criminal investigation for the rest of the novel in order to find the person at the origin of these fires. But is this really the case? Chapter two is in internal narration, and begins with the curious phrase “What is your oldest memory?”. Although we do not know the identity of the narrator, some clues are scattered here and there, especially regarding his personality. Indeed, by asking this question to each person he meets, the subject of this chapter can identify his interlocutor, because an impacting memory like the first we have can subsequently influence our social and societal development, or even influence our personality and our destiny. We also learn that the subject’s mother hated him even before he was born, developing an irrational fear of him in his presence and seeking to kill him. Indeed, her very first memory is of a pillow on her face, when her mother was trying to suffocate her. It is nevertheless with the words “I love her, mom” that this mysterious chapter ends. The third chapter reveals a new character, the main character of this novel: SeonKyeong. A professor of criminal psychology, explains to her students that it is difficult to determine whether or not a child will become a serial killer. However, some trends can be highlighted, such as the MacDonald triad: nocturnal enuresis, pyromania, and animal cruelty. If a child meets these three characteristics, it can be a sign of psychosis, although scientists in the 20th century have looked into the question of a malformation in the brain, or the chaotic family environment during childhood. For SeonKyeong, what drives a killer is above all curiosity, curiosity to know what happens in the human body, what the victims think, or what happens after death. It is therefore essential to rely more on crime scenes because a killer will tend to exaggerate his words to get noticed. We find our mystery character, who compares his mind to a room locked with padlocks so as not to let out the painful memories it contains. The subject of this chapter tells us how, at barely 11 years old, he ran away from his mother’s house by getting into a truck clandestinely. Bad luck, a road accident kills the driver of the truck, and no coincidence, the character loses his memory. He was then taken in for six years by the driver’s family, who gave him a home and love until one day he heard a song that immersed him in his childhood.
The Beatles’ ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ is our antagonist’s key song. At the slightest listen, he thinks back to his mother, and the years of torture she inflicted on him without the slightest remorse. However, listening to it again after six years of silence, he decides to return home, in order to confront his mother and her dark demons. But it’s already time to follow the life of SeonKyeong, whose daily life is turned upside down when a serial killer named Lee ByeongDo wants to talk to her, something he has never done with anyone until now. The police warn her: ByeongDo is an unshakable beast, who likes to provoke the population and is proud of the media coverage he receives for his murders. He is said to have murdered thirteen women in cold blood. Against all expectations, SeonKyeong decides to meet ByeongDo in order to find out more about the murderer, especially since he could reveal crucial clues in his investigations, such as other victims for example. ByeongDo being on death row, has nothing more to lose, so why ask for a confrontation with SeonKyeong he doesn’t even know? And it is with surprise that ByeongDo asks him from their first meeting “what is your first memory?” Everything then makes sense, the mystery character is ByeongDo, who has told us about his chaotic childhood until then, and even the murder of his mother… Indeed, after returning home to confront her, he did not know how to contain himself and murdered her. Hesitantly, SeonKyeong tells her about the pair of red shoes given to her by her mother, as her first memory. ByeongDo is doubtful but decides to believe her. He wants to tell her about his mother and starts humming the Beatles song. He tells her that he likes to sing that as soon as he kills, before suddenly ending their meeting, asking her to come back in two days with an apple. Still upset from this meeting, SeonKyeong returns home, to be confronted with a child in her living room. Looking lost, she holds a teddy bear in her arms. If this teddy bear reminds you of something, you’ve got it right. This little girl is the one who lost her grandparents in the arson of the first chapter, and her father is none other than SeonKyeong’s husband! The pieces of the puzzle are gradually falling into place without our main character realizing it. This is the first time that SeonKyeong has met HaYeong, and it is with pain and apprehension that JaeSeong, her husband, tells her that they both have to raise HaYeong since she has no one else in her family, her mother having died a year earlier. Despite the young girl’s astonishment at this situation that she could not have anticipated, she remembers having also lost her mother when she was 15, and immediately feels empathy for the child, whom she agrees to take care of. We also learn that SeonKyeong and JaeSeong met in the hospital where the latter worked when SeonKyeong accompanied his father who was the victim of a cerebral hemorrhage. But the relationship between SeonKyeong and HaYeong promises to be very difficult. In the presence of her father, the young girl is affectionate, and playful, like a child of her age (she is eleven years old), but alone with the criminologist, she turns into a little devil, screaming, threatening, and is even violent. One day after SeonKyeong washed her teddy bear, an enraged HaYeong grabbed scissors and cut the poor teddy into pieces. At school too, HaYeong terrorizes her classmates, when she is caught about to disembowel a wildcat, slashing another child’s hand with a cuter. As time passes, HaYeong looks like ByeongDo, growing stronger and more confident. On the contrary, ByeongDo is weakening and falling apart. He immerses himself in the depths of his memory in the presence of SeonKyeong whom he considers to be the only one who can help him and make him change so that he becomes a new man. He confides to her, and exposes himself, but this only worsens his psychological state which very quickly has repercussions on his physical state. He loses weight at breakneck speed, his hallucinations increase, and he truly plunges into madness. As SeonKyeong develops fear towards the little girl, she also develops affection towards the serial killer. The two have the same look, but it is difficult for the criminologist to separate things as she progresses in interviews and in her new life as a mother… If you want to know more about this curious relationship between our three characters, don’t wait any longer and read this novel! Who from SeonKyeong, ByeongDo, or even HaYeong will destabilize you the most? Divided into five parts, we only focused on the first two so that you can discover by yourself all the secrets of this novel! Thrillers are a very particular style that attracts more fans of the genre day by day, in particular, thanks to television series which shake up the codes such as the recent success on Netflix of the series “DAHMER”. Plus, the apple that ByeongDo particularly likes can remind us of the manga “Death Note”. On the Korean side, there are also many recent dramas oriented around justice, miscellaneous acts, and murderers, like most recently with “Somebody” (2022). Let us know in the comment below what do you think of this novel and the thriller genre! Kpopmap Rating : 8/10
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