From the cover and blurb, I was originally expecting a very different book. Described as a ‘horror-comedy,’ the realisation of what that meant dawned on me as I read on. It turned out to be one of the most horrific stories I’ve ever read but written in a way that felt almost calm. Ko-eun has a beautiful way of writing. One particular section describing the colour of sands found in the desert really stuck with me throughout. I also enjoyed how they primarily referred to characters by their job/role as it really fit with the theme of the book. Given the nature of the story, having few chapters is understandable but as someone who prefers more it affected how readable I found it personally. Overall a truly captivating book and really one that should not be judged by its cover. 

 Yona gets coerced into a work trip by her employer, a company called Jungle, who specialise in disaster packages. It goes just as well as you suspect it will and then gets even worse than that. 

 The Disaster Tourist is a story about Yona Ko, a woman who works for Jungle - a travel agency that sends clients to sites of natural disasters for vacations. Because one of the travel destinations isn’t being booked often, Yona’s boss sends her to the island with the hopes of her reviewing the trip for either renewal or cancellation of the destination. However, Yona’s trip to Mui does not go as planned as she faces many unexpected travel issues and uncovers a plot by the resort manager and island inhabitants to prolong their contract with Jungle. Overall, I felt like this was a very unique story that was both gripping and compelling. It speaks on capitalism, romance, and the subconscious human satisfaction of relishing in other people’s disasters. I could easily see this becoming a limited series for a streaming platform. 

The writing is lovely and darkly funny at times. Just my speed. The plot is sort of predictable, but I feel like that's the point: it's more a combination of the book rewarding the reader for paying attention and the sad conclusion being essentially inevitable. It also really helps to learn that

most of the story up until the final chapter and the epilogue are arguably just the screenplay assigning motivation and backstory to Yona that may or may not really be the case. Understanding that her portrayal in the novel is filtered through the male gaze of a different character who is subtextually bitter that he doesn't get to be the one to hook up with her, as well as the reconstruction of others from bits and pieces that remain of her after her death, retroactively improves certain frustrating or skeevy parts that occurred earlier in the book.

Seeing the story through to the end definitely bumped my rating up like, half a star. Would recommend.