The Plotters by Un-Su Kim: A Review
This time we’ve got The Plotters by Un-Su Kim, a darkly comedic, existential thriller set in the shadowy, modern underworld of Seoul, South Korea. I changed it up this time moving away from the Japanese novels that I’ve been focused on in between others with this Korean novel.
Un-Su Kim is a celebrated South Korean author known for his blend of psychological thrillers and crime fiction. He studied Korean literature at Kyung Hee University. His debut novel, The Cabinet (2006), won the Munhakdongne Novel Prize, Korea’s most prestigious literary award. His 2010 literary thriller, The Plotters, brought him international success, including a nomination for the 2016 Grand Prix de la Littérature Policière. Kim’s works often feature surreal stories, dramatic characters, and explore themes of human loneliness and the moral ambiguity of violence and crime.
This story follows Reseng, a professional assassin who was raised by a group of contract killers known as The Old Raccoon’s Clan, which operates out of a dilapidated library. Reseng performs his job with detached, almost bureaucratic professionalism, viewing assassination as a mundane, necessary service.
Get Ethan Graham’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
The core conflict arises when the traditional world of organized contract killing is challenged by the rise of modern, corporate-style assassination agencies, known as “plotters.” These new organizations use complex, often bizarre schemes instead of brute force, reflecting a shift in the nature of murder as a commodified business.
Reseng finds himself caught in a high-stakes turf war, forcing him to question his life’s purpose, his assigned fate, and his place in a rapidly changing criminal landscape. The novel blends high-concept action with philosophical musings on fate, free will, and the search for identity outside of one’s given role.
“Black tea is steeped in imperialism. That’s what gives it its flavor. Anything this flavorful has to be hiding an incredible amount of carnage.” This quote serves as a powerful metaphor for the novel’s themes of commodified violence and the moral cost of modern crime. Suggesting that something highly refined or desirable often has a dark, violent origin that is intentionally hidden, linking a product of luxury (black tea, a commodity historically tied to imperialism) to systemic exploitation.
The “plotters” represent the modern, corporate-style agencies that view murder as a commodified service, using “complex, often bizarre schemes instead of brute force”. This sophisticated, seemingly detached approach to the “flavor” of the business hides the ugly truth of the “carnage” at its core.
Reseng’s own detached, “bureaucratic professionalism” in his work is the bland exterior that allows him to function, but the quote forces him (and the reader) to confront the immense and often unseen weight of the violence that underlies his entire existence and the “changing criminal landscape”.
This was a fun listen, I fully enjoyed the complexity of the world of the Plotters and the Old Raccoon. It did seem to hit some of the beats I’ve had in separate books now, the world of assassins like in Assassins Anonymous and the philosophical loneliness we had in Tatami Galaxy or No Longer Human all together. I would recommend taking a look at this if you’ve enjoyed those books. Next time I’ve got Ballad & Dagger by Daniel Jose Older, to make it up to myself that I messed up the one for my challenge that was to be a young adult novel by a Latinx author.
