I absolutely devoured this book.

Two women meet on a train—both running from something, both desperate for a fresh start. One vanishes. The other decides to step into her life.

Jae-Young has just left everything behind: a miserable job, a grim apartment, and an abusive boyfriend—who now lies dead on her kitchen floor. Fleeing to Seoul, she just wants to disappear and start over. But then she meets a woman with a baby, fleeing her own past, and when the woman mysteriously disappears mid-journey, Jae-Young is left holding the child... and a note asking her to deliver him to a family she's never met.

That’s when everything shifts.

She steps off the train and into a life that isn’t hers—welcomed into a lavish home, treated like family, hidden in plain sight. But safety is an illusion, and both women’s pasts are never far behind.

This book had me completely hooked. It's dark, elegant, and utterly gripping—a slow-burn thriller with sharp edges and beautifully drawn characters. I couldn’t stop thinking about it long after I turned the last page.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam publishers for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

🍳🍳🍳🍳 / 5

A TWIST OF FATE by Se-Ah Jang

happy pub day! and thank you to @ballantinebooks and @netgalley for early access to the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

quick thoughts:
⭐️ 4/5
👶🏼 woman is on the run and is left with another woman’s newborn baby
🌀 psychological thriller
✍🏼 short chapters, page-turning
🇰🇷 translated from Korean
👍🏼 would recommend to thriller fans!

the cover is what sold me on this one—i’m obsessed with the colors! but then i was even more excited when i realized that this one is translated!

🎶 “don’t you know i’m here to save you”

this was super thrilling! the beginning was absolutely wild and immediately hooked me. i couldn’t trust any of the characters, and i couldn’t figure out where this one was going. i thoroughly enjoyed this one and can’t wait to read more by this author!

I absolutely love Korean thrillers, and A Twist of Fate is another incredible addition to the genre—gripping, suspenseful, and impossible to put down. I devoured this one in under 24 hours.

The premise is so unique and instantly pulled me in: a woman fleeing her past, only to step into someone else’s life completely by accident—or maybe fate. The tension never lets up, and I was constantly questioning everyone’s motives and trying to figure out where things were headed.

Se-Ah Jang does an amazing job building Jae-Young’s character. Her choices, her desperation, her willingness to blur the lines of morality—everything felt disturbingly real. The translation by S.L. Park was smooth and immersive, and the storytelling kept me hooked.

And that twist? It completely caught me off guard in the best way.

If you’re into dark, psychological thrillers with sharp social commentary and strong character development, this one is a must-read. Korean translated fiction continues to deliver some of the most original and chilling narratives out there, and A Twist of Fate is no exception.

3.75 ⭐️

A riveting debut novel by Se-Ah Jang!! A Twist of Fate followed a young woman on the run who assumed the identity of a stranger and vanished during a train ride, only to have found herself entangled in a wealthy family’s secrets and a dangerous web of deception.

What I found most compelling about A Twist of Fate was its fresh take on a “Strangers on a Train”–style setup, reimagined within a distinctly Korean context that added both cultural intrigue and atmosphere. I especially appreciated the way the story slowly built a sense of dread, unraveled the layered trauma of both women and gradually revealed the emotional and physical burdens they each carried.

Collectively this was an emotionally driven debut with ambition and tension, though not without its flaws. The premise felt strong, even if somewhat familiar, but I had some issues with how it all came together. The twists were a bit too convoluted, and some of the characters lacked depth, which left me feeling confused at times. I’d recommend this for readers who enjoy psychological thrillers driven by character depth and a tense, moody atmosphere. It’s especially appealing to those who like morally complex stories about survival and shifting identities, and who don’t mind dramatic twists that require a bit of suspension of disbelief.

Thank you Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for a complimentary copy in exchange for my review.

Se-Ah Jang's (S.L. Park Translator) smashing Korean thriller debut, A TWIST OF FATE, is utterly captivating with more twists than you can imagine. Move over—The Girl On The Train and Gone Girl — this sizzling knockout will leave you shocked over and over, keeping you on the edge of your seat until the satisfying explosive finale. (loved)!

TOP BOOKS OF 2025! Now, this is what you call a 'THRILLER.'

A TWIST OF FATE is like NO other thriller you will read. You will be hooked from the front cover, the first page, and every jaw-dropping twist.

Trust me, I have read 299 books in 2025 YTD (mostly thrillers) and this is STAND OUT! Wildly creative, unpredictable, atmospheric, full of suspense, and TWISTY. I simply could not put it down and stayed up all night to finish. (still have not slept). I had to find out the why, how, who dunit, and how all the characters are connected.

About...

Two strangers meet on a train. Each woman is running from a deadly secret. When one disappears, the other decides to take her place—for better, or for worse.

Jae-young, the narrator of this brilliantly crafted thriller, has escaped her abusive boyfriend in a run-down basement, barely escaping her life, and he may be dead, but she does not stick around to find out.

She wants nothing more than to escape the past and start fresh where no one knows her. If he is still alive, he will come for her.

On the train to the city of Seoul, she meets another young woman, Hyojin Cha, about her age, with a 3-month-old son. She sounds like she is going to visit her inlaws even though her husband has moved in with his mistress.

Both women have dark secrets... How will they connect?

However, when Jae-young goes to the restroom and returns to find the woman gone, she has left her baby with a note instructing her to take care of her baby and deliver him to her in-laws.

Strange, she does not know what to do, but decides she will grant the woman her wish and drop off the baby with the in-laws. However, upon arrival, she discovers this is a very wealthy family. When someone mistakes her for the daughter-in-law and they invite her to stay, she makes a split-second decision to keep quiet and go along with the deception.

Will she be able to keep this secret? However, she has no clue how deep the secrets go, and the danger she is in, as well as the baby.

She deserves this life. An orphan, putting up with abuse and in financial need, and desiring a haven. Where else can she go and live surrounded by luxury with a family and staff to help with the baby? A grandfather will do anything for his new grandson. She must pretend she is the baby's mother and she is the daughter-in-law.

But what happens if the long-lost son and the baby's father show up, or the real mother?

From the handsome younger brother, the cars, shopping, luxury accommodations, gourmet food, the gated property, staff ready to help, plus the wealth, they all entice her, and she tries to ignore all the things that could go wrong.

She soon discovers this family has dark secrets, and will she be able to escape? Has she made a deal with the devil? There are so many layers, and how will she figure out how all is connected?

She can't go on like this forever, and she knows it is a matter of time before she goes insane or someone discovers the truth.

My thoughts...

OMG! A TWIST OF FATE is addictive, binge-worthy, riveting, high-adrenaline, and a heart-pounding, wild roller coaster ride, with so many plot twists you do not see coming. With every page turn, there is darkness lurking, and you do not know whom to trust.

There are many layers to be unraveled, so carve out the time, as you will not be able to put this one down!

From unreliable narrators to twists to unexpected twists, Se-ah Jang delivers a brilliant, searing psychological thriller that will have readers dying to see this played out on the wide screen and anxiously awaiting her next novel.

A dark gripping thriller with all the Hitchcockian vibes, noirish mysteries, and chilling events with each page turn. The remote mansion is unsettling, atmospheric, and spine-chilling. Each character is full of surprises and hidden agendas.

Recs...

For thriller fans of books and movies -Alfred Hitchcock, Agatha Christie, Stephen King, mysteries, and smartly written psychological thrillers! A smashing debut! I can't wait to see what comes next from this talented author. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing an advanced reading copy for my honest thoughts. I also purchased the audiobook narrated by Michelle H. Lee and Shannon Tyo, and the hardcover copy.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My rating: 5 Stars + +
Pub date: July 29, 2025
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Jae-Young is desperate to disappear. Fleeing a violent past and a dead body in her apartment, she boards a train to Seoul, hoping to vanish. But fate has other plans. On the journey she meets a young mother on the run with her infant son. After some conversation, Jae-Young excuses herself for a minute but when she returns the woman is gone, leaving behind her baby and a note asking Jae-Young to take him to his grandfather's. Following the instructions, she arrives at the remote, luxurious estate owned by the child's grandfather. Mistaken for the child's mother and the families estranged son's bride, Jae-Young sees the opportunity to hide in plain sight. But the mansion holds secrets far more dangerous than the one Jae-Young carries. As her reality twists and the line between survival and deception blur, Jae-Young must confront the price of the life she stole.

This one was definitely, interesting. Shifting identities, buried trauma, and moral ambiguity.. yes please! Jang's writing is well balanced with tension, atmosphere, and emotional depth. The early chapters are full of paranoia and dread and they keep you on the edge of your seat. One of the strengths of this book is in its complexity. Both of our female main characters are layered and morally gray, making understandable but reckless decisions. But when it gets to the second half it feels like it ramps up too quickly, veering dangerously into unbelievable territory. Overall, a sharp and atmospheric debut that didn't quite land for me, but was still a good read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Se-Ah Jang, and Random House Publishing Group/ Ballantine for this ARC! Publication date is July 29th 2025.

**Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph 
Posted on: 29 July 2025

3.4 (rounded down to 3) out of 5 stars.

I don’t really have much to say about this one, I think. It’s a good novel, fairly easy to binge if you’ve got the time and definitely unputdownable at points where you just can’t help but start the next chapter after your third ‘okay last one, I swear’.
It was good. I’d recommend it honestly. There were points where I’d get annoyed with characters, I’d have to put the book down, or even times where I ranted about and got *others* heated on my behalf! It’s infuriating, but it’s interesting! I think you’ll enjoy it if you like shows that you can yell at (for example, one show like that for me is ’Gilmore Girls’ where I’m like “Lorelei just say you love him!” or “Oh my god, for real?? You’re kidding!”)

I think there’s enough twists to keep it compelling. My only complaint is that sometimes we don’t know information until it’s important. Or information the characters learned already isn’t revealed until another scene when it’s needed to make an impact. Things happen in the moment, sometimes without a build up or lead into why something is happening until it happens. Personally, it didn’t derail too much from the story, but it did make it easier for the twists to be somewhat unpredictable as you as the reader don’t have the full image and are left guessing until the answer comes to light. For the most part though, it’s also almost guessable if you pick up the few hints thrown in.

CONTENT WARNING(S):
Domestic abuse, violence, mild misogyny (painting the typical role of women to be docile and caretakers), murder, death, dead bodies, drug abuse (in the form of pills), suicidal ideations, attempted murder framed as suicide, blood, asphyxiation, death by asphyxiation

A fast-paced and complicated story about two women and what lengths they will go to in order to survive. And how the bar for what is considered essential to survive gets higher and higher as time goes on.

One day Jae-Young’s tumultuous, abusive relationship with her boyfriend becomes more than she can bear any longer and she snaps. Desperate, she runs out and boards a train to Seoul, just hoping to stay invisible as long as possible. She doesn’t stay invisible for long when a talkative young mother and her baby board the train and sit next to her. The woman shares the story of the husband who has abandoned her and their baby for another woman, and her plan to go to her well-to-do in-laws in the hope that if they will not take them both in they will at least agree to raise the baby.

Trying to escape the scrutiny and conversation Jae-Young takes refuge in the bathroom, and when she returns the young mother is gone. The baby, however, is there, along with a note begging Jae-Young to take the child to the family. Unwilling to just leave the little boy on the train, Jae-Young convinces herself that taking the baby to his family is the right thing to do and will give her a little more anonymity if anyone is looking for her.

When Jae-Young arrives, she is amazed to see that this is in fact not merely a well-to-do family but apparently a very wealthy one. And to her further amazement they believe she is the baby’s mother and invite her to stay, with a few conditions. From this point the story becomes a non-stop roller coaster ride of people Jae-Young is either afraid to trust or trusts too much, coincidences that stretch belief, and unknown after unknown. The longer she stays, though, the more accustomed she gets to the life of luxury she never imagined and the closer she feels to the brother who remained when the baby’s father left this home.

The story is full of questions, twists and turns, suspense and surprises with an explosive ending. It is well-translated from Korean and provides a fascinating look at social structure and family hierarchy and rules. An enjoyable read. I received an advance copy of A Twist of Fate from Ballantine Bantam Dell | Random House Group via NetGalley. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.

This was captivating, thrilling, and full of unpredictable twists. The story starts innocently enough - two women, making choices that plenty of women today may have to make. But from there, the story begins to twist and turn and take the reader on an unforgettable and dark journey. When we first meet Hyojin Cha she appears like such a loving mother, and while she isn’t very prominent throughout the story, she is there, and we get to learn more about her motivations as the story unfolds. The story mostly focuses on Jae-Young, and this dark world she’s been drawn into. I loved getting to know her character, and watching everything unfold. The tension is kept high, and you can never be truly sure when the next twist will hit, or what’s waiting around the next page turn. The story gets darker the deeper you get, but it’s so addicting it’s hard to stop reading. A brilliant psychological thriller that feels like watching a dark movie more than reading a book!

I was hooked from the beginning!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

Thank you to Ballantine Books / Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the eARC of A Twist of Fate by Se-ah Jang, translated by S.L. Park. This is the English edition of the Korean bestseller Runaway, and it releases July 29, 2025.

This one felt like watching a K-drama unfold on the page—full of secrets, emotional tension, and quiet intensity. Jae‑Young is running from a horrible situation when she boards a train to Seoul, hoping to disappear. But a chance encounter with another woman—and the baby she leaves behind—sends her down a completely different path. With no plan and nothing to lose, Jae‑Young finds herself stepping into a stranger’s life and walking straight into the unknown.

I really enjoyed how layered this story was. Every character is dealing with something—guilt, obsession, trauma, the need to survive—and the way those threads wove together gave the book so much depth. It’s a slower-paced thriller, but it’s incredibly tense. Some chapters had my heart racing, and once I hit the halfway mark, I flew through the rest in one sitting.

The translation does feel a little clunky at times, but if you’ve ever watched subtitled K-dramas, it has a familiar rhythm. Honestly, it didn’t take away from the story for me—it actually added a kind of charm. That said, I do hope the final version smooths out a few rough spots for clarity.

My only real gripe? The baby, who plays such a big role in the setup, kind of fades into the background. He’s mostly sleeping or being looked after, and I kept waiting for a stronger emotional connection that never really landed.

Still, A Twist of Fate is a unique, emotionally rich thriller that explores identity, desperation, and the secrets we bury to survive. If you like your thrillers character-driven with a slow burn and just the right amount of unease, this one’s worth picking up.

"A woman studies her tired face in the bathroom mirror on a track at the crack of dawn."

That image is the hook for this new Korean thriller. I was intrigued and spent some time yesterday and today reading the story of Jae-Young, Hyojin, Hyun-Wook, Soohyun, and Chairman. This bunch of adults would not win popularity contests. Besides the strong opening, here are three things I liked about this one:

🤩 The cover! What a gorgeous image and such a great match for the story inside. Once Jae-Young gets on the train, her life is like that cracked mirror.
👶 Baby Seung-Joon is the best baby I have ever met in fiction. His prominence in the plot is a huge contrast to his quiet, easy-going demeanor. The grandbaby I helped take care of today made more of a commotion in one day than this baby does in a year!
🤑 Jae-Young moves from a half basement apartment to a luxury estate. Her shopping trips were fun to read about. That black card had no limits!

I appreciate the fact that Korean customs and dialogue will seem very different from our US practices. That being said, I do think the translation was lacking, even allowing for those cultural mismatches.

Thank you to Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

As two women bond, a new mother and our point of view, a woman appearing to be hiding a secret of desperation, our main character told in first person starts to reflect on the life she is running from.

Her life takes a turn quickly as the young mother has vanished, leaving behind baby that everyone else seems to think is hers. Suspending a little disbelief in this moment. What seems to be the story the author wants to tell, is a straight up story of the inability to take people at face value; and how much faith or little faith we put in first impressions. For the most part, the plot pulls this off. The internal dialogue of the main character gets repetitive in places and could have been edited down as she tended to have the same justifying conversations in the first half. The story kept getting stagnant in the internal dialogue, over explaining things the reader had already figured out by then. At about the half way point the thriller aspect of the plot really seems to find its footing but definitely some plot holes in the back half that left me feeling confused. The ending does try to wrap up some of the confusing parts but had me feeling everything was a little too convenient.

Remember the movie Mrs Winterbourne? This gave me a lot of feelings of that in the beginning but with a darker turn of convenience than I was expecting. Intriguing overall, even more so as it progressed, and one of the best covers I’ve seen of new releases this year. I would have loved some of the over explaining edited out or down at least. Or maybe more like Mrs Winterbourne meets Gaslight.

Intriguing twists and shocking revelations connect the characters in this story. The father longing for his first born to return home. The youngest son seemingly resigned to always being discounted. A young mother desperate enough to entrust her son to a stranger on a train. The stranger who brings the infant to his paternal family.

Jae-Young flees a deadly secret and meets a woman with an infant on a train. She excuses herself, and when she comes back, the woman is gone and has left the baby to her. Desperate, Jae-Young decides to switch lives with the mysterious woman, sparking a chain of events that, if not wild, do end up leading somewhere wild.

Although the premise is great, the book is 90% boring and repetitive. It would’ve made an excellent short story at 100 pages less. I struggled to understand the genre for a long time. Although it was interesting to read a translated book, which I don’t often do, the prose was very flat. I sometimes struggled to understand who was speaking. To its credit, the book has great twists, but I often found myself skipping paragraphs and missing nothing.

It will make a great movie, though!

⭐️⭐️ Writing style
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Characters
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Plot
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Premise
⭐️ Pacing
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Impact

Thank you to Random House Publishing — Ballantine and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of A Twist of Fate.

A Twist of Fate has Strangers on a Train vibes when two women with secrets meet on a train. When one woman splits leaving the other woman, Jae-Young, holding the bag, she decides to deviate from her plan but only for a brief moment, unknowingly walking into a trap.

As some reviewers noted, the translation is pretty corny as is the writing.

I understand translating from the original language is incredibly difficult and never works.

Second, Jae-Young is an unlikable character and the narrative revolves mostly around her POV.

We're in her head 99% of the time and it's not fun; despite fleeing from an abusive partner and wondering if defending herself from his violent assault resulted in his accidental death, she's a whiny, bratty, and selfish person.

She's not interesting or compelling and she's constantly repeating herself; she should leave, she needs to escape, but it's so nice to be rich and waited upon, on and on and on.

The narrative quickly became repetitive and soap opera-ish especially when she starts mooning over her brother-in-law.

Third, I'm not a fan of readers being left out of the loop of the narrative and not knowing what the main character knows.

It feels like a trick not giving us a heads up or the author could have done a better job of foreshadowing what her plan was.

Fourth, there are obvious cultural stereotypes to mention that are not as shocking in the Western world, such as being unmarried and a single parent especially when you're a Korean (Asian) woman.

Fifth, the theme of mental illness and gaslighting is, for lack of a better word, badly portrayed and poorly handled in the narrative.

But that could be due to the lack of respect women receive in Asian countries and mostly used as a literary device to add tension and anxiety.

Depending on the cultural perspective of the reader, this could be seen as highly offensive and triggering to read.

I did love the girl power team-up at the end though the entire narrative, including the ending, is hard to suspend disbelief for.

Parts of the narrative felt so familiar since I've read variation of the theme in other books recently.

I loved this novel and I couldn’t put it down. Jae- Young had just ran away from an abusive relationship and headed to Seoul by train. When suddenly this woman with a small child sits down beside her and is very talkative. She talks as if they are besties. Her significant other had been unfaithful so she was taking the baby to meet the grandparents. Little did Jae- Young know but she is suddenly left with the baby. So she pretends to be the mother and the baby’s grandparents are wealthy. She is living the dream until she isn’t. She starts up a friendship with the baby’s uncle but can it really be true? So many twists and turns but so very good! Loved this book!

I received this ARC from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily!

Jae-Young is on the run from her abusive boyfriend—who happens to be dead on the kitchen floor, after she hit him with a frying pan when he was trying to choke the life out of her. Not knowing what else to do, she boards a train, heading to the bustling city of Seoul, where she hopes to get lost, never to be found. Only once she is invisible will she feel safe again. On the train, a chatty mother sits down with her infant son, and tells Jae-Young she is running from her unfaithful husband and hoping to find refuge with the in-laws she’s never met. To avoid further conversation, Jae-Young excuses herself to go to the restroom. When she comes back to her seat, the mother is gone, but she left behind the baby, along with a note, pleading with Jae-Young to take him to his father’s family in a remote province far from Seoul. It’s not an ideal pit stop, but for the sake of the child, she can’t ignore the request. When Jae-Young arrives, she is surprised to discover It’s a gated manor oozing with opulence and the finest luxuries—the kind of place she could only dream of setting foot in. What’s more, the family assumes Jae-Young is their daughter-in-law and invites her to stay. Jae-Young realizes that there is nothing more invisible than becoming someone else. But both women have ghosts in their pasts. Though unaware of the rot lurking beneath the shiny veneer of her new life, Jae-Young will do whatever it takes to make sure she never goes back.

Wow... this book was excellent. There were so many twists and turns it made me almost dizzy. You don't know who to trust, who is playing who, or even what game is being played. People who seem nice aren't, while others who seem suspicious or shady are actually trustworthy. If you love a twisty thriller that will keep you guessing, then this needs to be at the top of your TBR pile!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the eARC.

This reminded me of a Julie Clark novel, but it did not deliver in the same way. I think this book did itself a disservice with some of the way it handled important topics like mental health and it really made our main character seem pretty flat. IDK there was real room for superb work but it didnt land for me.

What did I just read???!!! This was a wild ride!!!! The way everything played out, and I was wondering when was the other shoe going to drop?? How is everything going to be revealed?? But it was more sinister than that, and I went from "Jae-Young girl, get it together" to "girl I'm so damn proud of you." There were a ton of surprises, and I was so hooked.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.