Review of The Vanished

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[Following is a volunteer review of "The Vanished" by Pejay Bradley.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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The Vanished by Pejay Bradley is set in Korea in the first half of the 1900s. Embon, the son of Lady Sougyon and grandson of Prince Aansoon, is born into the royal family. Prince Aansoon is the cousin of King Gojong.
Lady Sougyong was made to marry a certain Hob, a good-looking but orphaned son of the powerful but fallen Andong Kim clan. Hob, once married, does not live with Lady Sougyong but constantly asks her for money and leads a dissolute life. In the same time period, historically, Korea was invaded by Japan, and there are references in the book to actual historical events and attempts by Korea to regain its independence.
So the book alternates between the lives of Lady Sougyong and Embon, a comfortable life with a slow cadence, as opposed to the historical facts about Korea's desire to become independent again.
I found the narrative relaxing. When it comes to Embon, because of his manner, his quiet life, and his calm personality, there is a slow flow of facts. Contrasted with this, historical facts and real people are often mentioned. Here are some facts referred to in the book. In 1895, in a plan called "Operation Fox Hunt," the assassination of Queen Min was arranged by Miura Goro. The queen was making a strong policy against Japan domination. There are also mentions of people that tried to make Korea independent again, such as Ahn Joong Geun, Kim Gu, and Yoon Bong Gil.
For the historical facts, I have done quite a bit of research because it is a part of history that I don’t know well. Korea was annexed to Japan from 1910 until 1945. A few years ago, I saw a drama called "Bridal Mask" or "Gaksital," a very patriotic drama set in the period of Japanese annexation, specifically when Japan had decided to make the annexation of Korea to Japan more obvious: they had banned speaking and writing in Korean and forced Koreans to change their names to Japanese ones. This made sure that Korean cultural heritage was lost. A few years ago, I watched on Netflix the "Mr. Sunshine" drama, also set in the same historical period, about the "Righteous Army," a group of Koreans fighting for independence from Japan.
There are two other dramas I found in my research from 2019, "The Age of Heroes" and "Different Dreams", about the same historical period.
I found the book very interesting, both because of Embon's story and his beautiful relationship with his friends and, on the other hand, because of the very interesting insertion of real historical events. I found these two to be absolutely evenly told; Embon and his friends are absolutely believable in Korean history. One note: the historical facts are not told in detail but hinted at with dates and places, and if anyone is interested, as I was, through Internet searches one can find quite a bit of information.
I rated this book 5 out of 5, I did not detect any errors or typos and I found the story really interesting. I really enjoyed it.
I recommend this book to people who like novels with historical references but also who are interested in or want to be interested in Korean cultural references.

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The Vanished
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