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Walking Practice
Squid Game meets The Left Hand of Darkness meets Under the Skin in this radical literary sensation from South Korea about an alien's hunt for food that transforms into an existential crisis about what it means to be human.
After crashing their spacecraft in the middle of nowhere, a shapeshifting alien find themself stranded on an unfamiliar planet and disabled by Earth's gravity. To survive, they will need to practice walking. And what better way than to hunt for food? As they discover, humans are delicious.
Intelligent, clever, and adaptable, the alien shift their gender, appearance, and conduct to suit a prey's sexual preference, then attack at the pivotal moment of their encounter. They use a variety of hunting tools, including a popular dating app, to target the juiciest prey and carry a backpack filled with torturous instruments and cleaning equipment. But the alien's existence begins to unravel one night when they fail to kill their latest meal.
Thrust into an ill-fated chase across the city, the alien is confronted with the psychological and physical tolls their experience on Earth has taken. Questioning what they must do to sustain their own survival, they begin to understand why humans also fight to live. But their hunger is insatiable, and the alien once again targets a new prey, not knowing what awaits. . . .
Dolki Min's haunting debut novel is part psychological thriller, part searing critique of the social structures that marginalize those who are different--the disabled, queer, and nonconformist. Walking Practice uncovers humanity in who we consider to be alien, and illuminates how alienation can shape the human experience.
Walking Practice features 21 black-and-white line drawings throughout.
Translated from the Korean by Victoria Caudle
After crashing their spacecraft in the middle of nowhere, a shapeshifting alien find themself stranded on an unfamiliar planet and disabled by Earth's gravity. To survive, they will need to practice walking. And what better way than to hunt for food? As they discover, humans are delicious.
Intelligent, clever, and adaptable, the alien shift their gender, appearance, and conduct to suit a prey's sexual preference, then attack at the pivotal moment of their encounter. They use a variety of hunting tools, including a popular dating app, to target the juiciest prey and carry a backpack filled with torturous instruments and cleaning equipment. But the alien's existence begins to unravel one night when they fail to kill their latest meal.
Thrust into an ill-fated chase across the city, the alien is confronted with the psychological and physical tolls their experience on Earth has taken. Questioning what they must do to sustain their own survival, they begin to understand why humans also fight to live. But their hunger is insatiable, and the alien once again targets a new prey, not knowing what awaits. . . .
Dolki Min's haunting debut novel is part psychological thriller, part searing critique of the social structures that marginalize those who are different--the disabled, queer, and nonconformist. Walking Practice uncovers humanity in who we consider to be alien, and illuminates how alienation can shape the human experience.
Walking Practice features 21 black-and-white line drawings throughout.
Translated from the Korean by Victoria Caudle
166 pages, Hardcover
First published March 14, 2022
378 people are currently reading
16268 people want to read
About the author
Dolki Min
1 book106 followersDolki Min is an artist and writer based in South Korea. Walking Practice is their first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,623 reviews
May 23, 2024
What a strange book! It’s follows a shapeshifting alien that crash landed on earth years ago as it struggles to survive in a world it’s trying its best to understand. It’s adapted to eat humans, and utilizes online dating apps to search for its next victim.
This was weird, kinda quirky, full of body horror, and was pretty gory at times. The author kinda plays with the formatting a bit as well (it’s confusing at first but then it was fun), and the narrator speaks directly to you the reader and it just made for a really unique but entertaining read.
This is also the first novel I’ve read in over two months and I’ve already started my next so hopefully we’re back?!
This was weird, kinda quirky, full of body horror, and was pretty gory at times. The author kinda plays with the formatting a bit as well (it’s confusing at first but then it was fun), and the narrator speaks directly to you the reader and it just made for a really unique but entertaining read.
This is also the first novel I’ve read in over two months and I’ve already started my next so hopefully we’re back?!
March 28, 2025
Watch me read & review this book in my latest reading vlog: https://youtu.be/ChGv_KCFXn0
Written review to come!
Written review to come!
January 21, 2023
Being a human is awkward. Dating is awkward. Pretending to be a human, whilst dating, whilst satisfying your insatiable alien urge to consume human flesh? Yep, also awkward. Walking Practice takes us inside the mind of such an alien, who cobbles themselves into some simulacrum of a human before seeking out its prey.
I spent an amusing afternoon zipping through this story, as it’s written in a breezy, conversational way. It’s titillating, graphic, and occasionally grotesque. And while there are some interesting observations about gender politics at play here, I’d imagine this novella would be more effective as a short story, as the alien’s constant inner monologuing started to lose its luster and focus after the first section of the book.
I’ll be sure to check out the print version of this book when it comes out, though, as the black and white line illustrations are really fantastic looking.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.
Follow me on Twitter @specshelf
I spent an amusing afternoon zipping through this story, as it’s written in a breezy, conversational way. It’s titillating, graphic, and occasionally grotesque. And while there are some interesting observations about gender politics at play here, I’d imagine this novella would be more effective as a short story, as the alien’s constant inner monologuing started to lose its luster and focus after the first section of the book.
I’ll be sure to check out the print version of this book when it comes out, though, as the black and white line illustrations are really fantastic looking.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.
Follow me on Twitter @specshelf
August 25, 2025
Every day I wake up and mold my body into an appropriate human shape and then I go hook up with a bunch of people and eat them after we're done and I'm also an undeniably queer alien that crash-landed on earth and that is now craving a genuine connection with another being. What a coincidence really that this book is exactly about that too.
July 12, 2023
Your spaceship crashed in the middle of nowhere and you, as the sole survivor of your species, land on this bloody planet Earth where people are divided into two categories and are expected to act according to certain labels. You need to feed, of course, at some point and as a shapeshifting hunter who attracts its delicious human prey through tinder dates, there are like a billion subtle and stupid rules you need to memorize but don’t really understand at all. Laborious… Wouldn’t you be inevitably depressed at some point? Mumu does get depressed and eventually ends up in a full blown existential crisis. And humanity will be “humanity” as usual.
Mumu was one of the best main characters I have read about lately. Their reactions, feelings, affections, fears, annoyances made perfect sense to me and I could even relate to this wary “alien” in a way.
Dolki Min does something very clever, very quirky in this book, looking at gender and human relationships through the lens of an “alien” who doesn’t fit in with society and succeeds in giving a 100% believable and personable point of view. Loved this read!
I want to add that I listened to this as an audiobook and I need to praise narrator Nicki Endres emphatically! The ups and downs of their voice, their fun and unexpected stresses and intonations do add a different level of enjoyment to this story, which is great to begin with and becomes excellent thanks to Endres’ performance.
Mumu was one of the best main characters I have read about lately. Their reactions, feelings, affections, fears, annoyances made perfect sense to me and I could even relate to this wary “alien” in a way.
Dolki Min does something very clever, very quirky in this book, looking at gender and human relationships through the lens of an “alien” who doesn’t fit in with society and succeeds in giving a 100% believable and personable point of view. Loved this read!
I want to add that I listened to this as an audiobook and I need to praise narrator Nicki Endres emphatically! The ups and downs of their voice, their fun and unexpected stresses and intonations do add a different level of enjoyment to this story, which is great to begin with and becomes excellent thanks to Endres’ performance.
November 10, 2023
I have never questioned my gender. I have never considered myself anything other than my sex (as it appears on my birth certificate), which is male.
That said, I find it sad and a little infuriating when I hear someone complain that people who are gender-fluid are, in some way, destroying the sanctity of (what? Sexuality? Gender? Culturally-defined ideas of what it means to be male and female?). It’s the same bullshit argument that homophobes had when same-sex marriage was fully accepted by the Supreme Court. Critics whined that it would “destroy” the sanctity of marriage. My wife and I are about to celebrate our 14th anniversary, and, so far, our marriage hasn’t been destroyed by same-sex couples.
Homophobia and transphobia are, at their most basic level, founded on nothing but ignorance. Most of the time, I’d like to believe, it’s the kind of ignorance that can be corrected through education. Unfortunately, in some cases, it’s a willful ignorance: the kind where the person who is ignorant refuses to accept any other viewpoint other than their own (wrong and stupid) viewpoint.
Much of it has to do with a misunderstanding or a lack of knowledge on gender-fluidity and transgenderism. Here’s a pretty good article that sums it up nicely: (https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/g...)
And while gender-fluidity doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with sexual preference, the two ideas often get lumped together. While I’m an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, I have not lived a queer life. I can only empathize with those who have experienced ostracism, alienation, and hatred via cultural homophobia.
South Korean author Dolki Min’s novel “Walking Practice” is, ostensibly, a horror novel about a crash-landed extraterrestrial who discovers a taste for both human sex and eating humans. (Turns out we’re pretty yummy.)
In actuality, the book is a thinly-veiled examination of life as someone who is gender-fluid and bisexual. Even today, in 2023, these people can still feel like aliens in their community. Even today, some young people living in ultra-conservative family and community environments, can still feel like a weird creature in human form, pretending to act “normal” among friends and family.
On the surface level, Min’s book can be enjoyed as an ultra-violent, extremely gory stranger-in-a-strange-land alien horror story. It’s humorous at times, extremely dark at times, and it’s gruesome and bloody in some scenes.
On a deeper level, Min is trying to illustrate what it feels like to be gay or gender-fluid in a world that still misunderstands and even negates the lives of gay and gender-fluid people.
While extremely different in tone and subject matter, Min’s novel reminded me of the classic novel of post-war Japan “No Longer Human” by Japanese author Osamu Dazai. Both novels examine—in very different ways—-a deep sense of depression and isolation.
Strangely enough, neither novel comes across as necessarily depressing, despite their depressive protagonists. Min’s novel is actually, at times, almost gleeful, especially during its outrageous sex scenes, which go hand-in-hand with its ultra-gory scenes of extraterrestrial-monster-eating-humans.
Min, also a graphic artist, includes numerous beautiful and unsettling drawings throughout the book.
This book was originally written in Korean and translated by Victoria Caudle.
That said, I find it sad and a little infuriating when I hear someone complain that people who are gender-fluid are, in some way, destroying the sanctity of (what? Sexuality? Gender? Culturally-defined ideas of what it means to be male and female?). It’s the same bullshit argument that homophobes had when same-sex marriage was fully accepted by the Supreme Court. Critics whined that it would “destroy” the sanctity of marriage. My wife and I are about to celebrate our 14th anniversary, and, so far, our marriage hasn’t been destroyed by same-sex couples.
Homophobia and transphobia are, at their most basic level, founded on nothing but ignorance. Most of the time, I’d like to believe, it’s the kind of ignorance that can be corrected through education. Unfortunately, in some cases, it’s a willful ignorance: the kind where the person who is ignorant refuses to accept any other viewpoint other than their own (wrong and stupid) viewpoint.
Much of it has to do with a misunderstanding or a lack of knowledge on gender-fluidity and transgenderism. Here’s a pretty good article that sums it up nicely: (https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/g...)
And while gender-fluidity doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with sexual preference, the two ideas often get lumped together. While I’m an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, I have not lived a queer life. I can only empathize with those who have experienced ostracism, alienation, and hatred via cultural homophobia.
South Korean author Dolki Min’s novel “Walking Practice” is, ostensibly, a horror novel about a crash-landed extraterrestrial who discovers a taste for both human sex and eating humans. (Turns out we’re pretty yummy.)
In actuality, the book is a thinly-veiled examination of life as someone who is gender-fluid and bisexual. Even today, in 2023, these people can still feel like aliens in their community. Even today, some young people living in ultra-conservative family and community environments, can still feel like a weird creature in human form, pretending to act “normal” among friends and family.
On the surface level, Min’s book can be enjoyed as an ultra-violent, extremely gory stranger-in-a-strange-land alien horror story. It’s humorous at times, extremely dark at times, and it’s gruesome and bloody in some scenes.
On a deeper level, Min is trying to illustrate what it feels like to be gay or gender-fluid in a world that still misunderstands and even negates the lives of gay and gender-fluid people.
While extremely different in tone and subject matter, Min’s novel reminded me of the classic novel of post-war Japan “No Longer Human” by Japanese author Osamu Dazai. Both novels examine—in very different ways—-a deep sense of depression and isolation.
Strangely enough, neither novel comes across as necessarily depressing, despite their depressive protagonists. Min’s novel is actually, at times, almost gleeful, especially during its outrageous sex scenes, which go hand-in-hand with its ultra-gory scenes of extraterrestrial-monster-eating-humans.
Min, also a graphic artist, includes numerous beautiful and unsettling drawings throughout the book.
This book was originally written in Korean and translated by Victoria Caudle.
September 14, 2022
Walking Practice is the debut novel of nonbinary artist, model and writer Dolki Min. Originally self-published, it quickly developed a cult following in South Korea. It’s a work of speculative horror centred on an alien lifeform stranded in South Korea. Living alone in their spacecraft in the depths of a forest, the alien only ventures out for food. But tracking down suitable meat is a dangerous, exhausting activity, when all they can eat is human flesh. Told in the first-person, in a direct, conversational style, the story reads like a confession of sorts. The alien paints a graphic picture of their life as a predator. Locating suitable prey through dating apps, they’ve learnt how to take on humanoid form, sometimes a young woman, sometimes a man. But their dating always ends in almost-ritualistic, sometimes frenzied consumption.
Min uses the alien’s experiences to explore issues around queer identity and alienation, as well as the relentless pressure to conform to "ideal" gender types that pervades Korean culture. At its strongest, the result’s a compelling mix of poignant and funny, as the alien veers between ferocity and self-deprecation in their account of their attempts to quell a seemingly-unquenchable desire, a project that relies on a carefully-choreographed strategy of isolating and dehumanising their numerous sexual partners. However, there’s a tendency to rely too much on shock value or provoking disgust at various points, rather than probing the territory with any real depth. Min’s book’s been compared to work like Faber’s Under the Skin but it’s not as self-consciously literary, at times it has a pulp sf feel but, and this is a definite point in its favour, it’s far less conventional in terms of plot progression. Min’s approach also reminded me of aspects of Bora Chung’s writing, as well as Sayaka Murata’s more fantastical stories. Min accompanies their text with a series of evocative illustrations of their alien narrator. Translated here by Victoria Caudle, one of a growing number of translators with a focus on queer fiction from Korea - Caudle's written a number of articles on translating queer Korean fiction that are worth tracking down.
Thanks to Edelweiss and publisher HarperVia for an ARC
Rating: 2.5
Min uses the alien’s experiences to explore issues around queer identity and alienation, as well as the relentless pressure to conform to "ideal" gender types that pervades Korean culture. At its strongest, the result’s a compelling mix of poignant and funny, as the alien veers between ferocity and self-deprecation in their account of their attempts to quell a seemingly-unquenchable desire, a project that relies on a carefully-choreographed strategy of isolating and dehumanising their numerous sexual partners. However, there’s a tendency to rely too much on shock value or provoking disgust at various points, rather than probing the territory with any real depth. Min’s book’s been compared to work like Faber’s Under the Skin but it’s not as self-consciously literary, at times it has a pulp sf feel but, and this is a definite point in its favour, it’s far less conventional in terms of plot progression. Min’s approach also reminded me of aspects of Bora Chung’s writing, as well as Sayaka Murata’s more fantastical stories. Min accompanies their text with a series of evocative illustrations of their alien narrator. Translated here by Victoria Caudle, one of a growing number of translators with a focus on queer fiction from Korea - Caudle's written a number of articles on translating queer Korean fiction that are worth tracking down.
Thanks to Edelweiss and publisher HarperVia for an ARC
Rating: 2.5
July 11, 2025
What a ride! Buddy read this with my bestie Kayla and i can’t say I’ve read anything like this. This is a book with a lot to say and it seeks to make you uncomfortable from start to finish. Highly recommend
March 18, 2023
The experience of listening to this was definitely unique and weird and sometimes absurd. I get why this has such mixed reviews but I loved it. The way the alien speaks to you about their issues of gravity and being constantly on the hunt for new people to have sex with / kill and eat was weirdly addicting. As well as having some questionable quality's they where surprisingly human in many ways and I was hooked. But I feel if this book had some more meaning and things to take out from it, it went straight over my head.
Read
July 15, 2025A deeply odd book about an alien shapeshifter stranded on earth and surviving by eating people. It goes about this by setting up sexual encounters and then eating its partners post coitally.
Obviously it's all a whacking great metaphor, about how disability and gender non-conformity and queerness and female agency, especially sexual, are treated by society (because those are things we find monstrous). I'm not entirely sure about the metaphorical effect of this given said monster is a manipulative cannibal murderer, or the way it wishes only to be loved and then says horrible things to its lovers before murdering them. But what do I know, I am not a literary novelist.
Mph. It was weirdly fascinating in the first part but there wasn't really a plot per se, just a string of scenes of the alien setting up encounters and struggling to get to them. Enjoyed the alien's difficulty in controlling its body and tendency to melt into a pile of blob, or have eyeballs migrate around at moments of panic.
Obviously it's all a whacking great metaphor, about how disability and gender non-conformity and queerness and female agency, especially sexual, are treated by society (because those are things we find monstrous). I'm not entirely sure about the metaphorical effect of this given said monster is a manipulative cannibal murderer, or the way it wishes only to be loved and then says horrible things to its lovers before murdering them. But what do I know, I am not a literary novelist.
Mph. It was weirdly fascinating in the first part but there wasn't really a plot per se, just a string of scenes of the alien setting up encounters and struggling to get to them. Enjoyed the alien's difficulty in controlling its body and tendency to melt into a pile of blob, or have eyeballs migrate around at moments of panic.
April 30, 2025
While I understand where the decision to use spacing (words with extra spaces in them and sentences without spaces) as a storytelling tool came from, I didn't enjoy it. This might be because I read the book on my phone (as I read most books) which made it extra intrusive, physical format readers' mileage with that aspect of the book will likely vary greatly.
I liked the chaotic nature of this book and the changing nature of Mumu's feelings. Mumu might be an alien, but their feelings are definitely very human in a way. It was both a fun and a sad read. I also liked the way Mumu hated stairs and the people on the subway, very relatable.
I liked the chaotic nature of this book and the changing nature of Mumu's feelings. Mumu might be an alien, but their feelings are definitely very human in a way. It was both a fun and a sad read. I also liked the way Mumu hated stairs and the people on the subway, very relatable.
October 15, 2023
Błyskotliwa, intrygująca, ale także absurdalna i wychodząca poza wszelkie granice.
October 11, 2025
disgusting
April 5, 2023
This book's grotesque nature and its message are appealing to me, but after a while, it literally began dragging and grew boring. The writing style was good, and some of the sentences could definitely be quoted. But aside from that, the outcome wasn't all that satisfying.
April 22, 2025
Przedziwne, brutalne, ale niesamowicie wciągające. Ciężko napisać o niej coś więcej bez zdradzania fabuły, ale polecam czytać bez zapoznawania się z opisem, bo wtedy frajda jest największa.
January 3, 2024
Firstly, I read this via the audiobook on Scribd and I kid you not, this is amongst the top audiobooks I've read this year - and it really made the story felt alive, and I loved every single second that I listened to it. So please, I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE TO EVERYONE TO LISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOK CAUSE BLOODY HELL ITS AMAZING
Sorry for the caps - the emphasization showed how much I loved my experience reading this book. It got me screaming out loud, laughing my heart out and made me gasped so many times. The book somewhat felt like the telling of a tale from a close friend - except that its in the form of a killing alien who was thrown on Earth and somewhat sharing "the deeds" that they had done with someone else. Its both painful to hear but also, VERY VERY ENTERTAINING
Before I go on and on about how amazing the audiobook is - here's some of my thoughts for the book:-
1) Its NOT a book for everyone. I feel that you'll either love or hate the book with no in between of the feelings for each of them. One of the main themes is on sexuality and the state of loneliness (so to readers under 18, please read this with caution ). I felt quite taken with how the author brought forward the topics through the lenses of a monster who needed the warmth that is given from sexual intercourse before killing its prey. It seemed fitting that IT (I don't want to say its name to let yall know yourself) can actually just go into their houses and not do the deed. The need for warmth in how it equates to the state of loneliness is what I found interesting with this book and caught me wanting to know more of its character. Is it weird that I felt a sense of friendship with the alien? Weird - but it also shows the strength in the author's writing in being able to bring out so much emotions all in one single narrator. Its both interesting and intriguing and its one of the winning points of the book.
2) Whilst the story looks to be straightforward, it holds so much more message hidden, and its only available to see to those who wishes to acknowledge it. The author had used a lot of metaphors in his writing and I will have to thank the translator for being able to catch the nuance of the author as well. The narration in which the alien is somewhat talking us to us - the readers - made this a very immersive read. It will catch you and hold you captive until you see through it to the very end , and I'm glad that I stumbled upon this book through Scribd (not sponsored , just loving this app)
3) The concept of 'home' is one of the main themes of the book as well. I felt sorry for the alien as it came to Earth not on its own accord, and using every means for its survival. To the alien, Earth is not home, but there is no place for it to come back home too. It somehow reflected the society that we live in and how the concept of home is often foreign to others more than we care to know. Its both heartbreaking and also showed how loneliness can make humans do things out of their norm.
Now let me convince you to read WITH the audiobook because it literally altered my brain chemistry :')
I KID YOU NOT, I had actually check with both the ebook and audiobook whilst reading the book and I have to say, the audiobook really upped my ratings for this book. It was such an IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE . The narrator had done such a good job in portraying the different character , and it felt like I could actually SEE EACH AND EVERY EXPRESSION . Kudos to the narrator for really embodying the character. I just love it.
A grotesque and yet, such a dark-witty tale of an alien who needed more than just sexual gratification and satisfying its hunger. Its of how every being who knew the feelings of love and to be loved and the state of loneliness in which that you will grasp at anything to keep yourself occupied of the void inside. Its a state where its so engraved in today's society that there is no means to look to one night stands just to feel something to fill up the hollowness. Its a story of the voice who is screaming to be acknowledged by the world, a feeling that is hollow and the fear of being outed to the world by the systemic hardships of the social system.
4.25 for the story but upped to 4.75 because of the audiobook experience
Another story that changed my brain trajectory.
Sorry for the caps - the emphasization showed how much I loved my experience reading this book. It got me screaming out loud, laughing my heart out and made me gasped so many times. The book somewhat felt like the telling of a tale from a close friend - except that its in the form of a killing alien who was thrown on Earth and somewhat sharing "the deeds" that they had done with someone else. Its both painful to hear but also, VERY VERY ENTERTAINING
"The desire to become a member of society always overpowers the shame of being embraced by their system"
Before I go on and on about how amazing the audiobook is - here's some of my thoughts for the book:-
1) Its NOT a book for everyone. I feel that you'll either love or hate the book with no in between of the feelings for each of them. One of the main themes is on sexuality and the state of loneliness (so to readers under 18, please read this with caution ). I felt quite taken with how the author brought forward the topics through the lenses of a monster who needed the warmth that is given from sexual intercourse before killing its prey. It seemed fitting that IT (I don't want to say its name to let yall know yourself) can actually just go into their houses and not do the deed. The need for warmth in how it equates to the state of loneliness is what I found interesting with this book and caught me wanting to know more of its character. Is it weird that I felt a sense of friendship with the alien? Weird - but it also shows the strength in the author's writing in being able to bring out so much emotions all in one single narrator. Its both interesting and intriguing and its one of the winning points of the book.
2) Whilst the story looks to be straightforward, it holds so much more message hidden, and its only available to see to those who wishes to acknowledge it. The author had used a lot of metaphors in his writing and I will have to thank the translator for being able to catch the nuance of the author as well. The narration in which the alien is somewhat talking us to us - the readers - made this a very immersive read. It will catch you and hold you captive until you see through it to the very end , and I'm glad that I stumbled upon this book through Scribd (not sponsored , just loving this app)
3) The concept of 'home' is one of the main themes of the book as well. I felt sorry for the alien as it came to Earth not on its own accord, and using every means for its survival. To the alien, Earth is not home, but there is no place for it to come back home too. It somehow reflected the society that we live in and how the concept of home is often foreign to others more than we care to know. Its both heartbreaking and also showed how loneliness can make humans do things out of their norm.
Now let me convince you to read WITH the audiobook because it literally altered my brain chemistry :')
I KID YOU NOT, I had actually check with both the ebook and audiobook whilst reading the book and I have to say, the audiobook really upped my ratings for this book. It was such an IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE . The narrator had done such a good job in portraying the different character , and it felt like I could actually SEE EACH AND EVERY EXPRESSION . Kudos to the narrator for really embodying the character. I just love it.
A grotesque and yet, such a dark-witty tale of an alien who needed more than just sexual gratification and satisfying its hunger. Its of how every being who knew the feelings of love and to be loved and the state of loneliness in which that you will grasp at anything to keep yourself occupied of the void inside. Its a state where its so engraved in today's society that there is no means to look to one night stands just to feel something to fill up the hollowness. Its a story of the voice who is screaming to be acknowledged by the world, a feeling that is hollow and the fear of being outed to the world by the systemic hardships of the social system.
4.25 for the story but upped to 4.75 because of the audiobook experience
Another story that changed my brain trajectory.
October 21, 2022
This is a young book. It reads almost like fan fiction. It carries one along in a slap-dash way and it feels like a draft and by saying this I mean no disrespect. I liked its ease. Reading it was a joyful experience. The story felt free of guile and free of authorial self-regard. It's as if the author were saying to me: here is my story, the way I wanted to tell it--take it or leave it. The accompanying pictures delighted me. I had no idea what to make of them and their lack of coherent connection to the words of the story added to the whimsy, the joy of the read for me. I enjoyed Walking Practice on a level other than literary.
September 6, 2023
A quirky, impactful account of survival and loneliness from the perspective of a human eating alien stranded on Earth. Funny and endearing despite its use of horror and grit, Walking Practice is a brilliant nod to the harshness of society and its treatment of othered individuals. It is a testament to the ways in which we hide ourselves in order to feel more accepted, the desire we have to be loved for our whole selves, the conflict we face of being truly authentic versus staying quiet, safer from the prying eyes and actions of those who enforce conformity. Playful but ultimately heartbreaking, this novella is artistic and ambitious, and is so timely to read.
March 22, 2023
I think I liked what Walking Practice was attempting to accomplish more than the end result. A biting look at gender expectations, conformity, and appetite through the eyes of an alien. It sounds so good in concept, and I appreciated much of the commentary that it made. The narrative structure was unique in the way it spaced things out, and the drawings throughout the book were super cool. However, I was uncomfortable with the way it talked about bodies at times, and I felt like the repetitive nature of the plot had me bored by the end. When your last act throws some big stuff at the reader and I am too over the story to care, that is a problem. I did not particularly like the way the alien was telling the story directly to the reader either. I just came away feeling disappointed.
May 20, 2023
When I was first learning to walk like a human, I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out the difference between men and women.
...
How was it even possible to divide something with so many visible variants into just two groups. But humans keep bringing up their criteria and judge me by it. In the subway, in the street, in restaurants, in shopping malls, in parks . . . their expressions and words that question my humanity irrespective of where I am made me tear myself apart and rebuild myself piece by piece.
Walking Practice is Victoria Caudle's translation of 보행 연습 by 민돌기 (Romanized as Dolki Min), a novel which was originally self-published.
The narrator is an alien, stranded on earth after their planet exploded. They survive by transforming themselves into a humanoid form (hence the need to practice walking) and hunting their prey by hooking up with sexual partners they contact online, then biting off their head at the moment of maximum vulnerability, after orgasm, and butchering their bodies for meat.
These two songs- my link text and my link text - from the playlist assembled by the translator sum up the mood of the book well.
For the Anglo-reader (or film watcher) there are similarities with Michael Faber's Under the Skin, although Walking Practice is a profoundly queer novel, with our narrator pondering on the human obsession with conforming with convention and, in particular, the oddly binary notion of gender;
당신은 성별 맞추기 게임의 숙련자입니다. 뛰어난 능력을 부정할 생각은 없습니다. 아주 어릴 때부터 옷으로 몸을 가린사람들의 가려지지 않은 나머지 특성으로, 그들의 성기 모양과 그에 대응하는 성별을 추측하며 살았을 테니까요. 항상 정답을 맞혔다고 확신하면서. 하지만 당신이 저지른, 앞으로도 저지를 실수를 인정하지 않는 게 문제입니다. 이 게임을 시작한 것 자체가 실수임을 아무도 모릅니다.”
You, dear reader, are an old hand at the gender-matching game. No doubt about it! From a tender age you have guessed the gender of countless humans whose bodies are covered by clothes, coming to conclusions based on the gender you believe corresponds to the shape of genitals you believe match up with the remaining exposed parts of their bodies, and you have lived your lives in certainty, believing the result of your deductions to be true. The problem is, however, that you do not acknowledge the mistakes you have made and will continue to make. No one knows that the game itself is a mistake.
그 기준이라는 게 무엇인지 알아내느라 10년에 가까운 시간을 투자했어요. 내 결론은 기준 따위 없다,였습니다. 그런데마치 기준이 있는 것처럼 행동하는 법을 배웠습니다. 몸(짓)의 주류적 경향을 읽을 줄 알게 되었달까요. 경계가 흐릿하고유동적인 두 경향성. 설명할 수 없지만 설명할 수 있다고 착각하는 법을 습득했습니다. 규범은 유리 같은 것입니다. 사람들이 규범을 떠받들어 떨어뜨리지 않는 이상, 그것은 깨지지 않고 굳건히 유지됩니다.
I've invested close to ten years of my time figuring out what exactly their criteria are. My conclusion is that there are no such criteria. So, I just learned how to act as if there were. How shall I put it? I've figured out how to read mainstream body trends. Two trends with blurred and fluid boundaries. I've picked up how to pretend they can be explained when they are inexplicable. Criteria are like glass. As long as they are respected and held without dropping them, they'll stay solid and won't break .
It's a (despite the rather gruesome subject matter) oddly fun read, not least as our alien narrator is prone to Bernhardian rants on the failings of the human specimens they encounter. Although it's a relatively simple story (which incidentally the book's blurb does not describe well) and the queer analogies are not particular subtle.
Translation challenges
In parts of the novel the narrator's human form starts to literally come apart and, as a marker of this in the text, their language also starts to do so.
So we get a passage like this which is nonsense in Korean as written:
나 는항 상이렇 게 친 절한설명 이 필 요한 존 재입니 다. 설 명하지 않으 면아 무도날 모릅 니 다. 설 명은 언제 나나 같은존재 만 합 니다. 요 구하는 것은당 신 ,요 구받는 것 은나. 당 신은생 명체 의기 본값 입니 다.당신 이우 주의중 심이라서아아 아아아 아 주좋 겠습 니다.
That first sentence
나 는항 상이렇 게 친 절한설명 이 필 요한 존 재입니 다.
Would correctly read
나는 항상 이렇게 친절한 설명이 필요한 존재입니다.
(as an aside Google translate fails completely with the fragmented version - ChatGPT works out what is happening and corrects it)
In English the paragraph has been translated (before any fragmentation) as:
I am a being that always requires friendly explanation. If I do not explain, no one understands me. Only beings like myself must provide explanation. The demanding you; the demanded of me. You are the default life-form. You are the centre of the universe. It must be so nice.
The presence in Korean grammar of character blocks (나, 는, 항 etc) but crucially also postpositional markers, 조사 (such as 는, 게, 이) makes this relatively easy for even a Korean novice to decode, but the translator found the same effect didn't work so fluidly in English.
Victoria Caudle's ingenious solution in English is to play with typography, specifically the spacing (as well as elongating the 'o's in the final sentences to match the repeated "아" in Korean):
Overall - 3.5 stars
...
How was it even possible to divide something with so many visible variants into just two groups. But humans keep bringing up their criteria and judge me by it. In the subway, in the street, in restaurants, in shopping malls, in parks . . . their expressions and words that question my humanity irrespective of where I am made me tear myself apart and rebuild myself piece by piece.
Walking Practice is Victoria Caudle's translation of 보행 연습 by 민돌기 (Romanized as Dolki Min), a novel which was originally self-published.
The narrator is an alien, stranded on earth after their planet exploded. They survive by transforming themselves into a humanoid form (hence the need to practice walking) and hunting their prey by hooking up with sexual partners they contact online, then biting off their head at the moment of maximum vulnerability, after orgasm, and butchering their bodies for meat.
These two songs- my link text and my link text - from the playlist assembled by the translator sum up the mood of the book well.
For the Anglo-reader (or film watcher) there are similarities with Michael Faber's Under the Skin, although Walking Practice is a profoundly queer novel, with our narrator pondering on the human obsession with conforming with convention and, in particular, the oddly binary notion of gender;
당신은 성별 맞추기 게임의 숙련자입니다. 뛰어난 능력을 부정할 생각은 없습니다. 아주 어릴 때부터 옷으로 몸을 가린사람들의 가려지지 않은 나머지 특성으로, 그들의 성기 모양과 그에 대응하는 성별을 추측하며 살았을 테니까요. 항상 정답을 맞혔다고 확신하면서. 하지만 당신이 저지른, 앞으로도 저지를 실수를 인정하지 않는 게 문제입니다. 이 게임을 시작한 것 자체가 실수임을 아무도 모릅니다.”
You, dear reader, are an old hand at the gender-matching game. No doubt about it! From a tender age you have guessed the gender of countless humans whose bodies are covered by clothes, coming to conclusions based on the gender you believe corresponds to the shape of genitals you believe match up with the remaining exposed parts of their bodies, and you have lived your lives in certainty, believing the result of your deductions to be true. The problem is, however, that you do not acknowledge the mistakes you have made and will continue to make. No one knows that the game itself is a mistake.
그 기준이라는 게 무엇인지 알아내느라 10년에 가까운 시간을 투자했어요. 내 결론은 기준 따위 없다,였습니다. 그런데마치 기준이 있는 것처럼 행동하는 법을 배웠습니다. 몸(짓)의 주류적 경향을 읽을 줄 알게 되었달까요. 경계가 흐릿하고유동적인 두 경향성. 설명할 수 없지만 설명할 수 있다고 착각하는 법을 습득했습니다. 규범은 유리 같은 것입니다. 사람들이 규범을 떠받들어 떨어뜨리지 않는 이상, 그것은 깨지지 않고 굳건히 유지됩니다.
I've invested close to ten years of my time figuring out what exactly their criteria are. My conclusion is that there are no such criteria. So, I just learned how to act as if there were. How shall I put it? I've figured out how to read mainstream body trends. Two trends with blurred and fluid boundaries. I've picked up how to pretend they can be explained when they are inexplicable. Criteria are like glass. As long as they are respected and held without dropping them, they'll stay solid and won't break .
It's a (despite the rather gruesome subject matter) oddly fun read, not least as our alien narrator is prone to Bernhardian rants on the failings of the human specimens they encounter. Although it's a relatively simple story (which incidentally the book's blurb does not describe well) and the queer analogies are not particular subtle.
Translation challenges
In parts of the novel the narrator's human form starts to literally come apart and, as a marker of this in the text, their language also starts to do so.
So we get a passage like this which is nonsense in Korean as written:
나 는항 상이렇 게 친 절한설명 이 필 요한 존 재입니 다. 설 명하지 않으 면아 무도날 모릅 니 다. 설 명은 언제 나나 같은존재 만 합 니다. 요 구하는 것은당 신 ,요 구받는 것 은나. 당 신은생 명체 의기 본값 입니 다.당신 이우 주의중 심이라서아아 아아아 아 주좋 겠습 니다.
That first sentence
나 는항 상이렇 게 친 절한설명 이 필 요한 존 재입니 다.
Would correctly read
나는 항상 이렇게 친절한 설명이 필요한 존재입니다.
(as an aside Google translate fails completely with the fragmented version - ChatGPT works out what is happening and corrects it)
In English the paragraph has been translated (before any fragmentation) as:
I am a being that always requires friendly explanation. If I do not explain, no one understands me. Only beings like myself must provide explanation. The demanding you; the demanded of me. You are the default life-form. You are the centre of the universe. It must be so nice.
The presence in Korean grammar of character blocks (나, 는, 항 etc) but crucially also postpositional markers, 조사 (such as 는, 게, 이) makes this relatively easy for even a Korean novice to decode, but the translator found the same effect didn't work so fluidly in English.
Victoria Caudle's ingenious solution in English is to play with typography, specifically the spacing (as well as elongating the 'o's in the final sentences to match the repeated "아" in Korean):
Overall - 3.5 stars
January 31, 2025
Jak na tak krótką pozycję jest dość repetytywna, w pewnym momencie miałam wrażenie, że czytam te same zdania.
Jakby wyjąć fragmenty o ruchaniu to by zostało pewnie ze trzy strony, a ja nie lubię narracji o ruchaniu, zwłaszcza tak wulgarnych.
Jakby wyjąć fragmenty o ruchaniu to by zostało pewnie ze trzy strony, a ja nie lubię narracji o ruchaniu, zwłaszcza tak wulgarnych.
October 13, 2023
Featuring the most relatable serial killer alien shapeshifter I've ever encountered. The translation from Korean into English was amazing, as was the translator's afterward. Recommended for fans of weird and bizarre fiction.
August 25, 2025
Squid Game meets The Left Hand of Darkness meets Under the Skin
Squid Game?? I am BEGGING people to expand their minds and find other South Korean media to compare books to. The only similarity this book has to Squid Game is that they're both South Korean. That's it.
This was a weird fucking book, but it used its weirdness to great effect. We follow the life of a shapeshifting alien stranded on Earth, who must shift into a man or woman to meet up with humans for sex before eating them. The alien reflects on gender roles and expectations, on being separate from humans because it can't always meet those gender roles (and also, it's an alien), and on social and cultural expectations people place on each other. All of this, of course, from a South Korean lens - but you can extrapolate it to any culture.
The book also uses the physical form of the text, sometimes using extra spacing in words for emphasis and disorientation. I liked how the author played with the text in that way.
Overall this wasn't quite as satisfying a read for me, but it did what it set out to do really well. If you like weird literary fiction and want to branch into translated fiction, this is a pretty good book to check out.
Content warnings for gore and explicit sexual activity.
🦋 Bluesky 🎥 YouTube 📷 Instagram 🔗 Linktree
Squid Game?? I am BEGGING people to expand their minds and find other South Korean media to compare books to. The only similarity this book has to Squid Game is that they're both South Korean. That's it.
This was a weird fucking book, but it used its weirdness to great effect. We follow the life of a shapeshifting alien stranded on Earth, who must shift into a man or woman to meet up with humans for sex before eating them. The alien reflects on gender roles and expectations, on being separate from humans because it can't always meet those gender roles (and also, it's an alien), and on social and cultural expectations people place on each other. All of this, of course, from a South Korean lens - but you can extrapolate it to any culture.
The book also uses the physical form of the text, sometimes using extra spacing in words for emphasis and disorientation. I liked how the author played with the text in that way.
Overall this wasn't quite as satisfying a read for me, but it did what it set out to do really well. If you like weird literary fiction and want to branch into translated fiction, this is a pretty good book to check out.
Content warnings for gore and explicit sexual activity.
🦋 Bluesky 🎥 YouTube 📷 Instagram 🔗 Linktree
March 17, 2025
prob in my top 3 weirdest books ive ever read & it was a 3 star til the ending. did not see that coming! I also of course loved the commentary on gender and society's assumptions based on how humans present themselves.
May 10, 2024
The fluid yet constrictive nature of gender as a construct, womanhood, pretty privilege, and the never-ending complexities surrounding the unspoken rules of social interaction all wrapped up in a charming, murderous alien creature eating people to survive. This is a story of alienation in the most literal and figurative way.
Our main character is an alien stuck here on earth after crash-landing 15 years ago. We watch it swap through various bodies to conform to specific gender identities in order to seduce, sleep with, and eat a long list of unsuspecting horny humans. Our narrator breaks the fourth wall to speak to us often through check-ins, rants, explanations, and random ramblings about it’s day.
And the writing of this is truly one of a kind. The voice of the narrator is succinct and to the point with a stream-of-consciousness style of narration filled with short sentences and lots of periods. However, when the narrator speaks to us while it is in its alien form and no longer wearing a human identity, the words become so much more fluid. It’s an undeniably experimental approach to storytelling and I adored every second of it.
This lost alien is funny, gruesome, violent, tragic, and endlessly observant of the world around them (it ?) and I’ve grown immensely attached to this insatiable little serial killer of sorts.
The core themes surrounding gender and sexual expression are endlessly fascinating and I will truly never be able to find anything like this again.
CW: murder, death, violence, blood, gore, explicit sexual content, body horror, mutilation, brief moment of sexual harassment + assault, depression
Our main character is an alien stuck here on earth after crash-landing 15 years ago. We watch it swap through various bodies to conform to specific gender identities in order to seduce, sleep with, and eat a long list of unsuspecting horny humans. Our narrator breaks the fourth wall to speak to us often through check-ins, rants, explanations, and random ramblings about it’s day.
And the writing of this is truly one of a kind. The voice of the narrator is succinct and to the point with a stream-of-consciousness style of narration filled with short sentences and lots of periods. However, when the narrator speaks to us while it is in its alien form and no longer wearing a human identity, the words become so much more fluid. It’s an undeniably experimental approach to storytelling and I adored every second of it.
This lost alien is funny, gruesome, violent, tragic, and endlessly observant of the world around them (it ?) and I’ve grown immensely attached to this insatiable little serial killer of sorts.
The core themes surrounding gender and sexual expression are endlessly fascinating and I will truly never be able to find anything like this again.
CW: murder, death, violence, blood, gore, explicit sexual content, body horror, mutilation, brief moment of sexual harassment + assault, depression
December 4, 2022
I enjoyed the first third of this book enough to finish the whole thing. It is playful, erotic, poignant, and gruesome all at once. It is certainly unlike any other book I can think of, which makes it worthwhile for me. It could use a stronger plot, especially in the last half where we get the idea of what's happening but need some momentum. The illustrations were a lot of fun.
June 25, 2023
This was fantastic! Gory, graphic, sexual, and darkly humorous! I promise you this is the queer sci-fi horror comedy you need in your life!
Read
November 1, 2025ha ha ha ha ha what the fuck
no idea what to rate this, it was kind of genius? will come back later
no idea what to rate this, it was kind of genius? will come back later
December 1, 2023
All I could hear when reading this is the following line of dialogue played over a freeze frame:
*record scratch* yep, that’s me. I bet you’re wondering how I got here? Weeeeell…it’s a long story.
This is not a gory alien story. This is a gross description of some really nastily described sexual encounters that I could not get through. It’s gross and vulgar for the sake of being gross and vulgar. The inner dialogue of the alien was so annoying. And in the place of plot it’s just the same cycle of eating the one night stand and having existential thoughts afterwards.
*record scratch* yep, that’s me. I bet you’re wondering how I got here? Weeeeell…it’s a long story.
This is not a gory alien story. This is a gross description of some really nastily described sexual encounters that I could not get through. It’s gross and vulgar for the sake of being gross and vulgar. The inner dialogue of the alien was so annoying. And in the place of plot it’s just the same cycle of eating the one night stand and having existential thoughts afterwards.
July 7, 2025
Ehhh the inner dialogue made me cringe.
“Hey you reader, I bet you didn’t expect me to do this random sexual thing haha” - literally how every page felt.
And here I was thinking that the concept of an awkward shape shifting alien taking a stab at “dating” humans would be more fascinating.
“Hey you reader, I bet you didn’t expect me to do this random sexual thing haha” - literally how every page felt.
And here I was thinking that the concept of an awkward shape shifting alien taking a stab at “dating” humans would be more fascinating.
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