"The Cabinet" by Un-su Kim is a dark and intricate noir thriller that immerses readers in the shadowy world of crime and deception. The novel follows the enigmatic protagonist, Sori, a skilled locksmith with a troubled past, as he navigates a web of secrets and conspiracies. Kim's writing is atmospheric and suspenseful, creating a tense and mysterious atmosphere throughout the narrative. The intricate plot is full of unexpected twists and turns, keeping readers on the edge of their seats. With its complex characters, evocative prose, and layers of intrigue, "The Cabinet" is a compelling and gripping novel that delves into the complexities of human nature and the consequences of one's choices.

I couldn't get through this title. It ended up not being for me, but I hope it finds a hope with other readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Un-su Kim’s The Cabinet is a fantastic and engaging blend of speculative short stories and a longer, underlying thread. Our protagonist, Mr. Kong, is a simple office worker who has wound up as the caretaker of a filing cabinet full of accounts of strange people known as “symptomers”: human beings with odd conditions and abilities.

The novel contains many stories dedicated to symptomers: a man with a gingko tree growing out of his finger; people who seem to jump forward in time at random; people who sustain themselves off glass, steel, or gasoline. These stories make up half the narrative, and paint a vivid picture of a world that is far stranger than what we see and believe in our day-to-day.

This was a fun, wacky and ultimately zaney read. It's not my normal cup of tea, but I enjoyed the translation and "found story" type of narrative. Did I understand all of it? No. Did I enjoy it nonetheless? Undoubtedly, yes. I'm not sure I'd pick up another novel by this author, but I'd certainly recommend this to anyone who likes a narrative out-of-the-ordinary or bored by bestsellers. An interesting thought-provoking read.

I could not get into this book, ultimately it was not form me and I could not finish it. It may be one for other readers

i wanted to love this book i really did but i got nothing from it and wanted to put it down too many times to count. books can be pointless and can exist for the sake of existing and whenever i read like that i can can usually take away something from i but not this book. i couldn’t determine a purpose or a point or a message. i think something got lost in translation with this one or perhaps i’m just dense in which case that’s on me.

I feel like there needs to be a button on NG for people who work in publishing and when they've downloaded one of their own books, to skip sending feedback. So many of our titles on my NetGalley!

"The Cabinet" by Kim Un-Su is a novel that explores the strange and fantastical in the everyday lives of its characters.
The story centers around Cabinet 13, a filing cabinet filled with files on "symptomers," humans with strange abilities and bizarre experiences. The protagonist, Mr Kong, is a harried office worker tasked with looking after the cabinet and dealing with the symptomers, one of whom is particularly persistent in asking to be turned into a cat. While the novel is richly funny and fantastical, it may not be for everyone. The pacing is slow in parts and the plot can be hard to follow. The characters are not fully fleshed out and the story doesn't give much context to the world in which it takes place. This is not to say that the book is bad, but rather that it has a specific audience. If you enjoy slow-burning, fantastical stories with a touch of absurdity, this book may be for you. Otherwise, it may not be your cup of tea.

I’m finding it difficult to review this quirky and peculiar book from South Korea. Utterly unique, it features a collection of stories of “symptomers”, people with strange abilities or peculiarities all of whom had earned a personnel file in Cabinet 13.
I commend the quality of the writing and the imagination and intelligence behind such absurdity, but it strangely wasn’t my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

The premise of this one will appeal right away to fans of Ransom Riggs, and the writing style has a cheek to it that feels vaguely Gaimanesque. However, it has much more of a science fiction component than fantasy, and it blends into realism in a way that is a bit reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges. The opening story is immediately captivating, and those that follow are equally engaging as standalones as well as continuing to develop the central thesis.

Thank you to Un-su Kim, Sean Lin Halbert (translator), Angry Robot Books, and NetGalleg for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Highly surreal in content, this translated novel follows Mr Kong as he reads about and gets to know a new kind of people, who he terms ‘symptomers’ who have unique abilities and unusual deformities, all documented in the files in Cabinet 13.

The first part of the story introduces us to Mr Kong and the Cabinet, and details many of the different symptomers he comes across in his illicit research and then in his official capacity as a kind of ‘cabinet manager’. This section of the story feels like a kind of Twilight Zone or X-Files collection, and as someone who is always drawn to tales of the strange and unusual, I eagerly consumed these anecdotes of oddity.

In the second section of the novel, the story takes a sudden turn into action thriller territory, as Mr Kong is pursued and tormented by a shadowy organisation intent on extracting his knowledge of the symptomers. There is even a potential romantic sub-plot as one of Mr Kong’s colleagues becomes involved in his situation, thanks to her own ostracization in the office.

Then the third section lost me completely, as it felt like the author rushed to a conclusion, eager to drop his own story threads completely and simply tuck the characters away , out of sight and mind. It felt like such a wasted opportunity compared to the strange and beautiful surrealist horror of the initial set-up, as if the author had accidentally taken a left into thriller territory and then on realising his mistake couldn’t find a way back.

Still, I would read more from this author simply for the surreal vignettes he conjured of lizards for tongues, trees for fingers, and bodies that can survive on glass or gas, or sleep alone. Those little story seeds were my kind of weird!

Thanks to the publisher, author and Netgalley for the advanced reading copy for this edition.

The Cabinet centres on an office worker doing a job without work. As someone who has had jobs without work to do in them, I relate a lot to this setting. Our protagonist fills the time by getting involved with the cabinet of cases of people who have developed strange abilities and experienced scifi stuff happening to them.

The book is driven by intrigue rather than a strong plot, though things certainly do happen. The protagonist lives a meaningless life and we see them struggle to interface with the world.

It's a fine example of the speculative fiction subgenre that examines work in our current world. Great read, highly recommended

I can see The Cabinet being popular with those who enjoy bizarre or absurdist fiction - unfortunately I just don't think this style of writing is for me. I really liked the concept, and felt that it had some strong points as an overall, but the individual stories didn't really capture my interest, and I found myself just wanting to skim through.

I'm sure it would be a successful read for others though, and the strange characters definitely had some appeal to them. Just a bit of a miss for me sadly.

Un caleidoscopio fantastico, un vero e proprio gabinetto delle curiosità che dispiega in pieno la fantasia dell'autore, e il legame intimo che le culture orientali mantengono con il fantastico quotidiano. Forse troppo weird perché io lo apprezzi completamente, ma comunque una lettura affascinante e ricca di immaginazione.

Sadly just lost interest in this. Not really my style of writing or storytelling, despite my interest in translated Korean fiction. Can see this working for other reads, though, so definitely check it out if it looks like something you might enjoy.

Mr. Kong is a dedicated and concerned office worker whose job is to watch over the special Cabinet 13. Cabinet 13 looks like any other ordinary office cabinet full of folders stuffed with papers, but Cabinet 13 may contain some of the most precious information for the future of mankind. Cabinet 13 contains the stories of people who have strange abilities or have experienced unusual happenings in their lives. Is humanity on the verge of becoming a new species? If so, Mr. Kong is the caretaker of the early portent to this metamorphosis.

I love what we might call absurdist fiction - where someone or some situation is beyond all common expectations or reason, but no one bothers to explain it away ... that this unusualness is accepted by those living within the story. Gregor Samsa is a perfect example of this. And Gregor Samsa would likely have a file buried somewhere in Cabinet 13.

Cabinet 13 is both a novel, featuring Mr. Kong and his care and concern over the cabinet and its belongings, and also a collection of short stories.

Those people featured in the cabinet's files are referred to as "symptomers" - those showing symptoms of becoming a new species. Or are they just oddities - people who need to be psychoanalyzed and perhaps put into sanitarium? Like the person who eats glass ... and ONLY glass, leading scientists to wonder if maybe glass doesn't contain calories of a kind they haven't discovered yet. Or the man who has a tree growing out of his finger. Or the woman who has a lizard for a tongue. Or the annoying man who keeps asking to be turned into a cat because the woman he loves has no emotions for other humans, she only loves cats. (He's not really a symptomer, but he would like to be one.)

The stories of these people are all strange, absurd, and often a bit on the dark side. And Mr. Kong can't help but be both attracted to and revolted by them - like driving past an accident.

There s more to Mr. Kong's story, but ultimately he is an 'everyman' - a dedicated worker, going about his job and happens to be let in on this important bit of study. Still, it means not much to him. He's just a cog in the machine of bureaucracy, and in this sense the book feels very much like something that would not come from a writer in West, but a writer from the East and it surprises me not at all that Kim Un-su (or Un-su Kim is an award-winning South Korean author.

It's hard to know what gets lost, or even reinvigorated from a translation - does it seem more cohesive as a novel in the original language, or does it feel interrupted with the short stories as this translation does?

This is one of those rare books that I actually want to read again. I didn't understand the format initially, and was thrown off by the symptomer sketches mixed in with Kong's story, but I worked it out eventually. Still, I think there's much more to Kong than appears on a first reading. His own sometime unusual behavior - what we might otherwise refer to as quirks - suggest that we all potentially show signs of being symptomers - just to different degrees. And so, is there an analogy or corollary to be made? I think I got too caught up in the absurdities to catch on. Thus, another reading will be required.

Looking for a good book? The Cabinet, by Kim Un-su, is a novel of the absurd with a Korean 'everyman' at the center, navigating through the files of unusual lives.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this! Can’t believe Un-us Kim is not more widely translated in the UK. Will definitely look out for any future books.

3.5 stars
I love bizarre and this was crammed to the brim with wonderful weirdness.
It begins as quite a playful and funny story, but eventually transitions into something that is a dark social commentary. I did find it choppy in places as the chapters were pretty short and it almost reads like short stories within a bigger plot. Everything is linked together by a central story, but I would've preferred for this to have been a bit stronger.

I thoroughly enjoyed the oddity of this story!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This was very different than my usual read, but in a refreshing way. So many different, quirky stories. Not necessarily a cohesive novel, but more disjointed than that. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you want a break from your usual genre.

The Cabinet is a fantastical novel about a cabinet that holds case files about a group of unconventional people termed as "symptomers" and how they create a whirlwind in the life of Mr. Kong, who has been assigned to take complete responsibility of keeping account of their lives in Earth. Mr. Kong's interaction with these so-called outcasts reveal many truths about life and living it to the fullest, which is relatable to everyone present in this time and age. I personally thoroughly enjoyed the wry humour that was presented in this book and also thought that the author's use of these characters to reveal so much about what we are missing in life was brilliant. Time as a construct and it's interpretation is a central theme that is discussed many times during the course of this book.

Though this book may seem to present a fantastical tale through some very bizarre characters, what it actually does is ask questions about how we as humans choose to live and use our time in this world. I loved it and would highly recommend it everyone!