With the Heart of a Ghost: Stories - Lim Sunwoo - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Lim Sunwoo

TRANSLATOR: Chi-Young Kim

GENRE: Speculative Fiction Collection

PUBLICATION DATE: February 10, 2026

RATING: 3.7 stars

In a Nutshell: A speculative stories collection. True to the genre, with a good mix of real and surreal. Character-oriented despite having tricky plots. Good translation. A bit disjointed at times in the storytelling but on the whole, a great debut. Recommended.

This debut collection contains eight stories that delve into human feelings while still reaching beyond the human experience into the surreal and the bizarre. It is ‘speculative’ in the true sense of the word, with each of the stories transcending logic without offering pragmatic justifications.

There is no foreword or note introducing the theme of the collection. But the blurb says that these stories “explore feelings unseen, unconveyed, unexplainable” and that “each sparkling story asks you to look within, to encounter all that is desired and strange and possible in life and death.” This effectively captures the crux of the stories: look within while looking beyond, question yourself but don’t question what you don’t understand.

One thing promised by the blurb seems to be a case of *Conditions apply*. It calls the characters of the book “funny and meditative” while cast in stories “buoyed by humour, warmth, and empathy for the lost and hurt among us.” These phrases make the stories appear lighthearted, charming, and even heartwarming. But most of the stories didn’t go down this path for me. Of course, humour is always subjective. If you can approach these tales with a different kind of funny bone, by seeing the wacky storylines as cleverly witty, or by seeing the comedy in the bizarre, you might indeed find some of these stories funny.

To me, the ‘meditative’ qualifier was more consistent with the introspective tone of the stories. Each plot contains some kind of a transformation: either physical or behavioural, sometimes both. So the dominant tone throughout the book is somewhat melancholic, though it doesn’t really get depressing even during sad events.

The stories are not too fast-paced as they are most character-oriented. At the same time, they don’t drag as well. The author has firm control on where she wants each story to go, and wields this effectively. I enjoyed how the stories, despite being so eccentric in their plotlines, still focus so intently on human behaviour and responses. It’s rare for a speculative collection to make me wonder what I would do in the character’s place.

The fantastical content of these stories is quite creative by itself, but it hits harder because the setting of each story is the ordinary world. All eight stories are based in the author’s country (South Korea), and the world she portrays seems real even with the surreal. It’s like the characters are used to bizarre events and take it as an acceptable and routine part of their life even when they find it questionable.

Some of the stories wander across multiple subplots that are still tied somehow through the character. It's like our real life when we deal with multiple things at once. However, it is a bit trickier to keep up with so many threads in fiction, especially in short fiction that gets a relatively limited time to sort things out. As such, the endings are a grey area. I liked some of them, but for others, I would have loved to see some extended information on what happened next.

This collection was originally published in Korean in 2022. A part of me wonders if being written during the lockdown influenced the introspective tone of the stories. The author’s note at the end doesn’t mention the pandemic, but it hints at each story coming from having “too many thoughts” and how she realised that thinking can lead to freedom. She shares some vignettes that led to the conception of each story; it is quite interesting to see the variation between each vignette and the end result. The translation of the book seems impeccable; at not point did I find the language constricted or awkward.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Because I had prepared myself for a whimsical reading experience, two of the stories scored a bit lower as they had only minimal speculative content. The rest were fairly strong entries, earning three or more stars easily. These were my favourites, with 4+ stars each.

👻 With the Heart of a Ghost: I just don't know how to describe this story, or even to explain what happened in it. The surreal content was not understandable to my grounded brain but still enjoyable to my heart. A creative and emotionally rich story. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🌊 You're Not Glowing: A beautiful albeit bittersweet story. When it began, I thought it would go the typical end-of-the-world apocalypse way with mutant jellyfish instead of aliens. But it turned out to be a tale rich in exploring human psychology during times of uncertainty. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🍃 Summer, like the Color of Water: A wonderful introspective story even though it left me wanting more clarification at the end. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎭 Curtain Call, Extra Inning, Last Pang: As this started, I thought this would end up a depressing story about lost chances and regrets. While it did have that undertone of sadness, it turned out to be a story of grabbed chances and hopes. A lovely story to wind up the collection with. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall, this is quite an excellent collection, though it might not be the right fit for every reader. Anyone who needs earthy plotlines, detailed explanations, and neat endings might not like this set of stories. But those who enjoy the juxtaposition of the internal and the metaphysical, who love to explore the link between natural cause and effect, and who can go with the flow even when the flow isn’t straightforward, this debut collection can offer an enriching experience.

Recommended to fans of speculative fiction and translated short fiction.

3.7 stars, based on the average of my rating for each tale.

My thanks to Unnamed Press for providing the DRC of “With the Heart of a Ghost” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.