Lured by a prank phone call to a local park, Choi Lee, a Korean high school student living in New Hampshire, is unwittingly pushed to her breaking point. Since she was little, Choi’s parents have instilled in her a need to check her emotions, emphasizing that the damage done if she lost control would be catastrophic. With that phone call, Choi, her boyfriend, and her classmates will discover just how catastrophic after Choi is provoked to the point of no return.
Everyone in the park—the guilty, the innocent, the bystanders—they all die.
Inspecting the bodies littering the grass, Captain Pendleton, new to the Goffstown Police Force, walks the grounds of Barnard Park. His men are calling this event a microburst, but Pendleton had never seen a microburst decapitate, flatten, or twist a body inside out such as this. While at the park, he receives more unsettling news. There is a fatal incident at the local tavern with several people unconscious and at least two dead. Arriving at the tavern, Pendleton wonders if things could get any worse. It turns out they can. His men discover more bodies in a house next door to the tavern that a Korean family owns. The only survivor – a young girl named Choi, who has been shot in the head.
In the coming days, the gruesome deaths pile up.
Captain Pendleton’s investigation leads him to the owner of a local pawnshop. Together, they attempt to piece together Choi’s involvement with the deaths in the park, her home, and at the restaurant. However, Pendleton and the pawnshop owner are dealing with unfamiliar forces, and Choi’s ties to the supernatural and Korean folklore test the resolve and sanity of both men. It was Choi who initiated the events that led to the death of so many townspeople, and she is the key to stopping more.
The thing is, Choi is technically alive, but her brain is dead.
Choi and her parents were whisked to the US under mysterious circumstances.
They have settled in New Hampshire where Choi is attending high school and trying to fit in. But she is not like the other kids and it is not because she is Korean.
Too bad the "mean girls" didn't know that before they decided to pick on her.
Terrible things happen any time Choi is angry or frightened. This time, a cruel prank has pushed her too far.
Characters I recognized from a previous novel "The Moore House" will reunite in an attempt to stop the death toll from climbing, but even they are not immune to the supernatural influence that can turn even the kindest people into sadistic monsters.
The Damage Done combines Korean folklore with gruesome body horror in a fast-paced read that pulled me in from the brutal opening to the heart-wrenching climax. I feel as if the author tied me to a pendulum where I swung nervously back and forth, one minute being afraid for the characters and the next being afraid of them.
5 out of 5 stars
I received an advance copy courtesy of the author.
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