One thing about me is I love a translated books. I think they are unbelievably fascinating for so many reasons. You read completely different styles and perspectives and lives and cultures that give me such unique insight into what it's like living elsewhere in the world. It's very easy to fall into the trap that everywhere is as America-centric or Britain-centric when you only read English-language books. Translated stories blow that belief wide open.

A Plagued Sea is a Korean short story - only about 112 pages - that is so uniquely weird and unsettling. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. It releases 8/11 and I highly recommend giving it a shot if you're looking for a novella that shows you horror and writing in a completely different cultural context. This book was weird, but in such an absorbing way I couldn't put it down.

You follow Muyoung after a devastating earthquake cuts off a Korean seaside village from the rest of the country when a disease breaks out among the people. It's frustrating to see what they deal with, hopeless, confusing, sad. You get to read about things that matter in a completely different culture, behaviors that are nothing like our own, and be given horror in a context we never see in English-language novels.

I really enjoyed this. It was so much commentary about isolationism, critique of aesthetic culture, trolley-problem governing, corruption in healthcare, and grief. I don't want to give away too much, but I would consider this "mermaid horror". The way the loops all closed and how things ended up where they did was satisfying, but bleak and sad. I loved watching the influence of evangelist culture and the importance of socially connecting as well - using the church as a way to connect with community was critical!

Korean emphasis on community and connecting with neighbors is so wonderful to me, we lack this in American culture and seeing how important it is reminded me that talking to your neighbors is essential. We degrade and break down when we don't have community, it's what props us up. Isolating and removing people from that community doesn't help it improve, it only creates an infection in the community at large that always gets worse if it's never solved.

Since the novella is so short, I won't give away more than that. Just know this is something that I really enjoyed and found deeply unsettling, while also remaining poignant commentary on a culture of which I am only an observer.

"Then who have we been seeing at church this whole time?"-unsettling.

I've finally accepted that I'll never reach the end of my TBR... and honestly? That's okay. It's a sad but very real fact. Am I still adding books to it like my life depends on it? Absolutely. But every single addition has to meet my very specific, Jen-approved criteria.

1. Open door. 4–5 chili peppers only.

I'm always looking for spice ratings, and if you're only giving me three peppers... I'm probably passing. I need my books to be smutty.

1. No Hallmark movie energy.

If she's sipping a latte while baking cupcakes for her best friend's brother who's home from the army... it's never making it onto my TBR. I hate to admit it, but I definitely judge books by their covers. If I see a cartoon couple holding hands outside a cute little cafe, I'm walking past it. Sorry... not sorry.

Give me the weird.

I live a very normal, boring life. So I'd prefer not want to read about one. I need monsters, aliens, reverse harems, a bi-awakening with a whale shifter. Maybe she falls in love with a sentient hammer or five. I need something out of the ordinary to keep keep my attention. The more bizarre, the better. Otherwise, it's probably headed straight for my DNF graveyard, and life's too short to even start a book I know I won't finish.

Goodreads TBR - 135

Kindle downloads TBR - 48

Physical TBR - 51

Total TBR 234 (as of July 30, 2026)

But tomorrow....who knows.