Monika Kim: Molka book review – A blood-soaked thriller
Real-world digital voyeurism is turned into a furious tale of misogyny and payback
Monika Kim’s debut novel, The Eyes Are The Best Part, was titled in squeamish and suggestive fashion. Conversely, her follow-up is a single mysterious word: Molka. Despite these surface differences, the books are connected through the voyeuristic gaze of men. In that debut, this was channelled through the blue eyes of an American boyfriend, ogling the teenage daughters of his Korean partner. Molka takes a more digital approach. This is the Korean term for secretly installed, miniature spy cameras, a real-life epidemic where women are covertly recorded, blackmailed and shamed.
Molka is the story of Dahye, a young woman caught up in such a scandal when cameras are installed in the toilet cubicles of her Seoul office (the pace of technological change means this new novel is already overtaken by current events, with AI able to instantly generate the type of images these predatory men strive to capture and share). While Kim uses the technological context of ‘molka’ as contemporary framing, the book looks at misogyny broadly and historically, interested in its intersection with class and inherited social mores. The rules around shame and blame are set by gender, while money and status offer the ultimate protection from both.
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Molka is evidence of a confident sophomore author, unafraid of tackling big themes and unpretentious enough to lean enjoyably into genre staples and pop culture references. The plot moves like a high-paced thriller, with Kim pulling in motifs from Asian horror cinema: ominous dripping water, hair-obscured faces, blood-soaked sisters. Through the novel’s dual timeline (that of Dahye and her tragic sister), the past is mapped over the present, examining the damage that ripples out over time from these criminal acts. The haunted Dahye is far more than the stereotypical victim though, blooming into a flower of carnage as she seeks vengeance on all who wronged her, delivered through satisfyingly lurid and bloody Grand Guignol scenes.
Molka is published by Brazen on Thursday 30 April; main picture: Iris Kim.