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3.5 

A Magical Girl Retires

By Park Seolyeon & Anton Hur
A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon & Anton Hur digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

A millennial turned magical girl must combat climate change and credit card debt in this delightful, witty, and wildly imaginative ode to magical girl manga.

Twenty-nine, depressed, and drowning in credit card debt after losing her job during the pandemic, a millennial woman decides to end her troubles by jumping off Seoul’s Mapo Bridge.

But her suicide attempt is interrupted by a girl dressed all in white—her guardian angel. Ah Roa is a clairvoyant magical girl on a mission to find the greatest magical girl of all time. And our protagonist just may be that special someone.

But the young woman’s initial excitement turns to frustration when she learns being a magical girl in real life is much different than how it’s portrayed in stories. It isn’t just destiny—it’s work. Magical girls go to job fairs, join trade unions, attend classes. And for this magical girl there are no special powers and no great perks, and despite being magical, she still battles with low self-esteem. Her magic wand . . . is a credit card—which she must use to defeat a terrifying threat that isn’t a monster or an intergalactic war. It’s global climate change. Because magical girls need to think about sustainability, too.

Park Seolyeon reimagines classic fantasy tropes in a novel that explores real-world challenges that are both deeply personal and universal: the search for meaning and the desire to do good in a world that feels like it’s ending. A fun, fast-paced, and enchanting narrative that sparkles thanks to award-nominated translator Anton Hur, A Magical Girl Retires reminds us that we are all magical girls—that fighting evil by moonlight and winning love by daylight can be anyone's game.

Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

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252 Reviews

3.5
Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes
Beautifully writtenAddictiveFast-pacedThought-provokingAbuseViolence
Slightly Smiling Face“I always spare my time to read any books with magical realism setting. The narration using the 1st person point of view, no name just I. As in the book description the MC was having a suicidal thoughts, she's about to end her life but suddenly came a person saying that she's a magical girl called Ah Roa & gonna recruit her a as a magical girl. Roa said she's gonna be a magical girl of time, but it has a plot twist in the half of the story. I'm not really into the plot twist, it's make me questioning at first but I found it's understandable in the last chapter bcs she's the MC. I wish it has more suspense scene. The topic inside is not only about magical, it's about poverty, social, friendship, violence, and the main topic is climate change. I like it, but I don't think that I like it very much.”
Beautifully writtenEasy to readFast-pacedMagical setting

About Park Seolyeon

Park Seolyeon was born in Cheorwon, South Korea. She made her debut by winning the journal Silcheon Munhak's New Author Prize and received the 2018 Hankyoreh Literary Award for her novel The Woman Who Climbed on the Roof. Her works includes the novels Martha's Job and The Shirley Club, as well as the short-story collections Your Mom's the Better Player and Me, Me, Madeline. She is the recipient of the 2023 Yi Sang Literary Prize and the 2021 Munhakdongne Young Writers Award. She lives in Seoul and writes in a variety of forms and genres, with a focus on gender and labor.

Anton Hur

Anton Hur was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and was subsequently raised in six different countries on four different continents, including British Hong Kong, Ethiopia, the United States, and Thailand, but spent most of his time in Korea. He has worked as an interpreter and translator for more than two decades, and in 2022, was double-longlisted and shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, the first translator of color to do so. In 2023, his translation of Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny was shortlisted for the National Book Awards. He divides his time between Seoul and the science fiction-y island of Songdo with his husband. 

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