Molka

De: Monika Kim

From the author of The Eyes Are the Best Part, praised by The New York Times Book Review as “violent, smart, gruesome and wildly original,” a provocative exposé into the hidden world of spy cameras, sexual shaming, and vengeance pursued with a very sharp kitchen knife.

Molka: an abbreviation of molrae-kamera, a “sneaky camera” hidden to capture covert images and videos for voyeurs.

In an unassuming Seoul workplace, IT technician Junyoung’s network reaches throughout the whole office. Every entrance. Every lobby. Every bathroom. The women in this building may be cold and dismissive, but whenever they disrespect him, he calls up his favorite images and remembers who holds the real power. Until one, Dahye, sets herself apart from the rest.

Dahye, ever the romantic, yearns to be cherished after years of living in the shadow of her perfect older sister, who tragically drowned years ago. Only her boyfriend seems to appreciate Dahye. He’s rich, handsome, famous, and generous—she’d do anything to hold on to the happiness he brings her.

But when a celebrity hidden camera scandal rocks the city, Dahye’s dreams of fairy-tale romance sour into a grotesque nightmare. Her boyfriend abandons her. Her parents reject her. Her dead sister appears as a lank-haired, demon-eyed ghost, desperate to reveal a long-hidden secret. As Junyoung falls into obsession with the troubled Dahye, more and more illusions are stripped away, until Dahye turns to extreme lengths to satisfy her own lust for revenge . . .

From the innovative imagination of rising horror star Monika Kim, Molka is an all-too-real snapshot of surveillance, power, and one woman’s justified rage.

©2026 Monika Kim (P)2026 Recorded Books

Perfectly creepy

Loved the whole book. The narrator was really good too. This was a much anticipated release for me and did not disappoint.

Story Good, Reader Not For Everyone

I encourage you even if you aren't normally someone who listens to previews to do so with this one. The reader has a slight speech impediment throughout and an Australian/NZ accent that comes through at odd times. I have no problem with the accent, but I'd prefer it be continuous or not there at all--the sudden intrusion definitely screws up immersion. I think there is certainly a place for people with speech impediments and I would MUCH rather hear it than the tell-tale signs of yet another AI reading (ughhhh), but I can understand that it isn't something everyone can tolerate listening to for several hours. I didn't mind it, I enjoy supporting diversity when I find true examples, and I really like this author so it would have taken more than that to dissuade me, and I hope it'll be worth a try to most people as well. The sibilant S is really not nearly as intrusive as I'd feared, I hardly noticed it after maybe the first 5-10 minutes. I think I expressed it clearly enough already, but the here-and-gone-again accent bothered me far more.

I was psyched to see a second book from this author, as I LOVED her prior book (The Eyes Are the Best Part). It was of the same caliber, though whether one is better than the other is down to taste & I'll leave you to decide for yourself. I was quite pleased with it, I'll say that much.

As for the story? I certainly didn't feel like any sort of JUSTICE was done, but then again isn't that the point? Sure there were comeuppance, but not nearly enough...which is the problem with the subject matter at hand as well as sexval assavlt in general the world over. Thus, the book does an excellent and very realistic job of exasperating my innate desire for justice against these kinds of creeps. It gets so much right, and there were so many moments where I literally gritted my teeth and stamped my feet in identification with the main character. Having experienced something akin to this (video taken of intimate acts without my knowledge having been posted online...with my distinctive tattoos very obviously displayed--my Dad saw them, I've been recognized at jobs, drs appointments & in public from them, I still deal with it 13 years later but there's nothing I can do that I haven't already done) there were many small and specific elements that I identified with quite well. Feelings of helplessness, the indifference or complicity of law enforcement, the indifference to victimization of women but a markedly different reaction to the victimization of (or retribution taken out upon) men...there was a lot here that I hope the author didn't experience personally. I deeply enjoyed reading the kinds of vengeance I can't take. I felt I'd had a little bit of justice denied again when the climax came, all the moreso in the denouement. I feel like there could have been MORE at a number of moments: more immersion into some characters & elements (like the support group), more development of the main character BEFORE her victimization, even more pain for the antagonists.

Worth reading a copy if you can't deal with the audio, worth listening to if you can. I'm hoping that Monika Kim puts out another book very soon.

Even better than her first novel.

Wow. This book was flawless. The characters are so real. I was riveted and the ending was absolutely perfect.

Not good

I want to start this review by saying I was so excited about this book, only to have everything I was excited for be thwarted by a horrible narrator. I’m not sure why this narrator was able to go to final publishing, but it’s pretty bad. The narrator has a lisp which is fine, but can be distracting. The narrator goes from performance to seemingly “reading aloud” in between sentences. The narrator sometimes goes between an american accent to speaking in a Britain accent in the same sentence. Mind you, this is a book set in Korea. Now the story, the story itself is very amateur and there are plot holes and things that do not make sense or add to the story that seem they’re thrown in for no reason. I’m sure for most people this book would be sufficient since the reviews are so high, but definitely threw me off.