Blowfish is a quiet, deliberate novel that stayed with me. It moves between two characters, a sculptor and an architect, each carrying the weight of suicide in very different ways. Her approach is calm, almost ritualistic. His is marked by guilt and grief. Their stories unfold slowly, with intention and distance.
Some readers may find the emotional tone too still or distant, but for me, it felt honest. The pacing is slow, the narrative unhurried, and the storytelling is culturally specific in ways that might not fully translate for every reader, but I appreciated that. It doesn't explain itself. It asks you to sit with it.
Thank you to Astra House and NetGalley for the ARC.

My Selling Pitch:
An artist attempts suicide, and a man whose brother offed himself tries to stop her. The author tries to convince us projection is romantic but that’s nuked because he fantasizes about assaulting her whenever she doesn’t pay attention to him.

On my do not read list.

Pre-reading:
I love a graphic cover. Sue me.

(obviously potential spoilers from here on)
Thick of it:
What’s that Valente quote- there’s only the question of who is to rule in a house?

Lol a Saim with epilepsy? That’s almost me!

Oh fuck right off with that. You should be so lucky if she’s exactly like other girls.

She’s special because she’s suicidal-girl, where you goin’ with this?

Oh cool, a woman’s not reacting to you so your first response is assault her so she’s forced to???

Title drop

What? She wants to eat a pufferfish and leave it up to chance if she dies? Girl, just go to therapy.

I’m bored. I’m in DNF territory.

This is like a worse, translated version of Sky Daddy. It reminds me of Sike and Fountainhead too because of all the architecture.

It’s really not on other people to stop your suicide though.

Anxiety, it keeps on watching me 🎶

Yeah, I’m out. I’m so done reading books where men fantasize about hurting women because they won’t give them attention.

The architecture obsession and the misery and the weird relationships remind me so much of The Fountainhead, but not in a good way. At least that had a biblical allegory to it.

Saim is the only sane one in this book.

Could not be more checked out

You cannot be blaming a girl for her ex killing himself. Women are not born to be men’s safety nets from the consequences of their own actions.

Post-reading:
Translated fiction is pretty hit or miss for me. I really value reading diversely and exploring viewpoints different from my own. This one didn’t work for me.

The translation came off very stilted. It was hard to keep track of which perspective we were in because both characters have the same voice. The male characters were nearly impossible to differentiate.

It’s got a mindset that I don’t agree with when it comes to suicide. It is not your romantic partner, your family, or society at large’s responsibility to stop you from killing yourself. This book places a lot of blame on survivors, and that didn’t sit right with me.

This book attempts a romance, but then has him actively fantasize about assaulting her because she won’t pay attention to him. But that’s just him feeling passion for the first time! It’s not cheating if he settled! She makes him want to live! Fuck off.

I didn’t like the characters. I thought the plot was convoluted and hard to follow. The prose wasn’t pretty enough to redeem it. I don’t think you should waste your time. The blurb is more coherent than the entire story, and reading the actual book won’t give you much more detail.

Who should read this:
Translated fiction fans
Mental health rep fans

Ideal reading time:
Winter

Do I want to reread this:
Nope

Would I buy this:
Nope.

Similar books:
* Sky Daddy by Kate Folk-lit fic character study, mental health
* The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand-lit fic, character study, architecture, social commentary
* Sike by Fred Lunzer-dystopian, social commentary, mental health
* Anxious People by Fredrik Backman-hear me out, if you actually want I stopped your suicide, let’s fall in love, read this one. Contemporary, character study, ensemble cast, mental health, CAMP
* Death Valley by Melissa Broder-lit fic, magical realism, grief
* I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins-memoir-ish, mental health
* Bad Thoughts by Nadia Alic-short story collection, mental health
* Intermezzo by Sally Rooney-lit fic, character study, family drama, mental health

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so good. I think Kyung-Ran Jo is a great writer and the story was captivating. Their use of prose and character building created such an interesting story and I think it was a great story where you see beautifil prose, interesting and complex characters, and layered realtionships.

A slow, melancholy tale about a world where blowfish brings death, driving the protagonist to taste it out of despair.

The story’s unique premise is weighed down by its slow pace and emotional distance between the two characters. They circle each other, but never truly connect and then there is lack of communication.

The concept is undeniably striking, but the story drifts where it should pull you closer.

Thank you to Netgalley and Astra Publishing House for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Blowfish is a quiet, introspective novel with a haunting stillness that lingers long after you finish. Kyung-ran Jo explores themes of grief, solitude, and slow-burning transformation in the aftermath of a breakup, and there’s a lot of emotional depth beneath the surface.
That said, the translation didn’t fully land for me. At times, it felt like something was missing—like emotional cues or contextual details had been lost along the way. The prose occasionally felt abrupt or flat in English, making it harder to connect with the narrator’s inner world. I found myself wanting more clarity or texture in certain moments, especially since this kind of literary fiction depends so much on mood and nuance.
Still, there’s a beautiful melancholy to this book, and readers drawn to sparse, meditative storytelling might appreciate it—just be aware that some of the emotional weight may not fully carry through in translation.

3.5

I'm afraid this book really didn't land for me even though it is beautifully written and an interesting look at people's feelings about life and death. Suicide and suicidal feelings do play the main part of this novel. Or perhaps the reasons for not choosing death is what we should take away from the novel.

The novel is the story of a female sculptor whose grandmother committed suicide by eating the toxic parts of a blowfish. Her death had a toxic effect on the sculptor's father who had terrible nightmares every night. Once the sculptor moves out she begins to obsess about the use of the blowfish and she seeks out a fishmonger adept in understanding how to prepare the dangerous dish.

The second protagonist is a young architect whose brother committed suicide by throwing himself from a building. The young man also struggles with this knowledge and understsnding why his brother ended his life this way.

The two meet completely by chance but the effect they have on each other makes up the remainder of the book. The sculptor continues to learn more about blowfish and the sculptor seems to see it as his job to help her get over her losses.

There is also the recurrent character of the death cleaner although I'm still unclear whether this (or any of the other characters) are real or just figments of the two protagonists' imagination.

I'm afraid that although the writing is interesting, it just didn't move me. I think the only part of it that resonated was the statement that the only thing in your life you cannot recover from is death. Both characters seemed to want to change but inertia was the order of most days.

Not one for me but if you like an indepth look at death and suicide along with reasons not to carry it out then this book is for you. It is certainly introspective and very beautifully written.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Astra Publishing for the advance review copy.

This book felt like an accurate portrayal of surreal loneliness and bleak atmospheres. Both characters are artists and are dealing with grief and unhappiness in separate ways. The chapters follow each person individually and then as they cross paths with each other. However, I didn't feel any real connection to these people, and reading their dialogue felt empty without much significance to me as a reader.

The concept was so interesting and captivating, but overall, I felt like the characters were not fully fleshed out compared to the details of their surroundings. As someone interested in art, I would have loved more description about the architect's ideas with similar precision to the creation of the main character's sculptural exhibit. The pacing of the book felt off to me at certain points, with a few standout moments on death and imagery sprinkled throughout. Thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for this ARC.

I was drawn to the cover and description of this book, but ultimately didn't care for the story. I was not invested in the characters or their actions. Even the act of procuring a blowfish to eat as a suicide method fell flat for me. As another reviewer pointed out, the pacing was also bizarre. By the end, I only wanted to finish the book so that I could get it over with.

Thank you to NetGalley and Astra House for the ARC.

In terms of tone, I was coming into this reading with either a much more melancholic or dark view, especially considering the book summary. With alternating, dual points of view in every chapter, we gain a glimpse into our main characters’ lives, exploring grief, regret, memories, fear, and understanding, all interwoven with art, places, and family. That being said, the story itself was almost slice-of-life-esque.

There wasn’t necessarily a specific plot driving the narrative; this is very much a character-driven story, where I was walking through every thought, question, hesitation, and everything in between with the characters. I will say that this is quite a detail/description-heavy book, which I’m usually okay with, especially since in some ways, I felt like I was walking in the same places, seeing the same sights with the characters. With that, it is a much slower read, one that I had to make sure I was reading during the day with sunlight, or with a headspace to take on grief, darkness, and the sometimes graphic descriptions and conversations.

There were certainly phrases that stuck out with me that got me to think about what it looks like to be known, or to understand someone.

This book is powerful and insightful in the way in which it explores human obsession with death and emotion. It drives at the heart of what it is to be human by dealing with the reality of hopes and dreams. Rather than exploring overblown grand dreams it focuses on the day to day struggles that individuals have to hold life and together amongst the mundane trials and tribulations of life.

There is a beautiful honesty within these pages and to a large extent it feels like the author is sharing her soul with the reader.

This is not a book that is merely read it is an experience that will speak profoundly to those that share the same, fears, hopes and obsessions.

This is a melancholic book about people contemplating and then carefully planning suicide so do take care before choosing to start.

A sculptor believes that suicide runs in her family and that she is next. Aside from her art, there isn't much else that makes her life worth living. She tidies up her affairs in Seoul, goes to Tokyo, gets a manicure, and plans to exit the world the way her grandmother did: by consuming the fatally poisonous blowfish. I know the socially acceptable response is to reprove her actions and the potential harm it will cause her surviving family members, but it becomes apparent that she has given this a lot of thought and isn't acting recklessly. She does her research and makes an effort to "understan[d] her environment" so as to "find a purposeful, flawless method." She also makes sure she has achieved her artistic goals before "actively choosing death," out of respect for life.

Concurrently, an architect thinks about buildings, houses, and windows. He had lost his elder brother to suicide, so when he meets the woman again, he recognises in her the desire to die and tries to intervene. He figures out what she's planning but does not manage to prevent her from acquiring an actual blowfish through not-so-legal means.

I was quite invested in the story even thought it felt as if there was no possible happy ending. After all, it's not a love story, and either way, life has no happy ending. The man's desire to save the woman is not enough. And often, love is not enough. I think that's what this book shows very well. Living has to be a decision, just as dying sometimes is. The narrative perspective shifts frequently, not allowing the reader to dwell on one particular scene, but I found the prose elegiac and lyrical for all its talk of death and dying.

Lots of trigger warnings for suicide and suicidal ideation. These are clear from the blurb. Interesting premise, but didn’t deliver for me. This one feels like there is something lost in the translation, not that the translator did a poor job, but that the original may be lyrical in the original but that poetry isn’t translatable. Felt awkward and difficult.

2.5 ⭐️

“There were two kinds of lives. A life you were born into and a life you built.”

💭: i was instantly drawn to this book the moment i read the blurb, it had the kind of premise that hooks you in and doesn’t let go. naturally, i dove in with high expectations. but honestly? this ended up being a bit of a slog for me. there were several points where i almost gave up on it entirely.

the premise was strong, undeniably so, and that’s what kept me reading till the end. but the execution didn’t quite land. the pacing dragged in places (perhaps intentionally?), but instead of building tension or depth, it left me feeling mentally exhausted. The non-linear structure, which i usually enjoy, felt disjointed here. i struggled to connect with the characters in any meaningful way, and as a result, i felt emotionally ‘detached’ from their journeys.

being an ARC, the grammatical errors were expected, but they were still distracting enough to pull me out of the narrative more than once. that said, there were flashes of brilliance throughout, moments that felt thoughtful, even poetic. i just wish those moments had been given more room to breathe.

i also found myself wishing for more clarity and directness. the consequences of the characters’ choices felt muted, as though the story was dancing around the emotional core instead of digging into it. everything felt a little too vague, too out of reach.

still, there’s something haunting about the way the book explores suicide and emotional isolation. at its heart, it’s about someone clawing their way out of the dark; a slow, uncertain attempt at self-preservation. that’s a powerful theme, and when it surfaced, it resonated deeply.

in the end, this was a book with an important message and a compelling idea. but for me, it got a little lost in its own structure.

many thanks to netgalley for this ARC!

A story of life, death and art… all the makings of a powerful novel. And an unconventional love story told in dual perspectives! I enjoyed the relationship between our main characters, how they were loosely orbiting each other but very central to each other’s growth. It is a subtle and sad story, but of course, it is about suicide.

The non-linear narrative however was hard for me to follow at times (considering the subtlety of the story) and this was especially the case in the beginning. Halfway through things became clearer, but that was a touch too long for me and I found myself struggling to want to pick this up. If you are in the mood for a quiet, contemplative and despairing story this could be the one for you.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for this advanced copy.

I liked the premise but unfortunately I had to DNF at 28%. The writing is quite hard to get through and it feels like the story never progresses.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I was immediately drawn to the book cover and the synopsis and was so excited to get approved for this. However, the amount of grammatical mistakes in this took me out of the reading experience very early on which was unfortunate.

This, coupled with the superfluous writing, meant that it was a DNF for me. It was a very promising premise and I love the concept of the book, it was just possibly lost in translation for me personally!

Blowfish is a meditative, lyrical book that should obviously come with a bunch of mental health warnings. Our two narrators have both chosen to end their lives. Their thoughts alternate chapters and sometimes intersect.

There are moments of this book I loved. Meditations on grief, what it means to live, and making peace with an inevitable ending. However, there were a lot of repetitive moments. While they were effective at conveying the anxiety our characters felt, I struggled to stay in the text.

Great read for heavy feelings, moderate plot, and those who are strong in their own mental health journey.

Blowfish is a quiet, thoughtful novel that ultimately fails to live up to its intriguing premise. At its best, Kyung-Ran Jo’s writing is often lyrical and steeped with symbolism, evoking the work of Han Kang or Marguerite Duras. At other times, though, her prose can feel a little heavy-handed, and the narrative seems to lose its way.

In isolation, the story is undeniably compelling: a successful sculptor, haunted by her grandmother’s dramatic suicide-by-blowfish, prepares her own fatal dish as a final work of art. In parallel, a male architect who is scarred by his brother’s death, drifts through Seoul and Tokyo contemplating the same fate. The two protagonists meet twice (briefly, ambiguously) and in those fleeting encounters, the novel suggests the possibility of connection as a reprieve, however temporary, from despair.

Kyung-Ran has a habit of lingering a little too long on inaction, with extended descriptive passages that dwell on details that don’t always move the story forward. This may well be intentional, a reflection of the characters’ own inertia, but it isn’t always rendered in a way that fully illuminates the emotional weight of their depression.

Even so, there are still moments of real insight. The descriptions of Seoul and Tokyo are evocative and poetic, imbued with a hushed menace, full of empty rooms and crowded streets. The author captures beautifully the sense of foreboding unique to cityscapes, mirroring the protagonists’ inner lives. The blowfish itself is a powerful symbol, delicate yet deadly, ornamental yet lethal, much like the art and the lives both characters create.

It’s a shame the novel doesn’t sustain this tension throughout. The premise is so striking, and though the execution doesn’t always rise to meet it, the book remains worth reading for its atmosphere and ambition. With a tighter edit, it might have flourished as a long short story or a novella, but as it stands, it’s an intriguing, if uneven work.

I dreamed of a place where the sun was setting yet still bright, and my vision was black and white, blurry. But what terrified me more was that all I could see were dead people—faces I couldn’t describe. I didn’t like what I was seeing. I didn’t want to be in that place. I needed to escape. I needed to wake up. And I woke up in the middle of the night, breathing hard and wanting to cry.

This is what I got when I read a depressing book—a book that I don’t want to read anymore because it makes me feel like I’m drowning in melancholy, yet I can’t get it out of my mind.

So I’m telling you that Blowfish is not for the weak. Check the trigger warning. You have to be in the right headspace and have a healthy mind before diving in, because if you’re not, you’ll definitely get drowned. You’re lucky enough if there are forces in this world that will save you.

I hope this is enough to tell you that I’m not sure I can recommend it, given what it left me with. But at the same time, it would be a shame to miss out. It’s not a perfect book, but it made me feel something that woke me up.

Blowfish is a reminder that mental health matters, and that a single act of kindness can change everything.

One of my most anticipated releases of the year, and its sad that this book didn't work for me. While the slow movement of panels where splashes of their lives where narration switches between two protagonist. There is grief and sadness, there is loneliness and alienation, there is a strange camaraderie in this space that the two protagonists experience.

However the characters don't move past the two dimensional structure they have been given, the propose prolonging an experience to the point of exhaustion.

<i>Thank you to Netgalley and Astra Publishing House for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.</i>