Cyndi Gacosta, $1.99, ISBN 979-8215937389
Horror, 2023

Cyndi Gacosta’s The Mother, the Son & the Bride is a Korean Gothic story. Since Korean and Gothic in the same context isn’t something I expect to come across regularly, I’m intrigued.

However, I’d caution folks against expecting a story that is Gothic horror in the conventional sense. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that there is nothing Gothic here at all. Sure, it takes place in a large estate of a wealthy family, but Gothic horror generally involves slow peeling off of what seems like mundane, normal layers only to find horrifying things underneath the façade of normalcy. Here, the horror factor escalates abruptly and rapidly, making the story more of a surreal horror than anything else.

Still, let’s put semantics aside and focus on the real question: is this a fun read?

Hana Gwak is a single and, upon nearing the big 3-0, she is increasingly nagged by her family members to get hitched or die a pitied spinster. She may be in luck when she meets the handsome and gallant Jeong-wook, who would marry her after she’s met his mom and earned her approval.

Well, it turns out that winning the mother’s approval involves a competition with other candidates for the man’s hand, and before Hana can wonder whether she’s been cast on the Korean version of The Bachelor, things get bloody and super strange very quickly.

I don’t know, I find myself more distracted than entertained while I’m reading this thing.

The story seems to be set on the present day, but at the same time, there are elements that suggest it’s set in a distant past when traditions are still strongly obeyed. If it’s the latter, then it’s jarring how the conversations of the characters are clearly modern in nature.

It’s also disappointing how the lead character doesn’t do anything aside from being a passive observer, a curiously detached one as well even when things get super freaky around her. Is she on drugs or something throughout the whole thing? That would explain her non-reaction to the super weird crap taking place around her. In fact, it would make perfect sense if the author had let the whole thing to happen inside her head.

Another disappointing aspect of the story is how the author doesn’t flesh out the Korean aspects better. This can lead to some degree of confusion among readers that are not familiar with the culture. They may be thrown off by Tarot card reading showing up in the story, for example, as many people would associate that activity with a Western culture. Perhaps some offhand remark from Hana about how this activity is popular in Korea could have added some clarity for those readers.

At any rate, I’d like to imagine that this story is an acid trip of sort inside the lead character’s head, which would be actually awesome. However, the execution could use a bit more polish, as in its current state, it doesn’t feel like an entirely cohesive story.