South Korea is becoming a major player on the world’s literary scene, beginning with last year’s London Book Fair, which spotlighted Korean literature. In particular, the country’s literary scene is making a name for itself with dark, transgressive fiction by female writers, some of which might not feel familiar or likable enough for American readers—but they’re well worth the challenge. In the post–Gone Girl era, “dark” gets thrown around a lot when describing books that have anything other than a happily ever after ending, but these books really will take you to a dark place—as in “teenage girl has sex with her father to make him feel better after mom goes to prison for hacking up a teenage boy” dark. You’ve been warned.

“Western audiences love strong, memorable, active main characters, whereas Korean literature has tended to find an aesthetic value, and a social truthfulness, in quietness, ordinariness, [and] passivity,” says Deborah Smith, a London-based translator of Korean literature and the founder of Tilted Axis Press. (She translated The Vegetarian, mentioned below.) “They’re not coming from the tradition of the Romantic hero, and the contemporary culture is nowhere near as individualist as ours.” On that note, here are a few books you should know about—just don’t mistake any of them for beach reads.

Han Kang, The Vegetarian

Kang, daughter of a well-known writer, is a star in Korea, and The Vegetarian—three connected novellas published in a single volume—is her first to be translated into English. It kicks off with a scene many Americans will find familiar, where a young woman announces to her family that she’s a vegetarian now. But while scenes like that are often played for humor in American pop culture (Lisa Simpson, anyone?), Kang’s heroine’s decision sets off a series of unsettling events: her marriage ends, her parents renounce her, she runs the risk of being committed. It’s a complex, terrifying look at how seemingly simple decisions can affect multiple lives, and it also ably portrays the mindsets of both the titular vegetarian and the long-suffering sister who becomes her caretaker. In a world where women’s bodies are constantly under scrutiny, the protagonist’s desire to disappear inside of herself feels scarily familiar.