[REVIEW] THE GOD AND THE GUMIHO - SOPHIE KIM (ENGLISH REVIEW)

All reviews here are purely personal opinions and do not intend to degrade or glorify the work of others. Everyone has their own reading tastes. Thank you.

Title: The God and The Gumiho

Author: Sophie Kim

Publication: 4 June 2024

Pages: 416 pages

ISBN: 9780593599662

Language: English

BLURB

Kim Hani has retired from a life of devouring souls. She is, simply put, too full. Once known as the infamous Scarlet Fox, she now spends her days working in a coffee shop and annoying a particularly irritating, if unfairly handsome, trickster god as often as she can.

That god is Seokga the Fallen. Exiled from the heavenly kingdom of Okhwang, he now begrudgingly resides in the mortal realm, working toward his redemption and suffering through his interactions with the particularly infuriating, if sneakily charming, gumiho barista at his favorite café.

But when a powerful demon escapes from the underworld and threatens to end all of humanity, Okhwang’s emperor offers Seokga an enticing bargain: Kill this rogue creature, as well as the legendary and elusive Scarlet Fox, and he will be reinstated as a god. Hani, however, has no intention of being caught. Seokga might be a trickster god, but she has a trick of her own that he’ll never see coming: teaming up. As Seokga’s assistant, Hani will undermine and sabotage his investigation right under his overly pointy nose. Sure, she’ll help him kill the demon, but she certainly won’t allow him to uncover her secret identity while they’re at it.

As the bickering partners track their case down a path of mayhem and violence, the god and the gumiho find themselves inescapably drawn to each other. But will the unlikely couple stand together to prevent the apocalypse, or will they let their secrets tear them—and the world—apart?

 

REVIEW

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC! Here is my honest review!

Do you want to read a book with Korean Folklore in it? It has enemies to lovers and forbidden romance? And we also got a little bit of mystery? Then this book is maybe for you!

With confidence I could say that book with Korean Folklore / mystical creature in it is an easy one for me, because I could easily find all of it in Korean Drama. That’s why I think this book will be much of fun for me.

We will be focused on Seokga and Hani, where both of them because of one circumstance need to work together to capture Darkness Creature before it could create chaos in human realm. Since the beginning, bickering is always their thing, non-stop and always happening. For the blurb, it already explains the story that will fold in this book. Hani who has an upper hand, trying to cover up her true self so Seokga cannot find Scarlet Fox. And while she do that, several chaos also happen that lead all her plan ruin.

I enjoyed reading this book. The plot is well written, the villain also so powerful and great, I really like the terror it spread toward others. And even tough we know the real villain we don’t what body it takes so there are assumption that led to others. And it is not easy to defeat this villain. And I like how desperate of them to defeat this villain.

The love story here is bittersweet. As you can see, it is forbidden for both of them to fall in love and they still did it anyway. I love how they changes from always bickering to can not be separate at all. And I actually can not accept the ending that happen to both of them, as I say it really bittersweet what happen to them. Need more epilogue actually to tell us more with happen at the end but yeah, the author seems like it this way.

What I wanted, was you. I wanted for sun to shine on us again, Hani. I made you a promise. A promise on Hwanung

One thing bothering me is, in this book there are so many creatures mention like gwisin, gumiho, etc and all of them are in Korean name, but the author didn’t give us the legend / dictionary to explain more about this creature. For me it is easy because I am familiar with it but not the others. Just hope in the final edited book, the explanation of the creatures will be up.

At the end I give this book 4 ⭐ because I still enjoyed this book so much. Recommend if you like plot like Korean Drama!

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