A woman carrying an umbrella attempts to enter a building through a neon-lit side entrance.

Bad Friends: A Review

The cover of Ancco's Bad Friends, which shows three teenage girls sitting in a circle.

Han Kang, Min Jin Lee, and Crystal Hana Kim have given us their own unique glimpses into the Korean peninsula’s history and present, but few novels of South Korea have gone to so dark a place as Ancco‘s semi-autobiographical work, Bad Friends. This brief, striking vision of South Korea’s early Sixth Republic presents a side of the country rarely seen in the West, one driven by alcohol, drugs, and prostitution.

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