Editorial Content for The Only Child

This week, there was a popular post on Twitter inviting users to reveal which movie that they watched in childhood scarred them the most. For me, the answer is easy: The Bad Seed, the 1956 horror thriller about a seemingly sweet little girl with a tendency toward evil. I watched the old black-and-white movie when I was in elementary or middle school, and it has stuck with me (and not always in a good way) ever since.

Mi-ae Seo is a Korean novelist who also has a background in television and film writing, so it’s probably safe to say that she, too, is familiar with The Bad Seed. Certainly there are echoes of the film in her new novel, THE ONLY CHILD.

"In addition to The Bad Seed, THE ONLY CHILD carries overt references to The Silence of the Lambs. It’s easy to imagine this suspenseful, multilayered novel being adapted into a pretty sinister film in its own right."

Seonkyeong is a relatively new university instructor in criminal justice. She’s competent at her work, but hardly a celebrity in the field. That’s why she’s shocked when she learns that one of Korea’s most infamous serial killers, Yi Byeongdo, has offered to break his silence and tell his story --- and he’s asked for Seonkyeong by name. Seonkyeong is confused, but perhaps a little flattered, by his request, and she nervously agrees to meet with him. The interview, although understandably unsettling, goes better than Seonkyeong had expected, and she seems on the verge of getting him to open up about some gaps in his known biography.

But at the same time, Seonkyeong is growing increasingly distracted and disturbed by a situation at home. A new round of fires in Seoul has developed personal implications for Seonkyeong and her new husband, Jaeseong. The latest house to be destroyed is one where Jaeseong’s daughter from his first marriage had been living with her grandparents. The older couple died in the fire, leaving 11-year-old Hayeong with nowhere else to go.

Seonkyeong is surprised to become a stepmother so abruptly, but she makes the best of the situation, despite her own and Jaeseong’s pressures at work, as well as Hayeong’s affect, which alternates between chillingly aloof and borderline violent. As Seonkyeong considers what drives people like Yi Byeongdo to turn into hardened killers, she becomes concerned that young Hayeong might harbor some of the same tendencies. Can love, understanding and therapy get her back on track before it’s too late?

In addition to The Bad Seed, THE ONLY CHILD carries overt references to The Silence of the Lambs. It’s easy to imagine this suspenseful, multilayered novel being adapted into a pretty sinister film in its own right. Like other Korean suspense novels that I’ve read, this book is written in a matter-of-fact style, its restraint somehow making the events it describes even more chilling. Mi-ae Seo’s bio reveals that she’s currently penning a sequel; readers will be very curious to imagine into what dark places this story might go next.