Molka

• Author: Monika Kim
• Genre: Horror
• Publication Date: April 28, 2026
• Publisher: Erewhon

Thank you to NetGalley and Erewhon for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

molka (n): the Korean term for spy cameras secretly and illegally installed, often to capture voyeuristic images and videos

Dahye can’t believe her luck when she finds herself in a whirlwind romance with handsome, charismatic Hyukjoon, the heir to a multi-million dollar fortune.

But then a shocking revelation threatens: the couple has been caught on a spycam amid Korea’s growing molka epidemic, and the video is all over the internet. When Hyukjoon flees the country to avoid the intense public scrutiny, Dahye is left to grapple with the ramifications on her own; and the demons from her childhood, long dormant, begin to surface.

Amid the chaos, she catches the attention of Junyoung, a nerdy, introverted IT tech at work. Junyoung harbours a dark secret: he has been spying on the women at work with his own hidden cameras. As Dahye’s life begins to unravel, she unknowingly becomes the sole target of Junyoung’s perverse obsession.

When the facts surrounding the invasion of her privacy come to light, Dahye is faced with the humiliating truth. Her pain and hurt turn to rage as she faces her past. Her desire for vengeance is insatiable, and she will not rest until the men who have wronged her have paid in blood…

I’m not familiar with much of Korean culture in the modern day, but I’m always open to learning about cultures other than my own. And this is a really interesting look into modern-day Korea and the challenges faced in Korean society. Also, I never realized how much of an issue spy cameras installed by voyeurs is in Korea. But I’m always down for a good revenge novel, and while this did veer into horror, it was more of horror-lite, with some elements of mystery and thriller involved.

To start with, this book really exposes more than a few sides of Korean society from the inside. First of all, the fact that there is a huge issue with molka videos—voyeurs who install hidden cameras to capture intimate moments—and not only with the fact of the cameras, but also in the leniency of how these invasions of privacy are dealt with. I also learned about the types of pressure on women to conform to traditional gender roles while also following a more modern career path. Shame is another huge issue that women come up against, and the threat of it often dictates the behavior of these women. The consequences of a shameful event can alter the entire course of a woman’s life. 

This is seen very clearly through the character of Dahye. She lives at home with her parents, and is an intelligent woman who is employed and happens to cross paths with both Hyukjoon and Junyoung. Readers get to see the world through the eyes of both Dahye and Junyoung, and it clearly portrays Junyoung as a predator who takes molka videos and photos. It’s not easy to like him, and as the book went on, I was less and less impressed with who he was as a person. Especially when I saw the dynamic between Junyoung and his mother. Dahye, on the other hand, is easier to empathize with when viewing her through the lens of traditional Korean societal roles and as a very naïve woman.

Dahye really only has her friend Bora to lean on, and has a contentious relationship with her mother and her father just seemed relatively indifferent to her. When she gets into a whirlwind romance with a chaebol playboy, which wasn’t exactly defined but seems like a nepobaby. Hyukjoon is the heir to a very lucrative business, and lives an extravagant lifestyle that quickly wins Dahye over. She’s impressed with the ease through which he moves in the world, and is surprised that he is interested in her, feeling that she is nothing more than an average looking, working-class woman.

Things move relatively slowly for the first half of the book, where these events are set up. She catches the eye of Junyoung, who has installed secret spy cameras throughout the building, including in bathrooms, and he quickly becomes fixated on her. However, she also meets Hyukjoon and starts her romance. As these events unfold, we also learn more about Dahye’s older sister, who passed away, and the author discusses the circumstances and how it has affected Dahye.

In the second half of the book, Dahye rapidly has a change of character. Her entire life seems to fall apart when the molka scandal breaks—it impacts her already strained relationship with her parents, she’s unable to go back to work, and Hyukjoon flees the country, so that Dahye is left to pick up the pieces of her life knowing that photos and videos were taken of her without her knowledge or consent and are widely shared on the internet. It’s clear who Hyukjoon was throughout the book, and it becomes even more obvious after the molka video was shared. 

While I could see how Dahye would be captivated by Hyukjoon and the extravagant lifestyle he offers her, it’s very clear who he is through my jaded eyes. She’s blinded by how he makes her feel and the glamorous experiences he provides, going out to posh restaurants, buying her things, and taking her to fancy hotels. She fails to see the mismatch between them, and her behavior as a proper Korean girl only allows the unhealthy relationship to continue. Shy, deferential, and non-confrontational, she finds it nearly impossible to speak up on her own behalf, but this changes rapidly in the second half of the book. 

The tone of the book changes swiftly as well, going from a dizzying rollercoaster inching to the top as she freefalls into a rapid downward spiral of shame. She attempts to approach the police and they basically brush off her complaints, and then she starts to focus on getting revenge. There are parts of the story where I really struggled to put myself in Dahye’s shoes—she’s especially slow to realize that her relationship with Hyukjoon isn’t the dream she thinks it is, and to realize that he dropped her like a hot potato after their tryst is exposed, and in some scenes she was demonstrating what seemed like mental health issues: paranoia and hallucinations. I found it fascinating to see her evolution from naïve woman to one controlled by fear after having her most private moments exposed. 

Switching into horror in the second half, we watch Dahye begin a new and different life on her own; with minimal supports as she turns her energy to taking revenge on the person responsible for the molka release. And it’s at this point where Junyoung’s own fascination with molka leads him to a growing obsession with an unsuspecting Dahye. But he is his own type of delusional, developing a fixation on her as his ideal woman and builds up a whole idea of her in his mind. When he finally makes his move, he obviously doesn’t get the reception he expected.

Overall, I was fascinated by the story and the peek into Korean society amidst what seems like a molka epidemic with no end in sight. Men who are caught often receive a slap on the wrist, if any consequence, while women who are exposed can have their entire world come down, like Dahye’s. It even impacts her sanity, and pushes her to do things she never would have dreamed of at the start of the book. Her character change occurred a little too quick for me, and I think it would have helped to slow down the process a little and allow the readers to grasp her change, although this felt a little more like a psychotic break to me. I am aware that this is applying American mental health to a completely different culture that may view it differently, and I really worked to keep that in mind while reading about the ‘new’ Dahye. However, I did love how the ending unfolded, and I can’t lie—I really liked the feral version of Dahye over the subservient one. The ending shocked me, and I found this to be a book that was harder to put down the further into it I got. 

Bottom line: A really interesting take on the female revenge novel in a whole different setting as the author takes on the prevalence of molka and the lenience of law enforcement when it comes to molka. 

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