Review: A Plagued Sea - Kim Bo-young

Genre: Horror novella

Published: Honford Star, August 2026 My Rating: 4/5 stars

“If my husband had looked human, whatever the circumstances, if he had looked even a little more human, you wouldn’t have killed him like that.”

A Plagued Sea is a translated Lovecraftian horror novella, originally published last year in Korea. Often times, the words “Lovecraftian” and “cosmic” horror are used interchangeably, but in this case I specifically mean “inspired by Lovecraft’s mythology”. A Plagued Sea swims with horrors from the deep and crawls with human-fish hybrids that shouldn’t walk in bright daylight.

The Story:

Three years ago, the isolated costal community of Haewon Village was ravaged by an earthquake. Mu-young and her niece arrived to town that same day. They were outsiders and only meant to be passing through, but the disaster and its fallout lock them in place to face the horrors that follow. Soon a mysterious sickness start to spread through the villagers, causing horrific transformations and forcing the town into government quarantine.

Three years later – lockdown still in place – the town is transformed into something unrecognizable. Mu-young has stepped up as one of the few remaining law-enforcers in the village, desperately trying to keep a semblance of order. Then an officious bureaucrat from Seoul arrives; their first outside contact in years, and Mu-young’s first hope for answers regarding the truths of the earthquake that started it all.

What I loved:

This book is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a modern take on Lovecraftian mythology. This reads like a modern retelling of The Shadow over Innsmouth and shares a lot of the originals themes, but with a 21st century update. Without giving too much away; it covers prejudice, isolation and the ostracization of communities, ecological terrors and a deep sense of distrust regarding authorities (aka the government).

The description are sensory, the atmosphere is impeccable and the body horror absolutely visceral. Some “fishy-scenes” genuinely made my skin crawl with unease, without coming across gratuitous.

What I didn’t love:

As this is only a novella, there simply isn’t enough time to develop any of the themes into the depth that I might have wanted from it. There are hints at the themes of prejudice (which can be interpreted as both racial prejudice or ableism), but they are left for the reader to ponder by themselves, rather than explored on page. The same goes for the characterization of Mu-young, and her arc of coping with the trauma she endured.

Secondly, and this is very personal to my own taste: nothing kills tension for me like an onomatopoeia in horror. If you describe a door opening to me with a loud “creeeaaaaak”, I will immediately feel like I’m in a toddlers-first-animal-sounds-book. It feels unnatural in a horror setting to me, and it breaks my immersion. This novella makes use of onomatopoeias A LOT. To make things worse, the sound-descriptions are the original Korean. That might add to authenticity for some, but made it even more immersion breaking for me, as I had to figure out what a “ka-tok” or “pak” sounds like.

Many thanks to Honford Star for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

You can find this book here on Goodreads.