The Cabinet

An interesting read but it ended pretty abruptly which made the story feel unfinished to me.

The premise is: 'symptomers’, humans whose strange abilities and bizarre experiences might just mark the emergence of a new species.

The stories of symptomers were interesting and engaging, but they end about 2/3rds through.

To me it is well worth reading for the different (South Korean) cultural viewpoints on modern life and the idea that it could be causing evolution into a new species.

Content warning for eating disorders, body horror and torture.

I read this from the Digital Library of Korean Literature which permits anyone to make an account: library.ltikorea.or.kr/aboutLibrary

"The Cabinet" is a narrative told by a young man who - when bored at his do-nothing job at a research institute - discovers a cabinet of files detailing the cases of "symptomers" - people experiencing strange physical or metaphysical phenomenon, who can sleep for months, disappear for years or replace their tongues with reptiles. He becomes the caretaker of these files and an unwilling therapist/sympathetic ear to the symptomers. For some reason this never really jelled for me. Structurally it doesn't feel like it's leading anywhere, and it ends abruptly - the best parts are the interactions with the symptomers, but those fall away in the third act. If you're expecting the X-Files or X-Men it's definitely not that but there are some great parts.

Content warning for emetophobia, eating disorders, body horror and torture.