Seo Mi-ae has written a considerable number of thriller novels, confirming that she enjoys and is comfortable in this genre and, most importantly, that what she writes is of unparalleled quality. The Only Child is now undergoing its screen adaptation, and the author is currently writing the second book of the trilogy. This is the only one of her novels that has (so far) been translated into several languages and also been published in Spanish, which I consider a great feat. She is a highly-regarded author who has won awards, such as the Korean Annual Spring Literary Contest for her book 30 Ways to Kill Your Husband(which has also been adapted as a play), the Grand Prize (Best Feature Film) at the 26th Annecy International Animation Film Festival for My Beautiful Girl, Mary, and the Korean Mystery Literature Award for her novel The Garden Of a Doll.

Throughout The Only Child, we witness both the author’s great knowledge of criminal cases and serial killers and the fact that she has researched how these people behave. One of Korea’s most infamous serial killers is YuYeong-cheol, who murdered between 8 and 10 people in 2003 and 2004. This criminal case prompted her to write The Garden of Doll. Given all the data that she bestows upon the reader throughout the novel, we can consider Seo Mi-ae a well-informed person, and it is clear that she knows what she is writing about, allowing us to trust her and her words and delve deeper into the story. I believe that the author desires to indicate a path, a certain way of reading the novel, and regardless of us knowing that it is fiction, the story she portrays could easily be one of the many stories that we hear on the news.

In this novel, we get to meet three main characters: Seong-gyeong,a forensic psychologist; Lee Byeong-do, a serial killer; and Ha-yeong, an eleven-year-old girl who has lost her mother and grandparents, and whose solewish is to be with her father. Each of these characters gives the novel a special and unique flavor that, when mixed with those of others, results in an incredible dynamic. The similarities noted by Seong-gyeong between Lee Byeong-do and the little girl make the novel increasingly creepy.

The interesting thing about each of them is that we get to know them little by little. Seo Mi-ae does not rush when introducing the characters to us. In each of the four parts into which the novel is divided, we gradually discover the structural framework that makes up the psyche of each one of them. By having chapters narrated from their personal perspective, the author makes the storyflow gracefully, helps us to understand the story better, and delves ever deeper into the darkness that she seeks to create.

My view is that they have all experienced a hard past, with no shortage of a lack of affection, and now face a complex and intense present.Their different dimensions shown throughout the story manage to make readers doubt what they really think of them: Seong-gyeong, the forensic psychologist,is greatly respected and has vast knowledge but, at the same time, cannot truly see the reality that unfolds around her; Lee Byeong-do is a man with the face of an innocent lamb who only aspires to be loved but who has committed terrible crimes; and Ha-yeong seems to be a simple eleven-year-old girl at times and a cold-minded and calculating person at others, who won’t relent until she gets what she wants.

There is another character who, despite not being part of the main cast, should not go unmentioned because I think he bears great importance, even if we only come to realize this at the very end: Ha-yeong’s father, Yun Jae-seong. This Character's absence creates a heavy footprint throughout the novel that shows us the important role he plays in the story. Incredibly, a character who appears so sparsely has definitely had such significance for me!

I don’t think I could just pick or highlight only one memorable moment from the entire novel. For me, it’s the entire novel that stands out while unfolding throughout all its chapters. It is elegantly devised through a series of small events that seem isolated but create an ongoing and ever-increasing strain and expectation in the reader. And when all these small events finally converge,everything makes sense. One is aware that the author has been able to portray,express, and share the facts in the best way to make the book a page-turner,conveying nervousness, surprise, and even shock to the reader at certain times.The characters’ interviews, memories, thoughts, discoveries, shared moments,and dialogues—all of it is part of Seo Mi-ae’s master narrative plan.

As I’ve mentioned previously, this is a plot that unfolds slowly in dribs and drabs. Even if things may seem to be unfolding slowly and safely in a straight line, suddenly and unexpectedly—at times, just when one thinks to know what will happen next—the characters take control of the story and shift the plot at will. It’s just the way they are: their roles as main characters involve not allowing readers to feel at ease while they gobble up the book, but rather, making them think, going back, asking themselves how they would behave in a given situation, and questioning why these characters don’t react as they think they should. And all this makes the plot have some unexpected twists.

I would love to know how the author conceived this story, what was the first scene that she wrote, how she developed the ideas, and which characters were the most challenging to portray. Nothing has been left to chance, and although a few scenes in the book may have seemed unconvincing and stiff to me(such as the one involving the deleted text message), I believe that the author thought long and hard so that everything in the novel ends up fitting together as a great puzzle. Toward the end of the book, I felt like having three big chunks of a puzzle that were still floating apart but that eventually fit together in its last chapters and then witnessed the novel’s showdown, finally revealing the whole landscape that The Only Child was meant to portray.

I am a great fan of thrillers, and this novel is among the first Korean novels of this genre that I’ve read. The truth is that I really liked it. Its way of telling the story and introducing the characters is different from the way I was used to. That disconcerted me at first because I was shaken out of my comfort zone, but I then began to be more at ease with the novel.

In every story I read, I like to speculate about what may happen next and then check whether I am right or not. However, my speculations never did hit the target when reading The Only Child. I eventually stopped thinking about what might or might not happen and just wanted to keep on reading to find out how the story was going to end and what it had in store for its three main characters.

I doubtlessly recommend this novel to anyone looking for a sinister, different story that offers food for thought for several days. It’s a great book to discuss, debate, and search for all the people and references the author has built into it. All this just makes you more involved in the story and feel as if you’re also a character in it who also gets to be in the cell, the room where the interview takes place: our main character's house.