The Vegetarian

A truly brutal book told in three distinct parts, from three distinct point of views - none of which belong to the titular and central ‘vegetarian' who the story is technically about. In fact, she's treated horribly throughout by each of the protagonists as barely more than a thing; an accelerant for their own declines.

In reality, though, the story is all at once a deconstruction of (particularly Korean/patriarchal) culture, depression, suicide, mental illness and most common, and perhaps damning, of all - the myriad ways in which we fuck each other up in ill-fitting, toxic relationships that should end considerably sooner than they inevitably do...

In some ways, it's a repeated anti-love story. In others it's an uncomfortable gaze into the depths of depression. Consistently, though, it delivers gut-punch after gut-punch if you've ever lived through any version of the topics covered within - even if they are heightened to extremes.