The Crustacean: The spikey revenge narrative to Lolita

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I want to come back as a crab.

A crab's skin is made of bone and the flesh is inside the bone.

But we, humans, are the opposite.

For fans of My Dark Vanessa and Acts of Desperation, THE CRUSTACEAN is a Korean seventh grader's response to Lolita

Chichirim passes unseen at school and by her family. She's desperate to be noticed, by just about anybody, burning with the need to be heard, to be alive.

So when a middle-aged man preys on her, Chichirim convinces herself that, finally, she has found the love she's been seeking her whole life. She is much too young, he is much too old - but he gives her back her skin and bone in a world that has made her invisible. And that's all Chichirim's ever needed.

As his violent sexual demands increase so does her need for him. And when she falls pregnant underage, her older, mostly absent sister takes charge, arranging for an abortion and his prosecution. But retribution is not her motive and her agenda, as with all the adults in this dark story, is only for herself...

THE CRUSTACEAN is a Korean novella exploring grooming, exploitation, and the scars of deep-cut betrayal and the lies of adults.

Author Bio

Jang Jin-yeong made her literary debut in 2019 by winning the Jamobook New Writer's Award. She is the author of the short story collection Only If I Make Up My Mind and the novel My Hobby is Private Life.