The man in black

by Yoonhee Oh

It’s the Joseon dynasty, and a series of corpses have been discovered in the outskirts of the capital near Mt. Inwangsan. All of them have wide open eyes and five long, deep cuts across their chests. But who could be responsible? Gyeong-ho, a body handler from the coroner’s office, has no leads until he is approached by a pair of long, flaming yellow eyes.

The tiger in the cover image is taken from the anonymous painting from Joseon Dynasty era, during which this story is set, titled Painting of a Ferocious Tiger (猛虎圖), Accession No. M67, courtesy of the National Museum of Korea.

Genres: Audiobook, Fantasy, Asia

129 pages, ebook

First published January 14, 2022

Reviews

[Girish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes you are not sure what you picked up and at the end of the book wonder why in the first place you started with it. Maybe the fact that another folk lore of Bon-Bibi from the Sunderbans that had a tiger on the cover and an author like Amitav Ghosh nudged you.

This tale about deaths perpetrated by a vigilante god in the form of a tiger is a messy yarn. If not for the size, the book would have been discarded as an whatsapp forward. For what it is worth, the book has a series of corpses two of who are found with a heavy claws and fear in their face. The third death has an innocent girl pegged as the murderer and hence the god appears before a dutiful corpse handler and reveals the secret.

The audiobook version tried to sound like a fable, but then half heartedly tried to add music and sound effects - like a low budget production. The tale as such did not hold much mystery and the workings are pretty convoluted. In fact, i wasn't sure what the last chapter was meant to convey.

Pass if you are trying to squeeze time for reading.

[Grada (BoekenTrol) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is good the way it is. Length wise, I mean. Usually I struggle reading short stories, because I miss part of the plot. The end of the pages comes before all things inside the story have been told or rounded up.
In this story that's not the case.
Three deaths, a chapter in between, a who dunnit and a wrapping up.
Clear, interesting to read, statements made, a beginning, middle and end, just the way I like a book. And when a short story has al that, it's a good one😁

I loved the audiobook: it had matching sounds while it was narrated, as if it were an audio play. That made the experience even better than it already was.

[Carmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0

A surprisingly good short little read about a tiger god who kills bad men who don’t repent even after being given a second chance.

[Akshay · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Man in Black by Yoonhee Oh is a haunting, lyrical, and visually compelling tale that draws from the deep wells of Korean folklore and urban legend. With its minimalist style and emotionally resonant themes, the story weaves old myth with modern unease, delivering a narrative that lingers like a whisper from another realm.

Story Overview

Set against the shadowed backdrop of rural Korea, the story follows a young girl and her strange encounter with a silent, looming figure—the titular "man in black." Though spare in dialogue, every page drips with atmospheric tension. Yoonhee Oh crafts a world where the veil between reality and myth is thin, and every still moment feels like the breath before something terrible—or transcendent—unfolds.

What begins as an eerie encounter spirals into a meditation on grief, superstition, and the unseen forces that may walk among us. The narrative relies heavily on visual cues, silence, and suggestion rather than exposition, making the book feel more like a cinematic experience than a traditional novella.

Folkloric Context

To fully appreciate The Man in Black, it helps to understand its roots in Korean folklore. The character archetype is reminiscent of traditional spirits such as the cheonyeo gwishin (virgin ghost), jaesin (house gods), and more modern iterations like the mujigae gwishin (ghosts who appear dressed in black and white). These beings often appear to those in spiritual turmoil or transition, symbolizing death, memory, or unresolved sorrow.

The eerie figure in this story echoes the Jeoseung Saja—the Korean "Reaper" or afterlife envoy—dressed in black robes and tasked with escorting the dead. Unlike Western portrayals of death as brutal finality, Korean myth imbues such figures with melancholy and inevitability, themes reflected powerfully in Oh's storytelling.

Art and Aesthetic

Yoonhee Oh’s illustrations are central to the narrative’s impact. Rendered in shadowy hues and stark lines, the artwork evokes a sense of creeping dread and ethereal beauty. The pacing is deliberate, encouraging the reader to sit in the stillness—an echo of Korean horror’s unique rhythm, which favors slow-building dread over sudden terror.

Fans of graphic novels like The Arrival by Shaun Tan or Through the Woods by Emily Carroll will find a similar resonance here, though Oh’s work leans more toward metaphysical ambiguity than narrative closure.

Comparative Analysis

Compared to other Eastern horror-tinged tales such as The Hole by Pyun Hye-young or The Vegetarian by Han Kang, The Man in Black is more visually abstract but no less emotionally potent. It may not delve as deeply into social commentary, but its quiet examination of grief and mystery places it within the same thematic lineage.

Against Western counterparts like Neil Gaiman's The Sandman or Stephen Gammell’s illustrations in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Oh’s style is subtler, but arguably more poetic and culturally steeped.

Final Impressions

The Man in Black is a quiet triumph—a ghost story that doesn’t scream but whispers. It's a rare example of how minimalism, when executed with emotional precision and cultural sensitivity, can speak volumes. This is not merely a tale of fear, but one of memory, liminality, and the spaces between worlds.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆ ☆ (3 out of 5 glowing stars)

Recommended for:

Readers of literary horror or visual storytelling Fans of Korean folklore and supernatural fiction Those seeking quiet, atmospheric narratives over jump scares or gore

[Mochi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aku dengerin cerita ini lewat audiobooks.
Suka banget sama narratornya, bener-bener kerasa mencekamnya dan lebih seruuuu 😍

Buat ceritanya kayak cerita rakyat (atau memang dari cerita rakyat?). Aku pikir awalnya bakal jadi cerita misteri pembunuhan yg ceritanya sampai jelimet tapi ternyata enggak. Ceritanya ringan banget.

Bercerita tentang ditemukannya 3 mayat yg dua mayatnya tewas karena cakaran harimau dan yg satunya diperkirakan tewas karena serangan jantung. Seorang peneliti mayat menduga ada yang tidak beres dengan mayat-mayat tersebut. Lalu dia mengajak temannya yg dulu adalah seorang pemburu harimau untuk melihat mayat tersebut dan mengonfirmasi apakah benar tewasnya disebabkan oleh harimau? Namun temannya berkata, “binatang buas tidak akan menyakiti orang tanpa alasan”. Lalu kenapa? Apa yang mendasari kematian mereka?

[Memento Maryn ౨ৎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I may have gotten into this with the wrong expectations. I thought this was going to be a mystery, but it ended up being anything but that. There's nothing to deduce, no clues to collect. It's steeped in culture and folklore which is great, but as a story it did nothing for me. The ending is confusing, and the whole thing only really works if you read it as a fairytale.

4/10 - not the worst, but disappointed me with how much wasted potential this story has.

[Jana|جنى · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was simple, well written, and extremely entertaining. I actually felt scared and anxious at some points. Team tiger!!!!

But what do you mean "As thin as a woman's eyebrows." ? That's offensive since I'm a woman with thick eyebrows.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.
Quite interesting, wish it was longer tho.

[Léonie Rijnders · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a short story it was quite alright, I liked the beginning more than the end but that’s often the case with short stories

[Marwah Alsaggaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but it's short

[Bilgen Yıldız · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good short story, a bit thrilling, a bit fairy tone👻

[Arel Koh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t really hit my expectations. Could have gone in a lot of different directions that would have been more enjoyable but didn’t.

[Sarah Ouadah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the book, but either way… it didn’t land!

I don’t know if it’s that I didn’t get the cultural layers, or if the book just didn’t manage to carry the weight it thought it was holding, but this one didn’t land. It’s short, atmospheric, clearly trying to say something about grief, memory, ancestral shame, but every time I thought we were getting somewhere, it pulled back.

There’s something frustrating about a story that’s constantly gesturing at depth without ever letting you dive in. The narrator returns to his hometown, haunted by a death, maybe by his own failure, maybe by some larger generational curse. He walks, he sits, he stares at landscapes like they’re supposed to answer him. But we never get to feel what’s under the surface, only that something should be.

The whole thing with the “man in black”, was that death? guilt? a version of himself? I couldn’t tell. It was written like a metaphor, but the book never actually bothers to tell you what that metaphor is rooted in. It just assumes you’ll be haunted by it because it says you should be. Spoiler: I wasn’t.

I wanted a slow burn with emotional payoff. What I got was a quiet wander through grief that never unfolded into anything I could hold. The lines about “owning someone else’s shadow” came up again and again, and I think it was about carrying collective memory, or inherited shame? But like… spell it out. Or at least lead me there.

Also that moment with Yuna, the tension, the closeness, the silence, it felt like the emotional core. But she disappears from the story like she was just an image, not a real person. And maybe that’s the point. But it didn’t feel intentional, just incomplete.

I’m not mad at it. It’s moody, the writing’s soft and lyrical in places. But it read like a first draft of a much more powerful novella that never got finished. By the time the ending hit, I just shrugged. Nothing clicked. The emotion felt secondhand. The metaphors? Half-formed.

So yeah, maybe it’s me. Maybe I missed the layers. Maybe it’s the translation? But this book read like it was constantly clearing its throat to say something profound and never actually speaking.

[Ayu Wijayani · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a short, quick, not to much audiobook for listening in the end of the day just because you still have to work for some more. It’s interesting about the fantasy mythology side, but i’m a bit throw off because of it.