Is she in danger, or is she the danger? read A Twist Of Fate by Sae-Ah Jang(translated by S.L. Park) to find out | ARC review

 Title: A Twist Of Fate 

Author: Sae-Ah Jang

Number of Pages: 352

Publishing Date: 29 July 2025

Genre: Suspense, Crime Thriller, Murder Mystery , Asian Literature, Translated Literature

Synopsis:

Two women meet on a train. Each is running from a deadly secret. When one disappears, the other decides to take her place—for better, or for worse.

Jae-young has just left everything she’s ever known, not that it was much. Her thankless job, her infested apartment, her abusive boyfriend—who happens to be dead on the kitchen floor. Murder was never the way she envisioned leaving, but it was desperate times. Now, escaping her transgressions on a train to the bustling city of Seoul, Jae-young is just hoping to become invisible—safe.

On the train she meets a chatty mother with her infant son who seem to be running from a similarly harsh life with her unfaithful husband, hoping to find refuge with the in-laws she’s never met. To avoid further conversation, Jae-young excuses herself for a moment. When she returns, the woman is nowhere to be found, but her crying child remains with a note, pleading with Jae-young to take him to his grandparents in a remote province far from Seoul.

It’s not an ideal pitstop, but for the sake of the child she can’t ignore the request. When Jae-young arrives, the house takes her by surprise. It's a gated manor oozing with opulence and the finest luxuries. Having never met their grandchild or daughter-in-law before, the family assumes Jae-young is the boy’s mother and ushers her in. Then Jae-young There’s nothing more invisible than becoming someone else.

But both women have ghosts in their pasts. Jae-young may have no idea what lies rotten under the shiny veneer of her new life, but there's nothing she won't do to make sure she never goes back.

Review:

Disclaimer: This book holds the power to not only bring you back to your murder mystery/crime thriller obsession if you've strayed away from it(lie me...) but also to start your murder mystery/crime thriller obsession if you aren't already obsessed with them.

Imagine boarding a train to escape your past, only to accidentally step into someone else's life… and decide not to leave. A Twist of Fate by Sae-ah Jang is a slow-burning, chilling thriller that wraps you in silk and paranoia at the same time—and let me tell you, it does not let go.

If you love books where every character is a potential liar and every luxury setting feels like a trap—this book is gonna mess with your head in the best way.

Sae-ah Jang slays with atmosphere. The writing is elegant but sharp, like drinking your favorite warm tea but laced with poison. The manor is almost a character itself—haunting, cold, and full of things unsaid. And Jae-young? She’s a fascinating mess. Not quite a hero, not quite a villain, but deeply human. You’ll judge her. You’ll root for her. You’ll side-eye her every move. Same can be said for the young mother from the train. Both women show and represent many topics that have been deemed a taboo discussion topic, by our global society. 

The characters of the dead boyfriend and the rich fake brother-in-law are also well written and were even more dark, sick, and twisted than the women. I think that these two are the characters that Collen Hover was trying to achieve while writing/coming up with Ryle in It Ends With Us. When i say that every single character here is trying to bury down some secrets of their own... I ain't exaggerating anything. The multiple layers of this book and all of it's characters(the main and the side characters) will have you second guessing your own second, third, fourth guess(and many others that you'll keep making until the very end for sure).

The slow pacing may not work for everyone, but if you’re here for that creeping sense of dread—the kind that builds in your stomach like thunder before a storm—this is it. Even with the slow pacing the book is written in such a epic , smooth, and intriguing way, that once you are hooked you won't even realize it and you'll already find yourself reading the very last chapters. Last but not the least, a shout-out to S.L. Park for the translation; the prose flows naturally, but never loses that eerie, K-thriller tone.

 Themes to Look Out For:

Identity & performance

Domestic suspense + found family gone wrong

Class divide (poor woman faking her way into the 1%)

Grief, motherhood, and the lies we cling to

The classic “is she dangerous or in danger?” tension

Content Warnings:

Domestic abuse (past)

Death of a partner (off-page)

Psychological trauma

Child neglect (minor subplot)

Final Verdict:

If Parasite and Rebecca had a psychological baby and dressed her in luxury Korean fashion—this would be her. A Twist of Fate is suspenseful, morally grey, and dripping in slow-burn tension. It’s not loud. It doesn’t shout. It whispers. And that whisper will live rent-free in your brain for days after the final page. For the fans of Verity by Colleen Hoover (but make it classier and add a well written Ryle), My Lovely Wife, The Housekeeper, or K-drama thrillers like Mine, The Glory, Parasite and Little Women (the 2022 one, not the March sisters).

Would I recommend it?

Absolutely—but don’t go in expecting twists on every page. This is a psychological unravelling, not a plot rollercoaster. It’s for patient readers who love watching someone slowly lose their grip on reality… while sipping tea in a designer robe