Waterstones The Plotters
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Price: £10.99
Brand: Waterstones
Description: Plotters are just pawns like us. A request comes in and they draw up the plans. There's someone above them who tells them what to do. And above that person is another plotter telling them what to do. You think that if you go up there with a knife and stab the person at the very top, that'll fix everything. But no-one's there. It's just an empty chair. Reseng was raised by cantankerous Old Raccoon in the Library of Dogs. To anyone asking, it's just an ordinary library. To anyone in the know, it's a hub for Seoul's organised crime, and a place where contract killings are plotted and planned. So it's no surprise that Reseng has grown up to become one of the best hitmen in Seoul. He takes orders from the plotters, carries out his grim duties, and comforts himself afterwards with copious quantities of beer and his two cats, Desk and Lampshade. But after he takes pity on a target and lets her die how she chooses, he finds his every move is being watched. Is he finally about to fall victim to his own game? And why does that new female librarian at the library act so strangely? Is he looking for his enemies in all the wrong places? Could he be at the centre of a plot bigger than anything he's ever known? A thriller like you've never read one before, from the hottest new voice in Korean fiction. Waterstones The Plotters - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9780008315788
Delivery cost: 2.99
ISBN: 9780008315788
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Author: Clem
Rating: 5
Review: This is the first piece of Korean fiction that I've read, albeit translated into (American) English. I have a number of Korean films in my blu-ray/DVD collection, and watch Korean dramas on Netflix. That has helped me understand some of the cultural differences referenced in the book, although that doesn't stop it being a great read in its own right. One of those books that you want to keep reading. It would make a great film. The ending came as a little bit of a surprise though. Recommended.
Author: The JBP
Rating: 2
Review: Reseng is a hitman for hire. Abandoned in a bin outside a nunnery as a baby, he was taken in by Old Racoon, a cantankerous man who owns a library full of dusty tomes which nobody ever borrows. To those not in the know, Old Racoon’s place is just a library; to those that do, it’s a hub organised crime where assassinations can be arranged for the right price. Reseng has been raised to be a killer and he’s one of the best hired guns in the business. Set in modern day South Korea, the novel’s premise is that after the fall of the country’s dictatorship and embracing of democracy, the government could no longer just kill with impunity. Assassinations needed to be disguised as accidents, or the bodies disappear. And it’s not just the government. As the economy boomed, corporate entities also got in on the assassination game, taking out business rivals and others. The assassinations themselves are ordered and paid for by the “Plotters”, shadowy and powerful characters who act as brokers for those paying for an assassination and commissioning the assassins to carry it out. If readers have seen a Korean thriller or crime movie, such as Oldboy, then they’ll know the country’s film industry has a tendency towards the surreal, the disturbing, and rather farfetched, albeit entertaining plots. The Plotters fits very much into this mould, but while entertaining in movie format, it becomes a little draining in narrative fiction. I found the plot of this novel just a little too inconsistent and stretching of credulity and towards the book was losing my interest. To be fair, the characterisation in this novel is effective in that the reader warms to the main character, Reseng, despite the fact that he’s a hitman. To be sure the violence isn’t graphic, and he doesn’t kill gratuitously, but the author also fleshes him out as a person. So, I was invested in the character and wanting to know how his story panned out, which kept me turning the pages. This was just as well as there were just too many plot holes and I have to admit having struggled to stick with it around the 50% mark. I nearly gave up on this book. Luckily the last third picked up the tension enough to see me through to the denouement, which was satisfying in its way, though the central questions raised in the narrative were never fully answered. All in all, I found The Plotters to be a disappointing read with an interesting premise which never fully met its potential. This is a novel that might well make an entertaining popcorn movie in which the fast-paced action sequences can paper over the flaws in the plot, but as narrative fiction it left a lot to be desired. 2 put of 5 stars
