Winner of the Commendation Award for the first Changbi x Kakaopage Young Adult Genre Literature Awards
Seoul, 1931. A story that unfolds on the border between life and death
A powerful adventure hitherto unsee!
The year is 1931. 14-year-old Lim Hee-deok Lim is a sophomore at Jinhwa Girls High School. At her grandfather’s insistence that young women learn as much as they can, she leaves her hometown of Jeonju to study in Seoul, despite opposition from her parents. But one day, when Gye-wol, a new teacher, is appointed to the dormitories, Hee-deok begins to witness strange things. Pale skin, pointy ears, and red eyes—what secret is this new teacher hiding?
Snooping around to discover the true identity of Gye-wol, Hee-deok finds a notebook with mysterious writing. And inside the notebook is a picture of Gye-wol wearing a western dress standing next to a Western man. Gye-wol’s avoidance of crosses, sunlight, and Japanese in uniform peeks readers’ interest and instills the narrative with a sense of suspense.
1931, Vampire Tale is a story about a vampire who becomes a boarding school teacher to hide her identity. This is an unexpected yet extremely effective intersection of two elements: the Japanese occupation of Korea and vampires. The novel also is captivating in the way it brings to life the time and place of Seoul in the 1930s. This novel depicts the journey of two woman on the border of adulthood and humanity who lean on each other as they search for the reason of why they were born and why they survived. The meeting of these two charming characters shows the awesomeness of their combined charm. 1931, Vampire Tale breaks through the limits of previous historical fantasy romance, which have hitherto only relied on the cliché representation of historical facts and romantic settings.