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.
When 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. When Sowon receives a package that promises to reveal at last what really happened at Seryong Lake, he must confront a present danger he never knew existed.
Rating: 🖤🖤🖤
Seven Years of Darkness is a novel filled with depth and dives deep into the secrets and stories that occurs within a fishing village in Korea. I felt that the story was interesting in the beginning with the first person POV of Sowon. However as the book progressed, the chapters turned to the other characters such as Sowon’s father and the security guard, Mr Ahn.
Despite my initial thoughts about the novel, I enjoyed the way the story was fleshed out – especially the relationship between Sowon and Mr Ahn who was his guardian. The mysterious aspect of Seven Years of Darkness, coupled with the sense of doom and gloom really made this story better than I expected.
The years were not kind to Sowon and Mr Ahn who underwent lots of hardships in order to survive. It also made the story more complicated and was well-written in the portrayal of the eventual death of the young girl and who was implicated.
There was also this constant sense of foreboding in the novel as it progressed and we grew closer to the truth behind the murder. As my first Korean novel, I enjoyed the setting and culture embedded in Seven Years of Darkness and will look forward to reading more of the author’s books.
Thank you to Pansing for sending me a copy of Seven Years of Darkness in exchange for an honest review.
Seven Years of Darkness is now available at all good bookstores.
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