By Kyungok Kang (NetComics)
ISBN: 978-1-60009-116-2
This is a rather gentle suspense – and potentially, horror – story for older kids which has a lot to offer adult readers. Jina is a young Korean Girl with all the usual problems of the comfortable modern miss, but her family is keeping a big, dark secret from her.
Hundreds of years ago her ancestors were rulers and one vain and foolish king ordered the death of a magical serpent called Imugi, just as it was preparing to ascend to Heaven. It cursed the family for eternity, decreeing that in every generation one of them would die, because of the actions of two people close to them. The fear, distrust and misery of this most subtle pronouncement has blighted the family through the centuries and for all their attempts to forestall their doom with priests, fortune tellers and exorcisms, nothing has worked. Long ago they decided to keep all knowledge of the curse from the children, only revealing the secret when – or if – they reach a certain age.
Jina doesn’t have many friends but as her birthday approaches her school rivalry with that obnoxious boy Jaesuk looks to be turning into something more, the girls in class seem less aggressive and distant and her cousin Myunghyun has returned from America after three years, bringing with him a gorgeous and enigmatic young man named Yoojin Lee. As the days progress she grows closer to them all but her new relationships are troubling her parents. The latest soothsayer has determined that Jina is the most probable target of this generation’s curse which means that two people close to her will cause her death…
More teen-soap than thriller, this undemanding manhwa fantasy has a subtle undercurrent to it which promises much. I for one will follow this pretty eye-candy to see if there’s a bitter bite beneath all the saccharine…
© 2007 Kyungok Kang. All Rights Reserved. English text © 2007 NetComics.