WELCOME TO THE HYUNAM-DONG BOOKSHOP by Hwang Bo-Reum isn’t technically a fantasy but having worked in a bookstore I find the protagonist’s decision not to carry bestsellers the kind of thing unlikely to happen in reality. Which isn’t a deal breaker — I enjoyed this low-key Korean novel (in translation) about a bookstore owner struggling to make her store a going concern, wondering what she wants out of life and whether what she wants is worth the effort, a question members of her found family are also pondering. Unlike American novels such as Crazy Rich Asians this makes no effort to explain its Korean references (I had to go look up what an “eonnie” is) and I’m sure some stuff is lost in translation. Still, it kept me reading all the way to the end.
NINE-TAILED by Jayci Lee, did not. I picked it up because an urban fantasy drawing on Korean folklore sounded intriguing. However the first chapter has the fox-spirit narrator spending way too much time on worldbuilding info-dumps and what she has to say feels like standard urban fantasy material (including the shadowy cabal that runs everything) so I set it aside.
MONKEY PRINCE by Gene Luen Yang and Bernard Chang worked much better for me. Marcus, the protagonist, is a teenager who discovers he’s the son of the Monkey Prince from Journey to the West, with his father’s mentor Shifu Piggy nagging him into mastering his powers to use for good. As if that wasn’t enough, it turns out Marcus’ parents are criminal scientists working as henchpeople for whatever criminal mastermind pays them enough. The results are goofball fun, collected in two six-issue TPBs.
#SFWApro. All rights to cover (Bernard Chang) remain with current holders.
