Mothersucker by Kim Bohyun (Pre-Order)

Publishing 22/10/2026

A chilling Korean revenge novel, blending crime and horror, about a mother whose grief transforms her into a murderous bloodsucker, and the detective on her trail

A male victim, posing as if in prayer, burnt beyond recognition but otherwise intact. No traces of the assailant. 

Detective Jin-seon Noh is called to the scene but soon discovers this case is unlike anything she’s seen before. The man was killed with startling force and drained of his blood. Jin-seon learns that the victim had recently been accused of stalking his ex-girlfriend, and as more men turn up murdered, a pattern begins to emerge: all of these men are guilty of heinous crimes against women.

Buried underneath a mound of soil on a mountain top, Geum-hong had woken up transformed. Now her senses are vivid, she has phenomenal strength, and her appetite is deadly. The last thing she can recall of her old life is grief. Before losing consciousness, she’d been scattering the ashes of her only daughter, who was brutally murdered by her ex-boyfriend. Geum-hong has no idea how long she’s been simmering beneath the earth, in fact, the confines of linear time no longer mean much to her. All she knows is that despite her transformation, her rage remains…

As Jin-seon falls deeper into the case and more impossible details emerge, she can’t silence the question creeping into the back of her mind: would it really be right to thwart this dealer of dark justice?

Leaping between a diverse cast of female perspectives, Mothersucker is a propulsive, lacerating exploration of power and bigotry, which examines the monsters that make us and the monsters we become.

Translated by Archana Madhavan.

Bohyun began her literary career in 2011 when her short story ‘Goni’ won the New Writers’ Award from the literary magazine Jaeum & Moeum. In 2013, she received an Excellence Award at the Korea Story Contest for The Owl Boy, and again in 2015 for Paeng: When I Die and Lie Down. She published her first novel, If Someone Calls Your Name, in 2017, followed by the novel The Worst Thing in 2022. She also wrote the original story for the film The Night Owl, released in 2022, and received a Special Award at the Korea Story Contest in 2023.

Archana Madhavan translates Korean poetry and prose into English. Her past book-length works include Kim Hyun’s Glory Hole (co-translation, 2022), Amil’s Roadkill (2025), and Lee Jenny’s Pirowa Padowa (2025). She was shortlisted for the Granum Translation Prize in 2023 and won the Malinda A. Markham Translation Prize in 2024. She lives in San Jose, California.