I hesitated to read this for months after having read (and fallen in love with) Mosquito War and I regret having done so.
The art is what you would expect from Jeong Ji-Hoon. It's rough, yet clear. It's dark, yet accessible and even beautiful at times. It uses the format it's given to its full potential, it doesn't force itself to have dialogue on every panel or page, nor does it force itself to have color, [which it restrains to specific pannels which are given so much more impact because of it ](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/902374266220204082/1187417283446984744/image.png?ex=6596cf85&is=65845a85&hm=e0311bba93e46893931a8f32ca545e0d88a3d90e2fa0ab688f47b585765f42c3&
). It's a story that is so effectively told simply by its art that it could be told without a single bit of dialogue while still being completely clear . This doesn't mean the dialogue is just thrown in to make the story more explicit, rather, it actively enhances it. The author didn't need to add endless text dumps or ramblings to convey emotions, ideas or themes, everything is told simply with just a few powerful lines (or lack there of), making for a story that flows like no other.
The characters are also painfully all humane. Without the story ever stopping to develop them, every character is able to feel distinct and complex, making for an immersive story that will make you feel all of its character's anxieties and pains.
The end result is a slow burn. A short depressing, yet hopeful story with an incredible focus that kept my interest from the first page to the last. It's subtle and nuanced, you never really know what is happening, or even why it's happening, it presents characters who need to live by morally ambiguous lives, without ever feeling the need to tell you what it thinks is right is wrong, simply showing you how people not wanting to be hurt or to see their loved ones be hurt can lead them to take extreme decisions, leaving the question of wether what they are doing is right or wrong up to you.
In the ending, it's a touching story that just made me want to cry (and made do it a lot). As the reader, you don't feel like an omniscient god, you know what the characters know, perceive what they perceive and feel what they feel.
High 9.