This was a TBR.co read. My recommendations have been getting a little odd lately, probably because I am so far behind and haven't been giving my recommenders much to work with. In any case, this is a book in translation and that always presents its own challenges. Whether we realize it or not, stories tend to follow specific patterns when they come from the same culture. Writers and lit people call those patterns archetypes or sometimes 'master plots'. So, when you pick up a book, even if you've never read it or the author before, you still have certain expectations about how the story will flow. We don't notice it much unless a story moves out of pattern. These patterns, however, vary across different cultures. The farther away a culture hails from geographically, the wider the variation can be. That's why it's so important to read books in translation. Break the mold, get out of the rut, and maybe even gain insight to a different culture's expectations of the world.
In any case The Disaster Tourist is Korean natively. I find that I usually like Asian Lit. I particularly like Japanese stories but I've enjoyed Korean stories in the past as well. A satisfying doesn't need to have a happy ending. I firmly believe that. Sometimes a good ending is where unpleasant people get what's coming to them and that's really what this book is aiming at. The protagonist, Yona Ko, isn't really unpleasant; she's just weak or possibly even aimless. At the beginning of the novel she works for a travel agency that specializes in package tours to the sites of disasters. On the surface, its a distasteful idea, but it also is presented in a way that makes sense. Yona has worked there for years, but something never quite explained happens that puts her on the outs with the company and she ends up on one of the company's tours to evaluate whether or not it should be cut.
Eventually, and after a bizarre series of events, she ends up stranded on the island of Mui and involved with a conspiracy to create a new disaster. Thinks fall apart from there. It's an interesting read, but I didn't much like how it finished. It wasn't the end per se; I actually predicted how the conspiracy would wrap up. It more felt like there was some missing connection between the last 50 pages or so and the rest of the narrative. Rather like the author had a clear vision of the beginning and the end but wasn't quite sure how to connect them. Aside from that, it was pretty good.
