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A Twist of Fate
Two women meet on a train. Each is running from a deadly secret. When one disappears, the other decides to take her place—for better, or for worse.
Jae-young has just left everything she’s ever known, not that it was much. Her thankless job, her infested apartment, her abusive boyfriend—who happens to be dead on the kitchen floor. Murder was never the way she envisioned leaving, but it was desperate times. Now, escaping her transgressions on a train to the bustling city of Seoul, Jae-young is just hoping to become invisible—safe.
On the train she meets a chatty mother with her infant son who seem to be running from a similarly harsh life with her unfaithful husband, hoping to find refuge with the in-laws she’s never met. To avoid further conversation, Jae-young excuses herself for a moment. When she returns, the woman is nowhere to be found, but her crying child remains with a note, pleading with Jae-young to take him to his grandparents in a remote province far from Seoul.
It’s not an ideal pitstop, but for the sake of the child she can’t ignore the request. When Jae-young arrives, the house takes her by surprise. It's a gated manor oozing with opulence and the finest luxuries. Having never met their grandchild or daughter-in-law before, the family assumes Jae-young is the boy’s mother and ushers her in. Then Jae-young There’s nothing more invisible than becoming someone else.
But both women have ghosts in their pasts. Jae-young may have no idea what lies rotten under the shiny veneer of her new life, but there's nothing she won't do to make sure she never goes back.
Jae-young has just left everything she’s ever known, not that it was much. Her thankless job, her infested apartment, her abusive boyfriend—who happens to be dead on the kitchen floor. Murder was never the way she envisioned leaving, but it was desperate times. Now, escaping her transgressions on a train to the bustling city of Seoul, Jae-young is just hoping to become invisible—safe.
On the train she meets a chatty mother with her infant son who seem to be running from a similarly harsh life with her unfaithful husband, hoping to find refuge with the in-laws she’s never met. To avoid further conversation, Jae-young excuses herself for a moment. When she returns, the woman is nowhere to be found, but her crying child remains with a note, pleading with Jae-young to take him to his grandparents in a remote province far from Seoul.
It’s not an ideal pitstop, but for the sake of the child she can’t ignore the request. When Jae-young arrives, the house takes her by surprise. It's a gated manor oozing with opulence and the finest luxuries. Having never met their grandchild or daughter-in-law before, the family assumes Jae-young is the boy’s mother and ushers her in. Then Jae-young There’s nothing more invisible than becoming someone else.
But both women have ghosts in their pasts. Jae-young may have no idea what lies rotten under the shiny veneer of her new life, but there's nothing she won't do to make sure she never goes back.
352 pages, Paperback
First published March 22, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 134 reviews
August 7, 2025
In a Nutshell: A Korean suspense thriller about two women whose lives change after one encounter. The first half is good enough, the final quarter goes bonkers. Morally ambiguous characters, regular twists, dysfunctional family, decent pacing, too much repetitive rambling, soap-opera feels. Reads a bit YA. Not sure if the negatives are because of the translation, but they certainly aren’t *only* because of the translation. Better to read after suspending disbelief.
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Plot Preview:
Bookish Yays:
🤩 Great potential. I know many reviewers would be reminded of the novel ‘Strangers on a Train’ by Patricia Highsmith just because of the… well… strangers on the train bit, but a more accurate comparison in terms of tropes and genre would be with ‘I Married a Dead Man’ by Cornell Woolrich.
🤩 Despite the somewhat simplistic writing, the story kept me hooked. The initial quarter or so delivers especially well.
🤩 The portrayal on the realities of Korean society, such as class and gender differences and the contrast between the wastefulness of the wealthy and the frugality of the struggling.
🤩 The cover – absolutely stunning! I am not even a big fan of Korean works (whether books or TV shows or movies or music), but this cover made me get the book.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🤔 The story is quite twisty, with regular surprises coming our way. Some are guessable. Some not. However, as the book progresses, the twists get wilder and wilder until they feel overly exaggerated.
🤔 The book starts off as a decent domestic drama, the middle is more like a psychological suspense, and the final quarter goes almost into Gothic thriller territory. Many scenes in each section are good but the transitions are jarring.
Bookish Nays:(Most of my Nays are writing-related issues, but I cannot say if the problem is in the original writing alone or in the translation as well. But I am pretty sure that it is not just a translation problem.)
🥴 There is no consistency to the character detailing, especially in case of Jae-young. It feels like the lead pair have abrupt manic mood swings. I like having complex grey characters, but they need to be convincing as well.
🥴 All the characters sound like young adults in tone. It is tough to believe that they are in their thirties.
🥴 The two first-person perspectives have no individuality to them. Both sound very similar.
🥴 There is way too much of rambling in Jae-young’s POV, and mostly focussed on the same 2-3 thoughts. After a point, the repetition gets annoying. There are also too many interrupted conversations and secrets.
🥴 The writing style is quite odd, making it tough at times to understand the exact speaker in scenes with conversations. There are frequent insertions of past memories in between present scenes to offer background information – this is somewhat clunky in execution.
🥴 The final quarter feels completely unhinged. The ending is unbelievably farfetched, and the epilogue contains an extended infodump full of explanation. The change in one character’s arc is almost like a deus ex machina twist – not convincing.
🥴 The translation is not smooth even beyond the basic writing issues. Like, the emergency number in Korea is not 911. When the setting is Seoul, why is the US emergency number used in the plot? In contrast, there are multiple references to the significance of 12th December in Korea, but are we ever told what happened on 12th December? Nope!
All in all, this is a good enough option if you are ready to suspend all disbelief and go with the flow. The regular twists and the dark turns can be entertaining enough. The writing (either the original plotting or the translation or possibly, both) needed to be stronger and is the main reason this doesn’t deliver better. For a debut novel, it does get the ingredients of a psych-suspense right.
Recommended to psychological suspense fans who are more accustomed to suspending disbelief while reading this genre.
2.75 stars.
My thanks to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine and Bantam for providing the DRC of “A Twist of Fate” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
|| My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Facebook ||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plot Preview:
Jae-young is on the run. Not just from her dead-end job and her cramped apartment, but also from a possible murder allegation. While on the train to Seoul trying to decide where to go, she meets a talkative young woman carrying her infant son. The mother seems to also be running from her past, as her husband left her for another woman. She is now on her way to the in-laws she has never met, hoping that her baby would clear the path for some kind of refuge. Jae-young, tired of the conversation, excuses herself and walks out of the compartment. When she returns, the mother is nowhere to be seen, but she has left her bags and her wailing baby behind with a note asking Jae-young to take him to his grandparents in Seoul. With no other choice, Jae-young decides to drop off the baby, hoping for a cash reward in return. But when she sees the opulent mansion, her intention changes, especially when the family, having never met their daughter-in-law, assume Jae-young to be her and welcome her. Can Jae-young become someone else and get a fresh start?
The story comes to us in the first-person perspectives of Jae-young and another key character.
Bookish Yays:
🤩 Great potential. I know many reviewers would be reminded of the novel ‘Strangers on a Train’ by Patricia Highsmith just because of the… well… strangers on the train bit, but a more accurate comparison in terms of tropes and genre would be with ‘I Married a Dead Man’ by Cornell Woolrich.
🤩 Despite the somewhat simplistic writing, the story kept me hooked. The initial quarter or so delivers especially well.
🤩 The portrayal on the realities of Korean society, such as class and gender differences and the contrast between the wastefulness of the wealthy and the frugality of the struggling.
🤩 The cover – absolutely stunning! I am not even a big fan of Korean works (whether books or TV shows or movies or music), but this cover made me get the book.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🤔 The story is quite twisty, with regular surprises coming our way. Some are guessable. Some not. However, as the book progresses, the twists get wilder and wilder until they feel overly exaggerated.
🤔 The book starts off as a decent domestic drama, the middle is more like a psychological suspense, and the final quarter goes almost into Gothic thriller territory. Many scenes in each section are good but the transitions are jarring.
Bookish Nays:(Most of my Nays are writing-related issues, but I cannot say if the problem is in the original writing alone or in the translation as well. But I am pretty sure that it is not just a translation problem.)
🥴 There is no consistency to the character detailing, especially in case of Jae-young. It feels like the lead pair have abrupt manic mood swings. I like having complex grey characters, but they need to be convincing as well.
🥴 All the characters sound like young adults in tone. It is tough to believe that they are in their thirties.
🥴 The two first-person perspectives have no individuality to them. Both sound very similar.
🥴 There is way too much of rambling in Jae-young’s POV, and mostly focussed on the same 2-3 thoughts. After a point, the repetition gets annoying. There are also too many interrupted conversations and secrets.
🥴 The writing style is quite odd, making it tough at times to understand the exact speaker in scenes with conversations. There are frequent insertions of past memories in between present scenes to offer background information – this is somewhat clunky in execution.
🥴 The final quarter feels completely unhinged. The ending is unbelievably farfetched, and the epilogue contains an extended infodump full of explanation. The change in one character’s arc is almost like a deus ex machina twist – not convincing.
🥴 The translation is not smooth even beyond the basic writing issues. Like, the emergency number in Korea is not 911. When the setting is Seoul, why is the US emergency number used in the plot? In contrast, there are multiple references to the significance of 12th December in Korea, but are we ever told what happened on 12th December? Nope!
All in all, this is a good enough option if you are ready to suspend all disbelief and go with the flow. The regular twists and the dark turns can be entertaining enough. The writing (either the original plotting or the translation or possibly, both) needed to be stronger and is the main reason this doesn’t deliver better. For a debut novel, it does get the ingredients of a psych-suspense right.
Recommended to psychological suspense fans who are more accustomed to suspending disbelief while reading this genre.
2.75 stars.
My thanks to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine and Bantam for providing the DRC of “A Twist of Fate” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
|| My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Facebook ||
July 25, 2025
A Twist of Fate written by Se-Ah Jang was well interesting. The first half of this debut novel was a strong four stars for me, but the second half took a complete turn of events that just didn't make any sense, I felt like it was executed very poorly, it was rushed, it took a weird turn that just didn't sit well with me, so it pains me to give this debut novel a three star rating. The twists and turns were completely wild and caught me off guard even though I sought out a few of the twists, but the second half and the ending just didn't work out for me. I was so invested in this story, it was full of lies and luxuries, but like I stated about the second half, I just couldn't wait to finish this book because of the poor execution. Initially that stunning cover caught my attention, but when I read the synopsis, I was completely sold, but unfortunately I think my hopes were a bit too high, I mean, look at the beautiful cover. I do applaud this author because she did mess with my head with all of these wild twists that left me yelling oh no. Despite not having the best luck with this book, I'm still going to recommend to it to people that enjoy having their minds altered and to those who enjoy mind games, A Twist of Fate is the book for you, so mark your calendars for July 29th, 2025 for the release of this debut novel. Please keep in mind there are heavy topics, so be sure to check my review for trigger warning's. Let me just be clear, this book wasn't horrible by any means, but like I stated earlier, the second half and the ending didn't sit well with me, so please be respectful of my OWN opinions. I know others will love this book and I only hope it's the best for you.
THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP- BALLANTINE FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!!!!!!!
TRIGGER WARNING'S
~Physical Abuse~
~Mental Abuse~
~Cheating~
~Overdose~
~Mentions of Suicide~
~Opioid Addiction~
~Murder~
~Graphic Violence~
"💔😭Love is a dangerous, unpredictable emotion that will uproot your life in a heart beat💔😭".
"😱When you are running away from something, you can't act predictably😱".
"🤔That's what photographs are: embodiments of false memories. You think you have captured the truth of the moment, but it's really just a glorified illusion🤔".
"💯A rich brat always whines the loudest💯".
"💸Money is good and all, but what is life without some devilish entertainment💸?"
"💗💯To return evil for evil, you must join forces with your enemies💗💯".
Two women meet on a train and they are both running from a deadly secret. One night after being abused, Jae-Young Yoon hit her monster of a boyfriend in the back of his head with a frying pan instantly killing him, Jae-Young left his blood splattered body in her basement apartment and ran to the train station trying to become invisible. Jae-Young is a bruised and battered woman whose just trying to escape the shit show of her life. Jae-Young has had a pretty rough life, she grew up in an orphanage, and never had a real family in her entire life. Her "passionate lover" of a boyfriend gave Jae-Young bruises where people couldn't see them. On the train with purple bruises on her wrist and just a wallet to her name, Jae-Young meets a young woman with a baby, they are pretty friendly with each other, but Jae-Young doesn't really want to socialize. Jae-Young went to the bathroom and then when she returned to her seat, the young mother is nowhere to be found, but she left her newborn baby behind with a note. Jae-Young is to take the baby to the young mother's parents in law's house, Jae-Young arrives at a grand Western style mansion and she thinks both of the baby's parents are irresponsible shits. At the mansion, Jae-Young pretends to be the young mother and she gets her own room in this huge mansion. Jae-Young plays the role perfectly while she pretends to be a sister in law and a daughter in law.
Hyojin Cha and her three month old baby boy, Seung-Joon Jung are on the train going to Juyoung-Si which is the new city near Seoul where her in laws live, they have never met before and they haven't even seen the baby yet, because Hyojin got married to the baby's dad even though her in laws didn't approve of their marriage. Hyojin is now on the run because the baby's dad ran off and moved in with his mistress. Hyojin is now alone except for her baby, her parents died when she was little, she has no relatives nor family. Hyojin plans on showing up to her in laws out of nowhere because she wants the best for her baby but Hyojin can't raise her son as a single mother, so she plans on taking her baby to her in laws so he can have the best life, but Hyojin has other plans. Hyojin left her baby abandoned on the train curled up and wrapped in a tiny blanket, Hyojin is no where to be found but she left her luggage on the shelf full of diapers, baby bottle, clothes and bibs, and left behind a note begging Jae-Young to take the baby to Hyojin's in laws. Hyojin is sweet like a fluff of cotton candy, so why would she just abandon her baby and where did she disappear to? well, you will need to read this book to find out all of the juicy secrets and twists. I will say that in the ending, Jae-Young goes batshit crazy and that's when this book took a downhill turn for me. I loved meeting these two women, but I truly felt heart broken over their past stories, abuse is extremely scary, but I enjoyed watching Jae-Young trying to help out Hyojin and her baby despite not knowing anything about them.
THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP- BALLANTINE FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!!!!!!!
TRIGGER WARNING'S
~Physical Abuse~
~Mental Abuse~
~Cheating~
~Overdose~
~Mentions of Suicide~
~Opioid Addiction~
~Murder~
~Graphic Violence~
"💔😭Love is a dangerous, unpredictable emotion that will uproot your life in a heart beat💔😭".
"😱When you are running away from something, you can't act predictably😱".
"🤔That's what photographs are: embodiments of false memories. You think you have captured the truth of the moment, but it's really just a glorified illusion🤔".
"💯A rich brat always whines the loudest💯".
"💸Money is good and all, but what is life without some devilish entertainment💸?"
"💗💯To return evil for evil, you must join forces with your enemies💗💯".
Two women meet on a train and they are both running from a deadly secret. One night after being abused, Jae-Young Yoon hit her monster of a boyfriend in the back of his head with a frying pan instantly killing him, Jae-Young left his blood splattered body in her basement apartment and ran to the train station trying to become invisible. Jae-Young is a bruised and battered woman whose just trying to escape the shit show of her life. Jae-Young has had a pretty rough life, she grew up in an orphanage, and never had a real family in her entire life. Her "passionate lover" of a boyfriend gave Jae-Young bruises where people couldn't see them. On the train with purple bruises on her wrist and just a wallet to her name, Jae-Young meets a young woman with a baby, they are pretty friendly with each other, but Jae-Young doesn't really want to socialize. Jae-Young went to the bathroom and then when she returned to her seat, the young mother is nowhere to be found, but she left her newborn baby behind with a note. Jae-Young is to take the baby to the young mother's parents in law's house, Jae-Young arrives at a grand Western style mansion and she thinks both of the baby's parents are irresponsible shits. At the mansion, Jae-Young pretends to be the young mother and she gets her own room in this huge mansion. Jae-Young plays the role perfectly while she pretends to be a sister in law and a daughter in law.
Hyojin Cha and her three month old baby boy, Seung-Joon Jung are on the train going to Juyoung-Si which is the new city near Seoul where her in laws live, they have never met before and they haven't even seen the baby yet, because Hyojin got married to the baby's dad even though her in laws didn't approve of their marriage. Hyojin is now on the run because the baby's dad ran off and moved in with his mistress. Hyojin is now alone except for her baby, her parents died when she was little, she has no relatives nor family. Hyojin plans on showing up to her in laws out of nowhere because she wants the best for her baby but Hyojin can't raise her son as a single mother, so she plans on taking her baby to her in laws so he can have the best life, but Hyojin has other plans. Hyojin left her baby abandoned on the train curled up and wrapped in a tiny blanket, Hyojin is no where to be found but she left her luggage on the shelf full of diapers, baby bottle, clothes and bibs, and left behind a note begging Jae-Young to take the baby to Hyojin's in laws. Hyojin is sweet like a fluff of cotton candy, so why would she just abandon her baby and where did she disappear to? well, you will need to read this book to find out all of the juicy secrets and twists. I will say that in the ending, Jae-Young goes batshit crazy and that's when this book took a downhill turn for me. I loved meeting these two women, but I truly felt heart broken over their past stories, abuse is extremely scary, but I enjoyed watching Jae-Young trying to help out Hyojin and her baby despite not knowing anything about them.
April 12, 2025
Oh my goodness! This book is a hidden gem I need to put on your radar! So many jaw-dropping twists, so many mind games that’ll have you fidgeting in your seat—and when you reach the end, you’ll be screaming, “What the hell did I just read?!” It’s cunning, entertaining, full of clever schemes, and absolutely mind-blowing. While the last quarter drags a bit and gives off strong K-drama vibes, the pacing quickly picks up again, delivering a perfect conclusion that’ll have you jumping in your seat with delight.
The story follows Jae-Young, a woman trapped in an abusive relationship. After a brutal fight, she escapes by boarding a train—carrying a terrible secret that could destroy her future. In her cabin, she meets a young mother who shares her heartbreaking story: her husband left her for another woman, and she’s traveling to meet her wealthy father-in-law for the first time. But when Jae-Young returns from the restroom, the woman has vanished, leaving behind only her crying baby and a chilling note asking Jae-Young to deliver the child to the father-in-law’s remote home.
Believing she’ll just drop off the baby and disappear, Jae-Young soon finds herself drawn deeper into the family's world. The brother-in-law mistakes her for the child’s mother, and their lavish mansion, dripping in luxury, starts to feel like the perfect place to hide from her past. But nothing is as it seems. The family is haunted by secrets, deaths, and tragedies, and when a mysterious caregiver enters the picture, things take a darker turn. Jae-Young realizes she may have made the biggest mistake of her life by stepping into this role—and now, with nowhere left to run, she must play along with monsters just to survive.
This is one of the wildest rides I’ve read in ages—and I wholeheartedly recommend it! It’s highly addictive and impossible to put down. I’ll definitely be reading more Korean thrillers after this!
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Bantam for providing me with a digital review copy of this secret gem in exchange for my honest thoughts!
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The story follows Jae-Young, a woman trapped in an abusive relationship. After a brutal fight, she escapes by boarding a train—carrying a terrible secret that could destroy her future. In her cabin, she meets a young mother who shares her heartbreaking story: her husband left her for another woman, and she’s traveling to meet her wealthy father-in-law for the first time. But when Jae-Young returns from the restroom, the woman has vanished, leaving behind only her crying baby and a chilling note asking Jae-Young to deliver the child to the father-in-law’s remote home.
Believing she’ll just drop off the baby and disappear, Jae-Young soon finds herself drawn deeper into the family's world. The brother-in-law mistakes her for the child’s mother, and their lavish mansion, dripping in luxury, starts to feel like the perfect place to hide from her past. But nothing is as it seems. The family is haunted by secrets, deaths, and tragedies, and when a mysterious caregiver enters the picture, things take a darker turn. Jae-Young realizes she may have made the biggest mistake of her life by stepping into this role—and now, with nowhere left to run, she must play along with monsters just to survive.
This is one of the wildest rides I’ve read in ages—and I wholeheartedly recommend it! It’s highly addictive and impossible to put down. I’ll definitely be reading more Korean thrillers after this!
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Bantam for providing me with a digital review copy of this secret gem in exchange for my honest thoughts!
Follow me on medium.com to read my articles about books, movies, streaming series, astrology:
medium blog
August 18, 2025
Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Bantam for providing me an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
As someone who does not read thrillers very often, this proved to be the exact type of read I was looking for in terms of quick plot twists and scary scenes depicted well enough to make me glued to the screen. The only issue I had was with the pacing as it felt stilted in the middle.
The premise was incredible and reminded me a little bit of the underlying tension of books like YELLOWFACE, where you know someone's act is bound to blow up and you're just waiting in the sidelines waiting for all of it to unravel. As our main character decides to take up someone else's identity so she can escape into a life of luxury, she is then confronted with ghosts of her past that make her feel like she is losing her mind.
The first half of the book went by quickly, but it started becoming a little repetitive until it finally picked back up around the 80% mark, when characters start showing their true colors. The first half was also pretty solid, whereas the second half felt like the author was trying to destroy that very foundation that made me invested to begin with. Once I accepted the weird plotlines thrown at me, I started to appreciate it for what it is, but it certainly made this feel like a less well thought through book. The ending was filled with fast-pacing action scenes and plot twists that had me on my toes as to who would survive and what the truth really was--which ultimately is a good thing for a thriller and the saving grace for this one.
There were certain elements that definitely felt very plot convenient but these are to be expected with thrillers where you only figure things out by the end, and so many things you thought you knew were actually not true. But if you are fine with that (the telling instead of showing), then you would probably really enjoy this.
Overall, a good thriller for someone looking to expand beyond the typical Nordic, UK, US thriller destinations, since this is set in Korea in a house that is a little reminiscent of PARASITE.
As someone who does not read thrillers very often, this proved to be the exact type of read I was looking for in terms of quick plot twists and scary scenes depicted well enough to make me glued to the screen. The only issue I had was with the pacing as it felt stilted in the middle.
The premise was incredible and reminded me a little bit of the underlying tension of books like YELLOWFACE, where you know someone's act is bound to blow up and you're just waiting in the sidelines waiting for all of it to unravel. As our main character decides to take up someone else's identity so she can escape into a life of luxury, she is then confronted with ghosts of her past that make her feel like she is losing her mind.
The first half of the book went by quickly, but it started becoming a little repetitive until it finally picked back up around the 80% mark, when characters start showing their true colors. The first half was also pretty solid, whereas the second half felt like the author was trying to destroy that very foundation that made me invested to begin with. Once I accepted the weird plotlines thrown at me, I started to appreciate it for what it is, but it certainly made this feel like a less well thought through book. The ending was filled with fast-pacing action scenes and plot twists that had me on my toes as to who would survive and what the truth really was--which ultimately is a good thing for a thriller and the saving grace for this one.
There were certain elements that definitely felt very plot convenient but these are to be expected with thrillers where you only figure things out by the end, and so many things you thought you knew were actually not true. But if you are fine with that (the telling instead of showing), then you would probably really enjoy this.
Overall, a good thriller for someone looking to expand beyond the typical Nordic, UK, US thriller destinations, since this is set in Korea in a house that is a little reminiscent of PARASITE.
May 30, 2025
Jae-Young is over it. She’s over her crappy apartment. She’s over her crappy job. She’s REALLY over her abusive boyfriend constantly beating her up. One evening, after a particularly bad fight, she hit him in self-defense, and when he smashed his head on the way down, she panicked and ran straight to the train station. She’s going to Seoul, to hide out in a large city. After that, she has no idea what she’ll do next…
She’s on the train when a young mother carrying an infant sits by her and immediately turns into one of those annoyingly chatty strangers. Hyojin’s husband has moved in with his mistress, so she has also escaped and is going to visit the in-laws she still hasn’t met. Trying to avoid this oversharing woman, Jae-Young excuses herself to go to the bathroom. When she comes back, Hyojin is gone, and there’s a note left on the baby, begging her to take Seung-Joon to his family’s house.
Not knowing what else to do, she indeed takes the baby to the house of Chairman Jung. When she arrives at the address in the note, she’s surprised that the house is more like a resort. These are billionaires, and the father of the baby, Hyun-Wook, hasn’t been seen in years. The chairman lives there with his younger son, Soohyun, and a bevy of caretakers and maids. The elderly man is ailing, but it’s clear he’s excited to see his grandson…and everyone automatically assumes that Jae-Young is the wife they’ve never met. When they insist that she move in, she gladly takes the offer and starts enjoying the life of luxury she’s never had.
Soon after moving in, Jae-Young finds out a lot about the past, the history of the house, and why it’s run the way it is. These things do give her pause, but she feels comfortable with Soohyun, and the gifts and shopping trips help her look the other way…until she gets to a point where there is no denying what is happening. She’s in danger, she’s terrified they’ll find out she’s not Seung-Joon’s mother, and her mental health is starting to fail her.
This book is super twisty, with a ton of shocks built in. I was surprised over and over, all the way to the end. This family has a lot of skeletons in the closet, and figuring things out along with Jae-Young made this quite entertaining and suspenseful. I thought this would be a “Strangers on a Train” situation, but I was totally wrong about that! This was quite original, and a fun read. Four stars!
(Thank you to Random House Bantam, Se-ah Jang and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on July 29, 2025.)
She’s on the train when a young mother carrying an infant sits by her and immediately turns into one of those annoyingly chatty strangers. Hyojin’s husband has moved in with his mistress, so she has also escaped and is going to visit the in-laws she still hasn’t met. Trying to avoid this oversharing woman, Jae-Young excuses herself to go to the bathroom. When she comes back, Hyojin is gone, and there’s a note left on the baby, begging her to take Seung-Joon to his family’s house.
Not knowing what else to do, she indeed takes the baby to the house of Chairman Jung. When she arrives at the address in the note, she’s surprised that the house is more like a resort. These are billionaires, and the father of the baby, Hyun-Wook, hasn’t been seen in years. The chairman lives there with his younger son, Soohyun, and a bevy of caretakers and maids. The elderly man is ailing, but it’s clear he’s excited to see his grandson…and everyone automatically assumes that Jae-Young is the wife they’ve never met. When they insist that she move in, she gladly takes the offer and starts enjoying the life of luxury she’s never had.
Soon after moving in, Jae-Young finds out a lot about the past, the history of the house, and why it’s run the way it is. These things do give her pause, but she feels comfortable with Soohyun, and the gifts and shopping trips help her look the other way…until she gets to a point where there is no denying what is happening. She’s in danger, she’s terrified they’ll find out she’s not Seung-Joon’s mother, and her mental health is starting to fail her.
This book is super twisty, with a ton of shocks built in. I was surprised over and over, all the way to the end. This family has a lot of skeletons in the closet, and figuring things out along with Jae-Young made this quite entertaining and suspenseful. I thought this would be a “Strangers on a Train” situation, but I was totally wrong about that! This was quite original, and a fun read. Four stars!
(Thank you to Random House Bantam, Se-ah Jang and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on July 29, 2025.)
August 1, 2025
I really enjoyed this gothic thriller set in South Korea. The story kicks off when our protagonist meets a woman on a train and ends up assuming her identity. She soon finds herself living in a sprawling mansion, surrounded by a mysterious family and whispers of a past “incident.” Naturally, she’s also running from something herself, and there’s a constant sense of unease and fear.
There’s an early twist I didn’t see coming, which set the tone for the rest of the book. Once we hit part 2, things really started to spiral. Some of the reveals were predictable, but others genuinely surprised me. And there are a lot of them! The web of lies was so thick that I truly didn’t know how things would play out. I loved the ending and how everything came together. Overall, this is a dark, twisty thriller full of secrets, suspense, and one seriously messed-up family.
There’s an early twist I didn’t see coming, which set the tone for the rest of the book. Once we hit part 2, things really started to spiral. Some of the reveals were predictable, but others genuinely surprised me. And there are a lot of them! The web of lies was so thick that I truly didn’t know how things would play out. I loved the ending and how everything came together. Overall, this is a dark, twisty thriller full of secrets, suspense, and one seriously messed-up family.
2025
September 30, 2025Women in Translation TBR
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam
August 20, 2025
A twisty psychological and domestic thriller, so dense and engaging— loved the execution a lot and way the author neatly developed the plotline through its tense, suspicious and noir undertones. I followed Jaeyoung on her abusive past escape flees to Seoul on a train where she meets a distressed young mother, Hyojin and her baby. When Hyojin suddenly vanished leaving her with the baby and a note, Jaeyoung has to step into an unexpected role to deliver the baby to a wealthy family that later mistaken her for their daughter-in-law. As Jaeyoung settles into the luxxury, layered of truths came out lurking its dark haunting tensions to both her own life and the unforeseen revelations entwined to her past.
The suspense was addictive and I liked how Jaeyoung’s narration hooked me making me go a bit anxious waiting on how the whole chaos would be untangled. On love, jealousy and deception— too thrilling with its dysfunctional family drama, of those tragedies surrounded the Jung’s mansion and how it was revealed one by one to Jaeyoung. Soohyun really gets me spooked and I was so close to judge Hyojin until part 2 came and unraveled her side of stories.
Its lingering mysteries spiraling too tense in the later part, bit draggy with few foreseen incidents and devious motives. Flawed, realistic Jaeyoung, mysterious Hyojin and so full of tricks and suspicions for Soohyun yet all were crafted so well with interesting dynamics. Such huge inherintance to grab from Chairman Jung and how all turned so messy afterwards with both psycho and morality madness; loved that peek of social critiques (wealthy vs those dependent on them), the desperations and how revenge worked at the end. Unsettling yet so page-turning and overall gripping.
Credit to the excellent translation!
TW: domestic abuse, toxic relationship, suicide, emotional manipulation/gaslighting, child related distress, power exploitation
Thank you Times Reads for the gifted review copy!
The suspense was addictive and I liked how Jaeyoung’s narration hooked me making me go a bit anxious waiting on how the whole chaos would be untangled. On love, jealousy and deception— too thrilling with its dysfunctional family drama, of those tragedies surrounded the Jung’s mansion and how it was revealed one by one to Jaeyoung. Soohyun really gets me spooked and I was so close to judge Hyojin until part 2 came and unraveled her side of stories.
Its lingering mysteries spiraling too tense in the later part, bit draggy with few foreseen incidents and devious motives. Flawed, realistic Jaeyoung, mysterious Hyojin and so full of tricks and suspicions for Soohyun yet all were crafted so well with interesting dynamics. Such huge inherintance to grab from Chairman Jung and how all turned so messy afterwards with both psycho and morality madness; loved that peek of social critiques (wealthy vs those dependent on them), the desperations and how revenge worked at the end. Unsettling yet so page-turning and overall gripping.
Credit to the excellent translation!
TW: domestic abuse, toxic relationship, suicide, emotional manipulation/gaslighting, child related distress, power exploitation
Thank you Times Reads for the gifted review copy!
July 28, 2025
Wow, talk about a white-knuckle read! "A Twist of Fate" had me completely hooked from page one. That first chapter yanks you into Jae-young's desperate world with such immediacy that I physically couldn't put the book down.
What impressed me most was how Jang crafts these deeply flawed female characters who initially seem completely unlikable. Both women harbor dark secrets and make questionable choices, yet somewhere around the midpoint, something shifted. I found myself developing this uncomfortable understanding of their motivations—not quite rooting for them, but comprehending the desperate corners they'd been backed into.
The mansion setting is brilliant psychological manipulation. What should represent safety and luxury for our protagonist instead becomes this suffocating, elegant prison. Every ornate detail feels sinister rather than welcoming. The supporting cast amplifies this unease perfectly—maids who appear and disappear like ghosts, that brother-in-law whose friendliness makes your skin crawl, and the deteriorating father-in-law who somehow sees too much despite his condition.
I switched between reading and listening to the audiobook narrated by Michelle H. Lee and Shannon Tyo, which was an inspired choice. Their performance added another layer of tension, especially during those heart-pounding revelations that Jang drops throughout the narrative.
This isn't just another domestic thriller—it's a masterclass in atmosphere and psychological unraveling. The pacing is relentless without feeling rushed, and those twists? They're earned, not cheap shots for shock value. If you enjoy thrillers that make you question every character's motivation while feeling the walls close in around you, "A Twist of Fate" absolutely delivers. My pulse is still recovering.
Special thanks to Penguin Random House Audio and Bantam Books for my advanced copies. As always, the thoughts shared here are completely my own.
What impressed me most was how Jang crafts these deeply flawed female characters who initially seem completely unlikable. Both women harbor dark secrets and make questionable choices, yet somewhere around the midpoint, something shifted. I found myself developing this uncomfortable understanding of their motivations—not quite rooting for them, but comprehending the desperate corners they'd been backed into.
The mansion setting is brilliant psychological manipulation. What should represent safety and luxury for our protagonist instead becomes this suffocating, elegant prison. Every ornate detail feels sinister rather than welcoming. The supporting cast amplifies this unease perfectly—maids who appear and disappear like ghosts, that brother-in-law whose friendliness makes your skin crawl, and the deteriorating father-in-law who somehow sees too much despite his condition.
I switched between reading and listening to the audiobook narrated by Michelle H. Lee and Shannon Tyo, which was an inspired choice. Their performance added another layer of tension, especially during those heart-pounding revelations that Jang drops throughout the narrative.
This isn't just another domestic thriller—it's a masterclass in atmosphere and psychological unraveling. The pacing is relentless without feeling rushed, and those twists? They're earned, not cheap shots for shock value. If you enjoy thrillers that make you question every character's motivation while feeling the walls close in around you, "A Twist of Fate" absolutely delivers. My pulse is still recovering.
Special thanks to Penguin Random House Audio and Bantam Books for my advanced copies. As always, the thoughts shared here are completely my own.
May 15, 2025
When Jae-young leaves her house one morning–abandoning her life and her dead boyfriend on the kitchen floor–she meets a young mother on the train, looking for refuge with in-laws she has never met for her and her new baby. They talk for a bit when Jae-young excuses herself to the restroom, on her return she finds the mother gone and in her place she’s left her crying baby with a note saying to take him to the house of her mysterious in-laws. Out of obligation, Jae-young decides to take the baby and is welcomed into the luxurious mansion of the in-laws. Where she realizes there’s no better way to hide, than to have a new identity. But the two women and the house have dark secrets and Jae-young will stop at nothing to keep her new life.
Darkly atmospheric in a secluded mansion, A Twist of Fate is a thrilling book filled with complex characters all harboring their own secrets. Some are just more dangerous than others.
I read this book in its entirety in one day. Though it was a little predictable at times, it was so addicting I couldn’t put it down to see what happens next. I would love to see this adapted into a drama! It’s fast-paced and keeps you wanting more. Full of scheming, lies, and cunning games that leaves you devouring each chapter. I definitely recommend this for a a fast, intriguing, psychological suspense!
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine/Bantam for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Darkly atmospheric in a secluded mansion, A Twist of Fate is a thrilling book filled with complex characters all harboring their own secrets. Some are just more dangerous than others.
I read this book in its entirety in one day. Though it was a little predictable at times, it was so addicting I couldn’t put it down to see what happens next. I would love to see this adapted into a drama! It’s fast-paced and keeps you wanting more. Full of scheming, lies, and cunning games that leaves you devouring each chapter. I definitely recommend this for a a fast, intriguing, psychological suspense!
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine/Bantam for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
June 26, 2025
Imagine escaping your past… only to step into someone else’s life—and deciding to just stay. That’s what Jae-young does, and from there, it’s pure chaos in a silk robe.
This book is eerie, luxurious, and dripping with dread. The manor she moves into? Straight-up haunted vibes without the ghosts. The rich people around her? Every single one is unhinged in a very expensive way. Even the baby might be judging her.
Jae-young is not a hero, not a villain—just messy and fascinating. The dead boyfriend + fake rich brother-in-law? Colleen Hoover WISHES she wrote Ryle not creepy twisted but twisted like the dead boyfriend. Everyone’s hiding something, and the tension just keeps creeping in.
It’s a slow burn, but the kind that builds like thunder before a storm. And when it hits? You’ll be gasping. Shoutout to the translation for keeping the eerie K-thriller mood alive 👏
📺🍷 For fans of Parasite, Verity (but classier), Mine, The Glory, Little Women (2022)
🖤 🍷Would I recommend it?
Yes, if you like your thrillers slow, sharp, and a little bit sick.
__________________________________________
my head's throbbing right now....
rtc
This book is eerie, luxurious, and dripping with dread. The manor she moves into? Straight-up haunted vibes without the ghosts. The rich people around her? Every single one is unhinged in a very expensive way. Even the baby might be judging her.
Jae-young is not a hero, not a villain—just messy and fascinating. The dead boyfriend + fake rich brother-in-law? Colleen Hoover WISHES she wrote Ryle not creepy twisted but twisted like the dead boyfriend. Everyone’s hiding something, and the tension just keeps creeping in.
It’s a slow burn, but the kind that builds like thunder before a storm. And when it hits? You’ll be gasping. Shoutout to the translation for keeping the eerie K-thriller mood alive 👏
📺🍷 For fans of Parasite, Verity (but classier), Mine, The Glory, Little Women (2022)
🖤 🍷Would I recommend it?
Yes, if you like your thrillers slow, sharp, and a little bit sick.
__________________________________________
my head's throbbing right now....
rtc
August 5, 2025
A Twist of Fate begins with two women meeting by chance on a train in Seoul. One of the women, Jae-young, is fleeing her entire life: a dead-end job, a rotting basement apartment, and an abusive boyfriend. The other woman is a chatty young mother travelling with her infant son, hoping to find sanctuary from an unfaithful husband with the wealthy in-laws she has never met. But in a shocking turn of events, Jae-young returns from the train’s bathroom to find the young mother gone and the child alone, along with a note imploring Jae-young to deliver him to his father’s family. From there, things unfold in surprising, twisty ways.
Despite its South Korean setting, there is a bit of the Southern Gothic about A Twist of Fate that I really enjoyed. From the grand yet desolate mansion setting, to the characters who behave just the slightest bit oddly, to the explosive generational secrets – it all serves to keep the reader off-balance. It was easy to get lost with Jae-young in a world of opulence and excess, while also questioning along with her if it was all too good to be true. The book is well-plotted, with reveals perfectly timed for maximum narrative impact.
A Twist of Fate is domestic suspense through and through, and as someone familiar with the genre, I was able to predict a few plot points. Some of the twists were executed with a lack of finesse and relied too much on convenience, without enough justification earlier in the book. There were some inconsistencies in Jae-young’s character that were a bit confusing, and the translation reads somewhat clunky in parts, as far as narrative flow and continuity. But I always enjoy a glimpse into another culture, particularly through the lens of a universally popular genre, and A Twist of Fate was still quite satisfying in that way. Thank you to Bantam for the complimentary reading opportunity.
Despite its South Korean setting, there is a bit of the Southern Gothic about A Twist of Fate that I really enjoyed. From the grand yet desolate mansion setting, to the characters who behave just the slightest bit oddly, to the explosive generational secrets – it all serves to keep the reader off-balance. It was easy to get lost with Jae-young in a world of opulence and excess, while also questioning along with her if it was all too good to be true. The book is well-plotted, with reveals perfectly timed for maximum narrative impact.
A Twist of Fate is domestic suspense through and through, and as someone familiar with the genre, I was able to predict a few plot points. Some of the twists were executed with a lack of finesse and relied too much on convenience, without enough justification earlier in the book. There were some inconsistencies in Jae-young’s character that were a bit confusing, and the translation reads somewhat clunky in parts, as far as narrative flow and continuity. But I always enjoy a glimpse into another culture, particularly through the lens of a universally popular genre, and A Twist of Fate was still quite satisfying in that way. Thank you to Bantam for the complimentary reading opportunity.
August 19, 2025
Two women meet on a train. They each have a secret, then one disappears.
A twist of fate brings them back together.
Great Story... this is the authors first full-length novel.
I want to thank Banton Books for sending me this finished book
A twist of fate brings them back together.
Great Story... this is the authors first full-length novel.
I want to thank Banton Books for sending me this finished book
May 11, 2025
This book is marketed as General Fiction and Women's Fiction, but it is a Psychological Suspense Drama. I like suspense and thrillers, so once I reset my original expectations, I was fine about the genre.
A woman on the run gets stranded with a baby, and decides to turn luck to her side by assuming the false identity of the baby 's mother, and live a life of luxurious wealth, atleast for the time being.
I would say the first three quarters of the novel worked well for me. The atmosphere of the house, the invalid father-in-law, the very friendly brother-in-law, the house staff who may know more than meets the eye but won't reveal anything to the new comer and the small incidents here and there that create unrest in the mind of the protagonist and the plot, are nothing new to this genre, but done well and builds for a page turner. As befits this genre, the writing is fast paced and easy, well-written. Some of the characters are drawn well, and the backstory too is well developed.
Not because of any logical deduction on my part or plot loopholes, but because of sheer experience in this genre, I had figured out the negative element in this novel almost at their first appearance. But this is not what makes the last quarter a disappointing read; what contributes to this disappointment is the poor work done on the motivation, scope of action and execution of a character who plays a pivotal role, especially in the last quarter. That character felt too confused in their final actions, and driven more by the author's whim than the sense of the plot. Things add up when the suspense ends, and unlike many poorly done thrillers and suspense dramas, here things are not too forced or dependent on coincidence, but still, though the pieces fit, the picture doesn't sit very pretty. The good person wins, but mostly because the author desired so, and ended up twisting the motivation of a key character to achieve such ends. Now, this reminds me of the title.
But humour apart too, the title fits the plot, let me not create any misgivings here.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Groups - Ballantine for an ecopy of this book in exchange for a honest review.
A woman on the run gets stranded with a baby, and decides to turn luck to her side by assuming the false identity of the baby 's mother, and live a life of luxurious wealth, atleast for the time being.
I would say the first three quarters of the novel worked well for me. The atmosphere of the house, the invalid father-in-law, the very friendly brother-in-law, the house staff who may know more than meets the eye but won't reveal anything to the new comer and the small incidents here and there that create unrest in the mind of the protagonist and the plot, are nothing new to this genre, but done well and builds for a page turner. As befits this genre, the writing is fast paced and easy, well-written. Some of the characters are drawn well, and the backstory too is well developed.
Not because of any logical deduction on my part or plot loopholes, but because of sheer experience in this genre, I had figured out the negative element in this novel almost at their first appearance. But this is not what makes the last quarter a disappointing read; what contributes to this disappointment is the poor work done on the motivation, scope of action and execution of a character who plays a pivotal role, especially in the last quarter. That character felt too confused in their final actions, and driven more by the author's whim than the sense of the plot. Things add up when the suspense ends, and unlike many poorly done thrillers and suspense dramas, here things are not too forced or dependent on coincidence, but still, though the pieces fit, the picture doesn't sit very pretty. The good person wins, but mostly because the author desired so, and ended up twisting the motivation of a key character to achieve such ends. Now, this reminds me of the title.
But humour apart too, the title fits the plot, let me not create any misgivings here.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Groups - Ballantine for an ecopy of this book in exchange for a honest review.
August 5, 2025
A Twist Of Fate by Sa-ah Jang, two women meet on the train Jay is fleeing an abusive boyfriend who may or may not still be alive. she meets single mother Soouhyn, with her three month old little boy. When Jay excuses herself to try and get away from the single mother she returns only for the train conductor to tell her she needs to take her baby. The baby is crying and she picks it up and finds a note that says please take him to soul to his dad‘s family and despite it being out of the way Jay decides to do it. Only she turns up and claims to be the baby‘s mother and she is shocked by the welcome she gets from the family she thought wanted nothing to do with the single mom and little boy. she is especially taken aback by how the babies uncle is. He is not only kind but attractive as well but the longer she is at the house the more she knows something is up. things get even more complicated when the grandfather‘s caretaker leaves and Soouhyn shows up as his new Tinder. what’s even weirder is that she pretends not to know Jay nor the baby and treat her as if she was just another member of the household and is very kind and accommodating. This is when I knew this was going to be a doozy of a read and that is definitely what it was. I was shocked to see other people say it was a bad translation that the pros were boring and one reviewer even said it should be more Americanized but I disagree. This book was translated from a Korean author and she is writing what she knows and I myself found this book absolutely exciting and really loved it. Although I was shocked when one character in the book is being hung by a rope and yet they have enough air to whisper someone’s name I found this quite dubious but still totally enjoyed the book. I thought the translation was awesome the book was exciting and an all around awesome read. #NetGalley,#RandomHouse, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview, #Sa-ahZhang, #ATwistOfFate,
September 6, 2025
✨ "I realize there must be something dangerous about this house. But what?"
Twisty, twisted and very odd before going off the rails.
Slow start but didn't take long for me to be completely invested. I enjoyed the suspense, tension and sense of foreboding – which the ending sadly didn't leave up to. Not sure if it's because of the translation but the dialogue was very unnatural as well.
All the characters were crass and hard to like, but this was still a rather entertaining page-turner even though it was not sophisticated or polished enough to take seriously.
✨ "To return evil for evil, you must join forces with your enemies. If you find yourself down in the ditch, you have to crawl out, even if it means taking your enemy's hand. That's how revenge works. And that's how life works."
Thank you to Random House for the Netgalley ARC.
Twisty, twisted and very odd before going off the rails.
Slow start but didn't take long for me to be completely invested. I enjoyed the suspense, tension and sense of foreboding – which the ending sadly didn't leave up to. Not sure if it's because of the translation but the dialogue was very unnatural as well.
All the characters were crass and hard to like, but this was still a rather entertaining page-turner even though it was not sophisticated or polished enough to take seriously.
✨ "To return evil for evil, you must join forces with your enemies. If you find yourself down in the ditch, you have to crawl out, even if it means taking your enemy's hand. That's how revenge works. And that's how life works."
Thank you to Random House for the Netgalley ARC.
August 13, 2025
I feel like I’m trapped in an endless stretch of dark tunnel, unable to go backward or forward. Will there ever be an end to this? Maybe when one of us disappears. And chances are, it’ll be me.
끝도 없이 이어지는 시커먼 터널 속에 서 있는 것 같았다. 뒤로 돌아갈 수도, 앞으로 나아갈 수도 없이 갇혀 있는 기분. 이 고통에 끝이란 게 있을까? 어느 한쪽이 사라져야 끝나는 게임일 텐데 그게 내가 될 확률이 크겠지.
Twist of Fate (2025) is the translation by SE Park of the 2023 novel 런어웨이 (the title a Korean phonetic rendition of ‘Runaway’) by 장세아 (Se-ah Jang).
The novel begins:
Can I reset my life? Can I hit delete and start over from a perfect clean slate? These are the only thoughts drilling into my mind as I sit on a train that’s picking up speed and leaving the station. On this foggy Sunday morning, my compartment’s thankfully empty but for me. No breathing bodies nearby. Not a single soul apart from myself. Earlier, shivering all over, I’d taken shelter in a dark corner of the station and waited for the first train to arrive, and when it finally did, my knees almost buckled from the surge of relief. No, I can’t think about the price I had to pay for this escape route yet. Later, much later, when I’m alone and feel more like myself. When all this has blown over and I have cleared my head. I’m leaning back in my chair, with my legs outstretched in front of me, when the door to the car flings open. My heart drops to my stomach. I quickly duck under the backrest of the seat in front and steal a cautious peek from behind it.
A woman has just walked in. A young mother, hair tied up in a bun and a baby in her arms. The large bag on her shoulder seems to be dragging her down with its weight. As she saunters her way through the aisle and closer to my seat, the young mother finds me and beams, eyes lighting up. What a twist of fate—finding a woman my age in an empty car this early in the morning.
The narrator, Jae-Young, a young woman, is fleeing, with no real destination in mind, from her home, where she has left her partner lying bloodied on the floor, possibly dead. A victim of persistent domestic violence she instinctively fought back against his latest attack by hitting him with a frying pan, which caused him to fall and strike his head. Either he is dead / seriously injured - in which case the police will pursue her - or he isn’t, in which case he will come after her, but either way she needs to escape.
The woman, of a similar age, who sits next to her on the train tells her an odd story. She says she is the partner of the estranged son of a very rich family, and her baby is his. The son has left her, and she is travelling to take the child to his wealthy grandparents’ house - who are not aware of her or the baby’s existence - to leave the child in their care.
Jae-Young goes to the toilet to wash her face and process her thoughts- the author has said that the idea for the book began with an image “a woman studies her tired face in the bathroom mirror on a train at the crack of dawn.” But when she returns to her seat, she finds the woman has fled, leaving the baby behind and a note asking Jae-Young to take the child to its grandparents instead.
At first Jae-Young is outraged by the bizarre request but she realises this could be the perfect way to avoid escape (‘When you’re running away from something, you can’t act predictably. At times like this, you shouldn’t do what makes sense.’). And when she arrives at the woman’s in-laws’ mansion, she finds they accept her story and even assume that she is the baby’s mother, despite her lack of corroborating evidence:
It’s only then that I realize I don’t know what to say, and I have come to make this outrageous claim with just a small infant in my arms, no proof, no idea of his mother’s name or her husband’s name, for that matter.
그제야 내가 아무것도, 정말 아무것도 없이 달랑 어린애 하나만 안고 찾아왔다는 걸 깨달았다. 무슨 증표 같은 것도 없이, 아기 엄마의 이름이나 그 여자의 남편 이름도 모르고 무작정 찾아온 것이다.
And so - pretending to be their daughter-in-law - she moves in.
Even this would be a far-fetched set-up for an interesting story, but the above is really just the foundations of the novel in the opening pages. In fact, the story proves to be far more complex and the twists keep coming.
The one narrative disappointment to me came around 2/3rds through when Jae-Young tells us that she has finally understood what is happening. Up until that point, she, as the first person narrator, is discovering the plot alongside the reader, but from that point on she is withholding information from us, which makes for a less satisfying read (not so much an unreliable narrator as one wanting to artificially add to the suspense).
Overall - an implausible plot, not least the coincidence of so many psychopathic characters, if an easy and quick read. And lacking any real Korean elements to the story. 2.5 stars.
끝도 없이 이어지는 시커먼 터널 속에 서 있는 것 같았다. 뒤로 돌아갈 수도, 앞으로 나아갈 수도 없이 갇혀 있는 기분. 이 고통에 끝이란 게 있을까? 어느 한쪽이 사라져야 끝나는 게임일 텐데 그게 내가 될 확률이 크겠지.
Twist of Fate (2025) is the translation by SE Park of the 2023 novel 런어웨이 (the title a Korean phonetic rendition of ‘Runaway’) by 장세아 (Se-ah Jang).
The novel begins:
Can I reset my life? Can I hit delete and start over from a perfect clean slate? These are the only thoughts drilling into my mind as I sit on a train that’s picking up speed and leaving the station. On this foggy Sunday morning, my compartment’s thankfully empty but for me. No breathing bodies nearby. Not a single soul apart from myself. Earlier, shivering all over, I’d taken shelter in a dark corner of the station and waited for the first train to arrive, and when it finally did, my knees almost buckled from the surge of relief. No, I can’t think about the price I had to pay for this escape route yet. Later, much later, when I’m alone and feel more like myself. When all this has blown over and I have cleared my head. I’m leaning back in my chair, with my legs outstretched in front of me, when the door to the car flings open. My heart drops to my stomach. I quickly duck under the backrest of the seat in front and steal a cautious peek from behind it.
A woman has just walked in. A young mother, hair tied up in a bun and a baby in her arms. The large bag on her shoulder seems to be dragging her down with its weight. As she saunters her way through the aisle and closer to my seat, the young mother finds me and beams, eyes lighting up. What a twist of fate—finding a woman my age in an empty car this early in the morning.
The narrator, Jae-Young, a young woman, is fleeing, with no real destination in mind, from her home, where she has left her partner lying bloodied on the floor, possibly dead. A victim of persistent domestic violence she instinctively fought back against his latest attack by hitting him with a frying pan, which caused him to fall and strike his head. Either he is dead / seriously injured - in which case the police will pursue her - or he isn’t, in which case he will come after her, but either way she needs to escape.
The woman, of a similar age, who sits next to her on the train tells her an odd story. She says she is the partner of the estranged son of a very rich family, and her baby is his. The son has left her, and she is travelling to take the child to his wealthy grandparents’ house - who are not aware of her or the baby’s existence - to leave the child in their care.
Jae-Young goes to the toilet to wash her face and process her thoughts- the author has said that the idea for the book began with an image “a woman studies her tired face in the bathroom mirror on a train at the crack of dawn.” But when she returns to her seat, she finds the woman has fled, leaving the baby behind and a note asking Jae-Young to take the child to its grandparents instead.
At first Jae-Young is outraged by the bizarre request but she realises this could be the perfect way to avoid escape (‘When you’re running away from something, you can’t act predictably. At times like this, you shouldn’t do what makes sense.’). And when she arrives at the woman’s in-laws’ mansion, she finds they accept her story and even assume that she is the baby’s mother, despite her lack of corroborating evidence:
It’s only then that I realize I don’t know what to say, and I have come to make this outrageous claim with just a small infant in my arms, no proof, no idea of his mother’s name or her husband’s name, for that matter.
그제야 내가 아무것도, 정말 아무것도 없이 달랑 어린애 하나만 안고 찾아왔다는 걸 깨달았다. 무슨 증표 같은 것도 없이, 아기 엄마의 이름이나 그 여자의 남편 이름도 모르고 무작정 찾아온 것이다.
And so - pretending to be their daughter-in-law - she moves in.
Even this would be a far-fetched set-up for an interesting story, but the above is really just the foundations of the novel in the opening pages. In fact, the story proves to be far more complex and the twists keep coming.
The one narrative disappointment to me came around 2/3rds through when Jae-Young tells us that she has finally understood what is happening. Up until that point, she, as the first person narrator, is discovering the plot alongside the reader, but from that point on she is withholding information from us, which makes for a less satisfying read (not so much an unreliable narrator as one wanting to artificially add to the suspense).
Overall - an implausible plot, not least the coincidence of so many psychopathic characters, if an easy and quick read. And lacking any real Korean elements to the story. 2.5 stars.
July 29, 2025
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.
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.
July 6, 2025
This was a decent read, though I found it very unrealistic at times, and the writing style was often strange and stunted (though likely due to the translation to English). It centers on Jae-Young, who is escaping an abusive boyfriend when she meets a young mom and baby on a train. The mom ends up leaving the baby in her care and asking her to take him to his rich relatives in Seoul. When she shows up there, she realizes she can live the life of luxury and no one would be the wiser.
There were a good amount of twists in this book, but so many of them felt either too convenient to be realistic or just kind of “out there”. I didn’t think the characters were all that developed for most of the book, but as I got closer to the end, the author shed more light on the things that happened in their backgrounds to drive the decisions they made in current time. The language was sometimes confusing and I got lost a couple times as to what was really happening, but I felt like the end pulled everything together. The ending again felt pretty unrealistic but I can’t say I was disappointed in how it turned out.
Overall, this was a decent story but the writing style and need to suspend my disbelief knocked it down a bit for me. Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
There were a good amount of twists in this book, but so many of them felt either too convenient to be realistic or just kind of “out there”. I didn’t think the characters were all that developed for most of the book, but as I got closer to the end, the author shed more light on the things that happened in their backgrounds to drive the decisions they made in current time. The language was sometimes confusing and I got lost a couple times as to what was really happening, but I felt like the end pulled everything together. The ending again felt pretty unrealistic but I can’t say I was disappointed in how it turned out.
Overall, this was a decent story but the writing style and need to suspend my disbelief knocked it down a bit for me. Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
August 10, 2025
Absolutely unputdownable. Twisted, bold, and unexpectedly emotional.
Wow. A Twist of Fate completely pulled me in from the first chapter and didn’t let go. Se‑Ah Jang masterfully combines psychological suspense with sharp social commentary, and the result is a thriller that feels both urgent and deeply human.
Jae‑Young is one of the most compelling protagonists I’ve read in a while—flawed, desperate, but so fiercely alive. Her split-second decision to step into someone else’s life kicks off a story full of secrets, danger, and emotional tension that kept me on edge the whole time. Every chapter felt like peeling back another layer of truth, and just when I thought I had things figured out… nope. Another twist.
Yes, it gets wild. Yes, some moments ask you to suspend disbelief. But it’s totally worth it. The writing (and the translation!) is beautiful, the pacing is relentless, and the themes—about identity, power, and the cost of reinvention—hit hard.
If you love thrillers that mess with your head and your heart, do yourself a favor and pick this one up.
Wow. A Twist of Fate completely pulled me in from the first chapter and didn’t let go. Se‑Ah Jang masterfully combines psychological suspense with sharp social commentary, and the result is a thriller that feels both urgent and deeply human.
Jae‑Young is one of the most compelling protagonists I’ve read in a while—flawed, desperate, but so fiercely alive. Her split-second decision to step into someone else’s life kicks off a story full of secrets, danger, and emotional tension that kept me on edge the whole time. Every chapter felt like peeling back another layer of truth, and just when I thought I had things figured out… nope. Another twist.
Yes, it gets wild. Yes, some moments ask you to suspend disbelief. But it’s totally worth it. The writing (and the translation!) is beautiful, the pacing is relentless, and the themes—about identity, power, and the cost of reinvention—hit hard.
If you love thrillers that mess with your head and your heart, do yourself a favor and pick this one up.
August 3, 2025
Se-ah Jang's debut novel, A Twist of Fate, emerges from the shadow of Korean noir with the force of a locomotive barreling through darkened tunnels. This psychological thriller, translated with remarkable precision by S. L. Park, presents readers with a disturbing meditation on identity, desperation, and the lengths people will go to escape their circumstances. In a genre increasingly dominated by formulaic twists, Jang crafts something genuinely unsettling—a story that lingers in the mind like the taste of bitter medicine.
The novel opens with Jae-young, a woman fleeing a life of abuse and violence, boarding a train to Seoul after leaving her boyfriend dead on her kitchen floor. Her desperate flight from consequences takes an unexpected turn when she encounters Hyojin, a young mother traveling with her infant son. When Hyojin mysteriously disappears, leaving only her child and a cryptic note, Jae-young finds herself thrust into a web of deception that will ultimately consume everyone involved.
The Architecture of Deception
Jang demonstrates remarkable skill in constructing a narrative that operates on multiple levels of unreliability. The story unfolds in two distinct parts, with the first following Jae-young's perspective as she assumes Hyojin's identity and infiltrates a wealthy family's mansion. The gothic mansion itself becomes a character—a sprawling, luxurious prison where secrets fester beneath polished surfaces. The author's use of this classic gothic setting feels both familiar and fresh, grounding the psychological horror in a tangible environment that reflects the moral decay of its inhabitants.
The dual narrative structure proves particularly effective when the second part shifts to reveal Hyojin's perspective, systematically dismantling everything readers thought they understood about the first half. This technique could have felt gimmicky in less capable hands, but Jang uses it to explore the theme of identity with surgical precision. Both women are running from their pasts, and both find themselves trapped in roles they never chose—yet their responses to these circumstances reveal fundamentally different moral compasses.
Characters Carved from Desperation
The strength of A Twist of Fate lies not in its plot machinations, though they are expertly handled, but in its unflinching portrayal of characters pushed beyond their breaking points. Jae-young emerges as a particularly complex protagonist—neither purely sympathetic nor entirely villainous. Her desperation feels authentic, born from years of abuse and economic marginalization. When she makes the split-second decision to assume Hyojin's identity, readers understand the logic even as they question the morality.
Soohyun, the younger son of the wealthy family, represents perhaps Jang's most ambitious character creation. The author herself admits to feeling conflicted about him, and this ambivalence translates into a portrayal that defies easy categorization. He is simultaneously victim and perpetrator, damaged by family trauma yet responsible for perpetuating cycles of manipulation and violence. His obsessive attachment to his older brother Hyun-wook reveals the dark underbelly of familial loyalty, twisted into something predatory and destructive.
The supporting characters, particularly the family patriarch and the household staff, feel lived-in and authentic. Jang avoids the trap of making her wealthy characters cartoonishly evil; instead, she presents a family corroded by secrets, where love and control have become indistinguishable.
Where Desire Becomes Destruction
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the novel is its exploration of desire as a corrupting force. As Jang notes in her author's note, this is fundamentally "a novel about desire"—everyone wants something beyond their reach and destroys others in pursuit of it. This theme elevates the work beyond a simple thriller into something approaching social commentary.
The economic disparity between characters serves as more than background detail; it drives the central conflicts. Jae-young's desperate grab for a better life, the family's paranoid protection of their wealth, and Hyojin's calculated revenge all stem from the brutal inequalities that define contemporary Korean society. Jang doesn't belabor these points, allowing them to emerge naturally from character interactions and plot developments.
Technical Craftsmanship and Translation
S. L. Park's translation deserves particular praise for maintaining the novel's distinctive voice while making it accessible to English-speaking readers. The prose strikes an effective balance between literary sophistication and genre accessibility. Park successfully preserves the cultural specificity of the Korean context while ensuring that emotional beats land effectively for international audiences.
The pacing is expertly controlled, with tension building methodically throughout the first half before exploding in the revelatory second section. Jang demonstrates an understanding of when to withhold information and when to deploy revelations for maximum impact. The final act, set primarily in the mansion's basement, transforms the gothic atmosphere into something approaching genuine horror.
Critical Considerations
While A Twist of Fate succeeds as both thriller and character study, it occasionally stumbles under the weight of its ambitions. Some plot developments in the final third feel slightly rushed, particularly the resolution involving Soohyun's ultimate fate. The novel's exploration of trauma and its intergenerational effects sometimes threatens to overwhelm the thriller elements, though this may be intentional on Jang's part.
The book's moral universe is deliberately murky, with nearly every character bearing responsibility for tragedy. While this complexity enriches the narrative, it may frustrate readers seeking clearer moral delineations. Jang's insistence that "no one's entirely innocent or evil" creates compelling psychological portraits but occasionally makes it difficult to emotionally invest in any particular outcome.
Literary Context and Comparisons
A Twist of Fate fits comfortably within the tradition of Korean thriller fiction while drawing clear influences from gothic literature and psychological suspense. Readers familiar with works by Gillian Flynn or Tana French will recognize the commitment to character psychology over plot mechanics. The novel also echoes themes found in films by directors like Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, particularly in its examination of class conflict and family dysfunction.
As Jang's debut novel under this pseudonym—she has previously published web novels and styling books under other names—it represents an impressive entry into literary thriller territory. The book's selection for film adaptation by Kyobo, South Korea's largest bookstore chain, suggests industry recognition of its commercial and artistic potential.
Final Verdict
A Twist of Fate announces Se-ah Jang as a significant new voice in international thriller fiction. While the novel occasionally strains under its thematic ambitions, it succeeds brilliantly as both page-turning entertainment and serious examination of contemporary social issues. The gothic atmosphere, complex characterizations, and moral ambiguity create a reading experience that challenges as much as it entertains.
This is not a book that offers easy answers or comfortable resolutions. Instead, it forces readers to confront uncomfortable questions about survival, morality, and the prices people pay for reinvention. For readers willing to embrace its darkness, A Twist of Fate offers rewards that extend far beyond its final page.
The novel opens with Jae-young, a woman fleeing a life of abuse and violence, boarding a train to Seoul after leaving her boyfriend dead on her kitchen floor. Her desperate flight from consequences takes an unexpected turn when she encounters Hyojin, a young mother traveling with her infant son. When Hyojin mysteriously disappears, leaving only her child and a cryptic note, Jae-young finds herself thrust into a web of deception that will ultimately consume everyone involved.
The Architecture of Deception
Jang demonstrates remarkable skill in constructing a narrative that operates on multiple levels of unreliability. The story unfolds in two distinct parts, with the first following Jae-young's perspective as she assumes Hyojin's identity and infiltrates a wealthy family's mansion. The gothic mansion itself becomes a character—a sprawling, luxurious prison where secrets fester beneath polished surfaces. The author's use of this classic gothic setting feels both familiar and fresh, grounding the psychological horror in a tangible environment that reflects the moral decay of its inhabitants.
The dual narrative structure proves particularly effective when the second part shifts to reveal Hyojin's perspective, systematically dismantling everything readers thought they understood about the first half. This technique could have felt gimmicky in less capable hands, but Jang uses it to explore the theme of identity with surgical precision. Both women are running from their pasts, and both find themselves trapped in roles they never chose—yet their responses to these circumstances reveal fundamentally different moral compasses.
Characters Carved from Desperation
The strength of A Twist of Fate lies not in its plot machinations, though they are expertly handled, but in its unflinching portrayal of characters pushed beyond their breaking points. Jae-young emerges as a particularly complex protagonist—neither purely sympathetic nor entirely villainous. Her desperation feels authentic, born from years of abuse and economic marginalization. When she makes the split-second decision to assume Hyojin's identity, readers understand the logic even as they question the morality.
Soohyun, the younger son of the wealthy family, represents perhaps Jang's most ambitious character creation. The author herself admits to feeling conflicted about him, and this ambivalence translates into a portrayal that defies easy categorization. He is simultaneously victim and perpetrator, damaged by family trauma yet responsible for perpetuating cycles of manipulation and violence. His obsessive attachment to his older brother Hyun-wook reveals the dark underbelly of familial loyalty, twisted into something predatory and destructive.
The supporting characters, particularly the family patriarch and the household staff, feel lived-in and authentic. Jang avoids the trap of making her wealthy characters cartoonishly evil; instead, she presents a family corroded by secrets, where love and control have become indistinguishable.
Where Desire Becomes Destruction
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the novel is its exploration of desire as a corrupting force. As Jang notes in her author's note, this is fundamentally "a novel about desire"—everyone wants something beyond their reach and destroys others in pursuit of it. This theme elevates the work beyond a simple thriller into something approaching social commentary.
The economic disparity between characters serves as more than background detail; it drives the central conflicts. Jae-young's desperate grab for a better life, the family's paranoid protection of their wealth, and Hyojin's calculated revenge all stem from the brutal inequalities that define contemporary Korean society. Jang doesn't belabor these points, allowing them to emerge naturally from character interactions and plot developments.
Technical Craftsmanship and Translation
S. L. Park's translation deserves particular praise for maintaining the novel's distinctive voice while making it accessible to English-speaking readers. The prose strikes an effective balance between literary sophistication and genre accessibility. Park successfully preserves the cultural specificity of the Korean context while ensuring that emotional beats land effectively for international audiences.
The pacing is expertly controlled, with tension building methodically throughout the first half before exploding in the revelatory second section. Jang demonstrates an understanding of when to withhold information and when to deploy revelations for maximum impact. The final act, set primarily in the mansion's basement, transforms the gothic atmosphere into something approaching genuine horror.
Critical Considerations
While A Twist of Fate succeeds as both thriller and character study, it occasionally stumbles under the weight of its ambitions. Some plot developments in the final third feel slightly rushed, particularly the resolution involving Soohyun's ultimate fate. The novel's exploration of trauma and its intergenerational effects sometimes threatens to overwhelm the thriller elements, though this may be intentional on Jang's part.
The book's moral universe is deliberately murky, with nearly every character bearing responsibility for tragedy. While this complexity enriches the narrative, it may frustrate readers seeking clearer moral delineations. Jang's insistence that "no one's entirely innocent or evil" creates compelling psychological portraits but occasionally makes it difficult to emotionally invest in any particular outcome.
Literary Context and Comparisons
A Twist of Fate fits comfortably within the tradition of Korean thriller fiction while drawing clear influences from gothic literature and psychological suspense. Readers familiar with works by Gillian Flynn or Tana French will recognize the commitment to character psychology over plot mechanics. The novel also echoes themes found in films by directors like Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, particularly in its examination of class conflict and family dysfunction.
As Jang's debut novel under this pseudonym—she has previously published web novels and styling books under other names—it represents an impressive entry into literary thriller territory. The book's selection for film adaptation by Kyobo, South Korea's largest bookstore chain, suggests industry recognition of its commercial and artistic potential.
Final Verdict
A Twist of Fate announces Se-ah Jang as a significant new voice in international thriller fiction. While the novel occasionally strains under its thematic ambitions, it succeeds brilliantly as both page-turning entertainment and serious examination of contemporary social issues. The gothic atmosphere, complex characterizations, and moral ambiguity create a reading experience that challenges as much as it entertains.
This is not a book that offers easy answers or comfortable resolutions. Instead, it forces readers to confront uncomfortable questions about survival, morality, and the prices people pay for reinvention. For readers willing to embrace its darkness, A Twist of Fate offers rewards that extend far beyond its final page.
June 21, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book. It captures you from the beginning and really keeps interest to the end with various twists and turns along the way. It’s a great summer beach read. Some people had issues with the translation. Yes, there are times it’s obvious this was not written in English but that didn’t bother me at all. If anything it was interesting to read literal translations of Korean sayings. I like the short chapters and found it very well written. The end pages say the rights were already purchased as a possible movie and this would be perfect. I look forward to reading more by this author.
July 25, 2025
***I received an ARC from Net Galley in exchange for my honest review
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!
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!
July 29, 2025
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.
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.
July 31, 2025
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.
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.
August 24, 2025
⚠️Review⚠️
4🌟
📖Book: 55/78
📚 Title:
A Twist of Fate
✍️Author:
Se-ah Jang
📄Pages: 352
💫Genre:
Fiction•Psychological Thriller
••••••••••••••••••••••••
📝Synopsis 📝
Two women cross paths on a train headed for Seoul. Jae-Young is running away from an abusive boyfriend she may or may not have murdered in self defense. The other woman has a three month old infant she decides to abandon with Jae-Young with instructions to take the child to his rich family and pretend she is the mother. Only thing is the minute she walks into that house she realizes there are many eerie things going on.
💭My Thoughts 💭
This was predictable, but I still couldn’t stop reading it. The opportunity to pretend that you’re someone else and try to figure out what on earth is going on with this family had me invested. I admit I saw most of the twist coming, but I couldn’t put this book down and wanted to confirm my suspicions. I can honestly say this was such a good psychological thriller and there were more twists as the book was close to the ending.
⚠️Trigger Warnings⚠️
Cheating
Murder
Domestic violence
•••••••••••••••••••••••
Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this eCopy of this arc in exchange for an honest review.
•••••••••••••••••••••
#netgalley #thriller #thrillerbooks #bookstacommunity
#bookreview #booksbookbooks #whodunnit #atwistoffate
#bookrecommendations #bookworms #bibliophile
4🌟
📖Book: 55/78
📚 Title:
A Twist of Fate
✍️Author:
Se-ah Jang
📄Pages: 352
💫Genre:
Fiction•Psychological Thriller
••••••••••••••••••••••••
📝Synopsis 📝
Two women cross paths on a train headed for Seoul. Jae-Young is running away from an abusive boyfriend she may or may not have murdered in self defense. The other woman has a three month old infant she decides to abandon with Jae-Young with instructions to take the child to his rich family and pretend she is the mother. Only thing is the minute she walks into that house she realizes there are many eerie things going on.
💭My Thoughts 💭
This was predictable, but I still couldn’t stop reading it. The opportunity to pretend that you’re someone else and try to figure out what on earth is going on with this family had me invested. I admit I saw most of the twist coming, but I couldn’t put this book down and wanted to confirm my suspicions. I can honestly say this was such a good psychological thriller and there were more twists as the book was close to the ending.
⚠️Trigger Warnings⚠️
Cheating
Murder
Domestic violence
•••••••••••••••••••••••
Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this eCopy of this arc in exchange for an honest review.
•••••••••••••••••••••
#netgalley #thriller #thrillerbooks #bookstacommunity
#bookreview #booksbookbooks #whodunnit #atwistoffate
#bookrecommendations #bookworms #bibliophile
May 23, 2025
3.75 stars
Everyone is so impressed by Jae-young's magical boyfriend, except for her, because she knows the truth; he's an abusive nightmare. That's why it's such a thrill when she hops on a train to escape him. But like most things in Jae-young's life, apparently, this won't be just an ordinary train ride to go off the radar. It'll result in her shepherding a baby to its alleged relatives and herself into an unexpected set of new opportunities.
I love the setup of two characters crossing paths and potentially impacting each other's outcomes in shocking and irrepairable ways. That all manifests in such a fascinating manner in this book. From the train to the conclusion, readers go on an absolutely wild, chaotic ride through twists, surprises, and horrors, and there is truly no rest for the characters or readers. We definitely win out of that pairing.
While this is a little too wild at times, as most representations of this genre are, I enjoyed the pacing and the oddity of this quite a bit. I had never heard of this writer previously, and now I'll be on the lookout for Jang's work.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Everyone is so impressed by Jae-young's magical boyfriend, except for her, because she knows the truth; he's an abusive nightmare. That's why it's such a thrill when she hops on a train to escape him. But like most things in Jae-young's life, apparently, this won't be just an ordinary train ride to go off the radar. It'll result in her shepherding a baby to its alleged relatives and herself into an unexpected set of new opportunities.
I love the setup of two characters crossing paths and potentially impacting each other's outcomes in shocking and irrepairable ways. That all manifests in such a fascinating manner in this book. From the train to the conclusion, readers go on an absolutely wild, chaotic ride through twists, surprises, and horrors, and there is truly no rest for the characters or readers. We definitely win out of that pairing.
While this is a little too wild at times, as most representations of this genre are, I enjoyed the pacing and the oddity of this quite a bit. I had never heard of this writer previously, and now I'll be on the lookout for Jang's work.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
May 11, 2025
Thanks, NetGalley for the ARC to review
2.5/3 stars
I really wanted to love A Twist of Fate by Se-Ah Jang. The premise had serious Strangers on a Train vibes—strangers crossing paths, dark secrets, and moral ambiguity—but it never quite delivered the punch I was hoping for.
One of the biggest issues for me was the translation. The writing felt awkward and clunky in places, making it hard to stay engaged. There were moments where I had to reread paragraphs just to make sense of what was going on. It also didn’t help that I’m not super familiar with Korean literature or culture, so some references and emotional beats didn’t fully land for me.
That said, the core idea was intriguing, and I could see what the author was going for. With a smoother translation and a bit more context for international readers, this could have been a much stronger read. As it stands, it’s an interesting concept that just didn’t quite come together for me.
2.5/3 stars
I really wanted to love A Twist of Fate by Se-Ah Jang. The premise had serious Strangers on a Train vibes—strangers crossing paths, dark secrets, and moral ambiguity—but it never quite delivered the punch I was hoping for.
One of the biggest issues for me was the translation. The writing felt awkward and clunky in places, making it hard to stay engaged. There were moments where I had to reread paragraphs just to make sense of what was going on. It also didn’t help that I’m not super familiar with Korean literature or culture, so some references and emotional beats didn’t fully land for me.
That said, the core idea was intriguing, and I could see what the author was going for. With a smoother translation and a bit more context for international readers, this could have been a much stronger read. As it stands, it’s an interesting concept that just didn’t quite come together for me.
July 25, 2025
What do you get when you combine a soap opera plot with incredibly boring prose? Read on to find out!
Oh, who am I kidding? It’s this book. You get this book.
The Good
The premise: The blurb got my attention and my butt in the seat. It made me think I’d be getting something like Strangers on a Train with two Korean ladies, and who doesn’t want that!
The cover: It’s striking, thematically resonant, and just plain looks good.
(Parts of) the ending:
The Bad
The writing: The prose in this book is best described as greige. It’s basic to the N-th degree, bordering on See Spot Run. Normally, I’d be tempted to blame the translator. I’ve read way too many translated novels where nuance and idiom were lost and what was left on the page was dullsville. However, the problems with this novel run deeper than the sentence level, so in this case, I’m hesitant to point fingers at the translator alone.
Jae-young’s characterization: This chick mood-swung so much, I’d have a hard time describing who she is at the core. Her two defining traits throughout much of the book are self-pity and waffliness, and that’s not a good look.
And speaking of waffliness… The amount of redundancy in this book/Jae-young’s characterization nearly made me hemorrhage. ‘Okay, something here feels sketchy.’ ‘But I like being rich/being treated nicely.’ Over and over and over and over again. It feels like Jang read some writing advice about how truly rich characters must have contradictory desires within them, then ran with that advice way, way further than necessary. The first time I was presented with Jae-young’s contradictory desires/instincts, I was on board. By the twentieth time, I was growling “ugh, I read that already two pages ago!”
I’ve said this before (apologies for my own redundancy,) but I am not freaking Dory! I have the capability to form and retain short-term memory. If I read something two pages ago, I’ve got it already.
The melodrama: Oh, the melodrama. I’m not kidding when I say this was a soap. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen permutations of this plot in at least two different telenovelas my whole neighborhood used to watch when I was a kid. (And you have not truly lived until you’ve watched a telenovela with the original Spanish voice track in the background, while a single guy translates over it in absolutely monotone Russian.)
Setup for the ending:
The Ugly
This book’s treatment of mental health/mental illness is execrable. From the narrative treating Jae-young taking anti-anxiety medication early on as an addiction. To everyone just going ‘oh yeah, that guy had some trouble with depression/anxiety as a teen—no wonder he became an abuser.’ And the less I say about the portrayal of , the better.
A couple of other elements also didn’t sit well with me, in a values dissonance way.
I will give one bit of credit here: I was bracing myself for having to dress this book down for characterizing But the narrative is surprisingly even-handed about it. Honest points to Jang on this one!
Did I have a good time? No, I did not? Was a lot of potential squandered? Yes, it was. But seriously though? Someone please write me an actual Strangers on a Train type story with two Korean ladies. Bonus if it’s as homoerotic as Highsmith’s original.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions within are my own.
Oh, who am I kidding? It’s this book. You get this book.
The Good
The premise: The blurb got my attention and my butt in the seat. It made me think I’d be getting something like Strangers on a Train with two Korean ladies, and who doesn’t want that!
The cover: It’s striking, thematically resonant, and just plain looks good.
(Parts of) the ending:
The Bad
The writing: The prose in this book is best described as greige. It’s basic to the N-th degree, bordering on See Spot Run. Normally, I’d be tempted to blame the translator. I’ve read way too many translated novels where nuance and idiom were lost and what was left on the page was dullsville. However, the problems with this novel run deeper than the sentence level, so in this case, I’m hesitant to point fingers at the translator alone.
Jae-young’s characterization: This chick mood-swung so much, I’d have a hard time describing who she is at the core. Her two defining traits throughout much of the book are self-pity and waffliness, and that’s not a good look.
And speaking of waffliness… The amount of redundancy in this book/Jae-young’s characterization nearly made me hemorrhage. ‘Okay, something here feels sketchy.’ ‘But I like being rich/being treated nicely.’ Over and over and over and over again. It feels like Jang read some writing advice about how truly rich characters must have contradictory desires within them, then ran with that advice way, way further than necessary. The first time I was presented with Jae-young’s contradictory desires/instincts, I was on board. By the twentieth time, I was growling “ugh, I read that already two pages ago!”
I’ve said this before (apologies for my own redundancy,) but I am not freaking Dory! I have the capability to form and retain short-term memory. If I read something two pages ago, I’ve got it already.
The melodrama: Oh, the melodrama. I’m not kidding when I say this was a soap. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen permutations of this plot in at least two different telenovelas my whole neighborhood used to watch when I was a kid. (And you have not truly lived until you’ve watched a telenovela with the original Spanish voice track in the background, while a single guy translates over it in absolutely monotone Russian.)
Setup for the ending:
The Ugly
This book’s treatment of mental health/mental illness is execrable. From the narrative treating Jae-young taking anti-anxiety medication early on as an addiction. To everyone just going ‘oh yeah, that guy had some trouble with depression/anxiety as a teen—no wonder he became an abuser.’ And the less I say about the portrayal of , the better.
A couple of other elements also didn’t sit well with me, in a values dissonance way.
I will give one bit of credit here: I was bracing myself for having to dress this book down for characterizing But the narrative is surprisingly even-handed about it. Honest points to Jang on this one!
Did I have a good time? No, I did not? Was a lot of potential squandered? Yes, it was. But seriously though? Someone please write me an actual Strangers on a Train type story with two Korean ladies. Bonus if it’s as homoerotic as Highsmith’s original.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions within are my own.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 134 reviews