Tor Nightfire
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Hardcover. 112 pages.
About A Plagued Sea:
"First the flood
Next the sickness
Last the change
Visionary Korean author Kim Bo-Young unleashes a Lovecraftian nightmare of infection, transformation, and abomination.
“[Kim Bo-Young's] fiction is a breathtaking piece of cinematic art.” ―Bong Joon Ho, Academy Award-winning director of Parasite
While waiting for a train to Haewon, an isolated Korean seaside village, bodyguard Mu-young gets a disaster alert on her phone. Screens throughout the station report breaking news of a massive earthquake on the coast. Despite the danger, Mu-young boards the train with her niece: she’d rather face the earthquake than leave the girl in her mother’s care. That choice haunts her for the rest of her life.
Three years later, Haewon Village is home to horrors. The earthquake unleashed an ancient plague that transforms its victims into fishy monsters, and the government’s lockdown has cut off any hope for help. Mu-young’s niece is dead, and all that’s left for her is to hunt villagers who break isolation. When an officious bureaucrat from Seoul arrives in the village, he stirs up even deeper trouble. Will Mu-young survive? Does she even deserve to?"
Next the sickness
Last the change
Visionary Korean author Kim Bo-Young unleashes a Lovecraftian nightmare of infection, transformation, and abomination.
“[Kim Bo-Young's] fiction is a breathtaking piece of cinematic art.” ―Bong Joon Ho, Academy Award-winning director of Parasite
While waiting for a train to Haewon, an isolated Korean seaside village, bodyguard Mu-young gets a disaster alert on her phone. Screens throughout the station report breaking news of a massive earthquake on the coast. Despite the danger, Mu-young boards the train with her niece: she’d rather face the earthquake than leave the girl in her mother’s care. That choice haunts her for the rest of her life.
Three years later, Haewon Village is home to horrors. The earthquake unleashed an ancient plague that transforms its victims into fishy monsters, and the government’s lockdown has cut off any hope for help. Mu-young’s niece is dead, and all that’s left for her is to hunt villagers who break isolation. When an officious bureaucrat from Seoul arrives in the village, he stirs up even deeper trouble. Will Mu-young survive? Does she even deserve to?"
A Plagued Sea is a weird, captivating story that blends plague horror, body horror, and some Lovecraftian influences into a thoughtful exploration of transformation, isolation, and how easily people can be treated as something fearful and detestable.
We follow Mu-young, a woman was traveling in the seaside village of Haewon when a major earthquake struck the coast. As a result, a strange land mass emerges from the sea...and with a mysterious disease spreads throughout the village. Some die, but others instead undergo disturbing physical transformations. The government's response to this is simple to quarantine the entire. village, which leaves the village's inhabitants--include Mu-young, who was only visiting--trapped and cut off from the rest of the world.
The majority of the story takes place three years after this major event occurs when Mu-young, who has not succumbed to this disease, is still trapped in Haewon and has taken it upon herself to essentially patrol the village in order to attempt to keep order and make sure those who have the disease and should be quarantining are indeed following quarantine. One day, an outsider arrives who claims to want to find out more about the disease, and who also doesn't really seem too concerned about contracting it, either. His arrival then sets off a chain of events where we all learn much more about the plague, the village, and what exactly emerged from the sea after the earthquake.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere Bo-Young created. I really felt that sense of isolation, a veery quiet, forgotten feeling that really permeated the entire story. You really get the sense that this village has been fully abandoned by the government and left to deal with problems on their own until they deem it no longer a risk. There's no real understanding of how this disease spreads, what exactly happens to those who are infected, or what the long-term outcome is, and there's no real effort to find out the answers to any of those questions. There's an aspect where it's understandable to want to isolate a potentially deadly plague when there's so much unknown about it, but there's also a need to still treat people as humans.
And that idea is one of the themes that I found most compelling in this story: how we treat people who are sick or perceived as "different" or "other" or "dangerous." There's plenty of horror around the transformations themselves and the idea of unknown creatures, but the real horror seems to be how people view and treat one another on a more human (well.. maybe human?) level. This is almost the horror that seems to be explored in one aspect of this book, and the other is the much more in your face type: body horror, creatures, and transformation. You can definitely see the Lovecraftian inspiration in this book, and that adds a level of intrigue and entertainment to this story that was very welcome.
The ending gets a little chaotic as everything comes together (or rather... falls apart? It depends on your perspective, perhaps), but I still found the directions it took interesting and fitting for the story. There were a few odd moments here and there that didn't entirely click for me, but the fact that this was already such an inherently strange tale that they never bothered me too much.
Overall, A Plagued Sea is a short, wonderfully strange piece of horror that manages to pac quite a lot into its relatively small novella-size page count. I particularly enjoyed the isolated coastal setting, the mystery surrounding the plague, and the commentary found within it. If you enjoy any of these things, as well as body horror and Lovecraftian creatures, then you may want to be sure to pick this one up.
We follow Mu-young, a woman was traveling in the seaside village of Haewon when a major earthquake struck the coast. As a result, a strange land mass emerges from the sea...and with a mysterious disease spreads throughout the village. Some die, but others instead undergo disturbing physical transformations. The government's response to this is simple to quarantine the entire. village, which leaves the village's inhabitants--include Mu-young, who was only visiting--trapped and cut off from the rest of the world.
The majority of the story takes place three years after this major event occurs when Mu-young, who has not succumbed to this disease, is still trapped in Haewon and has taken it upon herself to essentially patrol the village in order to attempt to keep order and make sure those who have the disease and should be quarantining are indeed following quarantine. One day, an outsider arrives who claims to want to find out more about the disease, and who also doesn't really seem too concerned about contracting it, either. His arrival then sets off a chain of events where we all learn much more about the plague, the village, and what exactly emerged from the sea after the earthquake.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere Bo-Young created. I really felt that sense of isolation, a veery quiet, forgotten feeling that really permeated the entire story. You really get the sense that this village has been fully abandoned by the government and left to deal with problems on their own until they deem it no longer a risk. There's no real understanding of how this disease spreads, what exactly happens to those who are infected, or what the long-term outcome is, and there's no real effort to find out the answers to any of those questions. There's an aspect where it's understandable to want to isolate a potentially deadly plague when there's so much unknown about it, but there's also a need to still treat people as humans.
And that idea is one of the themes that I found most compelling in this story: how we treat people who are sick or perceived as "different" or "other" or "dangerous." There's plenty of horror around the transformations themselves and the idea of unknown creatures, but the real horror seems to be how people view and treat one another on a more human (well.. maybe human?) level. This is almost the horror that seems to be explored in one aspect of this book, and the other is the much more in your face type: body horror, creatures, and transformation. You can definitely see the Lovecraftian inspiration in this book, and that adds a level of intrigue and entertainment to this story that was very welcome.
The ending gets a little chaotic as everything comes together (or rather... falls apart? It depends on your perspective, perhaps), but I still found the directions it took interesting and fitting for the story. There were a few odd moments here and there that didn't entirely click for me, but the fact that this was already such an inherently strange tale that they never bothered me too much.
Overall, A Plagued Sea is a short, wonderfully strange piece of horror that manages to pac quite a lot into its relatively small novella-size page count. I particularly enjoyed the isolated coastal setting, the mystery surrounding the plague, and the commentary found within it. If you enjoy any of these things, as well as body horror and Lovecraftian creatures, then you may want to be sure to pick this one up.
*I received a copy of A Plagued Sea courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating or enjoyment.*
Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org
