What’s a book with supernatural elements that stands out in your mind?
For me it’s The Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi Hahn.
This novel is historical fiction featuring two parallel plot lines, one running just before the Korean War on the island of Jeju (mid to late 1940s) and the other in the early 2000s in Philadelphia (US), as well as mainland Korea and Jeju.
As a fantasy writer, I love the rich depiction of the indigenous Jeju culture and religious beliefs, and of course the measured use of the supernatural. The way Hahn captures the tensions between characters whose experiences have been shaped by cultural imperialism, class and gender roles and war is also top notch. The novel also includes great messages about the importance of dealing with trauma and how traditional beliefs are both important to the world and its people.
This might just be my bias, since my novel The Quartermastra also deals with some of the same issues (political intrigue, the supernatural and cultural imperialism), but I think The Mermaid from Jeju is worth reading, though some of the political intrigue might be a little hard to follow if you don’t have much background knowledge on the history of Korea in the twentieth century.
So what do you think? What’s a story involving the supernatural you think others should read?
Mount Halla on Jeju Island: Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons