I came into this looking for a sharp critique of patriarchal society and that's exactly what I got. Do I agree with the 'possession' arc being heavily implied to be a driving force in the synopsis? No because aside for a few moments in the first chapter, it is barely shown or mentioned. This was disappointing to me because I was very interested in that specifically. I do understand that the possession was done in such a way to emphasise that Jiyoung's case/life isn't a single isolated incident of a woman suffering in silence, comprising her education, career and identity for the sake of her family but it was still disappointing seeing very little of the thing the synopsis spent so much time hyping.

As a critique, the book performs well. It goes over multiple instances of casual misogyny in the modern Korean society in a way that's both specific to that particular society (e.g. the discussions on the preference for a male child, the expectation to quit your job once you become a mother) and broad enough that I could see the same patterns/behaviours in my own traditional African society (treating the female professional as lesser, disregarding the labour women undertake when they decide to become stay at home mothers who also have to cater to the wishes of their in-laws).

At times it made me very sad to realise that despite all the leaps and bounds towards gender equality we've made, we still have a long way to go. Personally, I fear things may be worse going forward because of things like social media's polishing of beliefs like feminism and the commercialisation of EVERYTHING which prompts people (mainly men in charge or in power) to see women as 'slaves to the home' and 'a risk to their bottoms lines' instead of people with ambitions, dreams, and more importantly, people who need to make a living in this hellscape of an economy regardless of their marital status which is an ongoing problem pointed out by the author through the psychiatrist's POV in the last chapter. Nothing will change because men in charge don't want there to be change. It's too expensive for them because they stand to lose more if the change comes into effect.