*Thank you to publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: October 3, 2023
Publisher: Arcade
Pages: 312
Genre: Literary horror
Rating: 3/5
The Owl Cries is a literary horror that is set in a small South Korean logging community during the winter and really hones in on some of the people who live there. The overarching mystery is a missing forest ranger who makes sure that people stay out of the forest because it’s not safe in the winter. But the real purpose of this story is the psychology and motivations of the people who live there.
I could see moments of brilliance in the writing but it wasn’t consistent. I love a good deep dive into why a character makes the choices they do but sometimes the book leaned too heavily into it. I also feel like the main plot of the story would get lost at times. Pyun did always come back to it but sometimes it took a bit to get there.
Pyun is a talented writer though and the atmosphere she created was so insidious. She calls her writing anxiety fiction and it is an appropriate label. I could vividly feel myself inside the characters head and feel what they were feeling. It was an unsettling feeling that is always the mark of a good horror.
The Owl Cries is a book that is not going to be for many people. Literary horror is one of my favorite genres but this book isn’t the best at it. Although this is a translated work so it most likely works better in its original language. If you are willing to work at reading this and patiently tease out the story than I think you will find some enjoyment. I will be reading more from Pyun in the future because the idea of anxiety fiction intrigues me.
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