*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC

A short, fast-paced read, A Magical Girl Retires is ostensibly lighthearted yet surprisingly thoughtful with hidden depth and dark themes. The main character's plight should be relatable to countless young people with her economic woes in a seemingly hopeless world. 

Park is very clever in her use of the machinations behind magical girls and their magic that subtly, succinctly reflect the harsh reality faced by girls and women, which is especially relevant for her feminist-hating and incels-coddling native South Korea. The novel's underlying dark themes are threaded with some humor and sparkles, and I like how the most alarming disaster is concluded to be climate change, not some aliens, criminals or monsters. 

While the book's current short iteration works alright, I think Park could have expanded the story even more. A longer length would certainly make the characters, wolrd and themes more fully fleshed out, as well as reducing the currently almost dizzying and frenetic pace of the novel. Hur's translation, as always, is great and I also like the illustrations by Kim, though I do find it quite ironic that no woman prominently contributes to the English version.