A bodyguard takes a chance: running with her young niece into a disaster area to prevent the girl from being raised by her mother. After the earthquake and flood, a disease strikes Haewon Village, and Mu-young helps enforce strict quarantine measures. She loses her niece to the plague. When an irritating bureaucrat from Seoul visits the quarantined community, he brings even greater danger. H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth, reimagined through the lens of COVID and a government’s abandonment of its citizens, has a fishy chill as deep as the bottom of an ocean.
A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young, (List Price: $24.99, Tor Nightfire, 9781250380753, August 2026)
Reviewed by Kelly, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA