The Crustacean

THE MOST EXPLOSIVE BOOK OF THE YEAR
The year's most explosive, dangerous novel from the point of view of Lolita.
"When I was 13 I knew nothing about anything.
I only cared about love. I was a lovebug, just like my useless Dad.
That was why my boobs were smaller than an A cup.
And the older man, who I thought I fell in love with, never told me he was divorced.
I made that up on my own."
Chichirim is a plain, 13 yr old girl. An ordinary, misunderstood, lonely seventh grade girl. A girl with a terrible secret.
Her dad is worse than useless. And her mum spends all her days tattooing thick ugly eyebrows on old women. Her parents forget her birthday and her sister hates them so much she wishes they were dead. Chichirim does bad things at school. And still, no one cares.
Until, one day, an older man picks her up on the side of the road.
He tells her she is pretty.
Her tells her what to do.
Underneath her hard outer shell - her softness is being exploited and destroyed by - the people she trusts and loves the most - the adults.
"I want to come back as a crab. A crab's skin is made of bone and the flesh is inside the bone. But we're the opposite. We have bone inside flesh."
THE CRUSTACEAN is an intricately-crafted novel exploring memory, exploitation, and the lasting effects of adult abuse and betrayal.

Jang Jin-yeong made her literary debut in 2019 by winning the Jamobook New Writer's Award. She is the author of the short story collection Only If I Make Up My Mind and the novel My Hobby is Private Life.