Book No. 4 of 2021
This was the kind of book where the level of craftsmanship is such that I felt fully sublimated in the story—it’s a similar feeling as when I watch a truly phenomenal film. Onda (along with the translator, Alison Watts) creates an overarching sense of dread and suspense without resorting to cheap cliffhangers.
Like a great film, symbols and colors in the story are strikingly vivid—it’s surprisingly visual writing. The narrative structure—crafted as one-sided second-person transcripts with every chapter from the POV of a different character with the narrator going unidentified until the end—is incredibly compelling, with clues and connections unfolding slowly.
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Elements of the narrative structure reminded me of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman is in Trouble.
The all-enveloping sense of unease, combined with themes of inequality and the “invisible people” who toil for the wealthy, reminded me vividly of Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite.