Tag: book

Book Review – Shadow of the Fox

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Title: Shadow of the Fox

Author: Julie Kagawa

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

409 pages

3.75/5

Goodreads Synopsis

One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.

Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.

Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.

There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.

With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.

Review

It is very hard to be human, little fox. Even the humans themselves don’t do a great job of it.

-julie kagawa, Shadow of the fox

Hello again friends! I read Shadow of the Fox as a library book because Harlequin Teen was kind enough to grant me an eARC of Soul of the Sword to review (which will be the next review I post!) so I obviously had to read Shadow first!

I knew absolutely nothing of this book going in, and didn’t even read the synopsis before beginning. Big mistake. I was so confused reading this in the beginning – the whole first chapter seems to introduce a main character… but then she dies… (which isn’t a spoiler because after further perusal I noticed that her death is mentioned in like, the first paragraph). But I was thrown when I read that. I definitely should have read the synopsis before just jumping into this one.

I ended up liking this book, but it took me a good while to get into it. It was still sitting at a solid 3 stars when I was getting into the last quarter or so of the book. Here’s why:

  1. Generally, I don’t know much about Japanese culture. Honestly, my boyfriend had to tell me that this book was set in a Japanese culture. This is one area that I am woefully ignorant, which made it hard to understand. The writing is dense with traditional Japanese terms that hold little to no meaning for me, so I felt like I wasn’t understanding 2/3’s of the plot and characters. Not Julie Kagawa’s fault – but eye opening to see I need to read up and do some research. Over the length of the book, this got easier, but it took awhile.
  2. I could not connect with the main characters, Yumeko and Kage Tatsumi, for the longest time. The character arcs were a long time coming and they were very flat for most of the book. Yumeko is young & innocent, prone to mischief due to her fox like nature (she is half fox – can use magic – called in this world “kitsune”). Tatsumi is emotionless. Literally. It’s his job to be a walking robot slaying demons. Doesn’t exactly lend to an interesting or likable character. Frankly, he wanted to kill Yumeko immediately upon them meeting.

These two reasons made it so hard to get into this book. BUT – I will say they both improved by the very end of the book. I started to understand the terms more (thank you glossary in the back!) and the characters became more defined. You started to see more of Yumeko’s cleverness (even for a peasant girl) and Tatsumi’s desire to be more than a weapon for his clan. More characters are added to provide depth – and it begins to work. The gang gets in, and out, of a few jams and they really grow together as a #squad. Taiyo Daisuke could get it. Forreal.

But y’allll… that CLIFFHANGER. I’m so glad I had access to the next title because I was shook. This is a no spoiler review so that’s all I will say…

Overall, a few small things took this book lower than 5. I will be reading the second (in the trilogy) and reviewing it shortly. I will definitely continue on in this series, and I recommend it if Asian culture based books are your jam!

Thanks for reading, friends 🙂

Book Review – The Devouring Gray

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Title : The Devouring Gray

Author : Christine Lynn Herman

Publisher : Titan Books

368 pages

Rating : 4/5

Goodreads Synopsis

On the edge of town a beast haunts the woods, trapped in the Gray, its bonds loosening…

Uprooted from the city, Violet Saunders doesn’t have much hope of fitting in at her new school in Four Paths, a town almost buried in the woodlands of rural New York. The fact that she’s descended from one of the town’s founders doesn’t help much, either—her new neighbours treat her with distant respect, and something very like fear. When she meets Justin, May, Isaac, and Harper, all children of founder families, and sees the otherworldly destruction they can wreak, she starts to wonder if the townsfolk are right to be afraid.

When bodies start to appear in the woods, the locals become downright hostile. Can the teenagers solve the mystery of Four Paths, and their own part in it, before another calamity strikes?

Review

So, my apologies for not having a picture of this book that I took myself. I was so excited to get my library books back on time today that I forgot to take a photo first! Total fail, I’ll do better next time y’all. Anyhow, I wasn’t going to let that setback keep me from reviewing this beautiful book!

The Devouring Gray is a solid book that has all the things I am drawn to in YA Fantasy books. You’ve got this group of young characters with the weight of the world on their shoulders… all while still being in high school. They all have troubled pasts or troubled presents and have a connection to each other – they must work together to save their town from the monster in the Gray. Next, you’ve got a corrupt town and a group of adults who are frankly terrible and need to go somewhere quickly. Of COURSE the kids are the only sane one’s in the whole town of Four Paths. Lastly, it’s got a town with rich history, customs, and most importantly – MAGIC!

FOUR PATHS. Basically, a long while ago four people came across a town with a monster terrorizing it. They fought the monster and took some of it’s powers, banishing it to the “Gray”. The four youngsters are all descendants of the original four who saved the town – called “founders”. The town “worships” (doesn’t apply to everyone – in comes RISING ACTION!) them, as the descendants continue to patrol the town and fend off the Gray. The one catch is not every descendant gets powers. They just complete a ritual – each family has a different one. Those who fail – generally die. In the book, the Gray is becoming stronger and the founders are becoming weaker – the four main characters must work together to weaken it once and for all.

CHARACTERS. Justin, Harper, Isaac, and Violet. All founders, different families. Harper hates Justin for a past issue, Justin holds firmly onto the guilt of what he did to Harper. Both Justin & Harper failed their rituals*. Isaac has more power than he can control, and this gets him into trouble. Violet moved to Four Paths with her mother completely unaware of her heritage – but she quickly learns, and is less than impressed. They all have a good character arc, decent back stories, and will pull at the heartstrings.

THE ADULTS. OK. Look. I get it that we adults think we’re all that and a bag of chips, but honestly these kids are smarter than the adults. Justin’s mom Augusta is the Sheriff of Four Paths, but has a power that no one knows about because it would lead to SEVERE distrust if people knew. She would NOT have any power in the town if they had any clue what she’s been doing to them. She runs the place as if she is judge, jury, AND executioner and it is ANNOYING. She can seriously leave and wouldn’t be missed. Then Harper’s dad is part of a group that is trying to overthrow Augusta – but also has a much darker mission. Again, cue STUPIDITY. They almost got their damn selves killed. SMH. But I digress.

CRITIQUE. I generally LOVED this book. I was on the edge of my seat in the beginning because this type of book really is my YA bread and butter. BUT, there were parts that were hard to understand and weren’t explained super well – basically the whole climax scene. Also, the cliffhanger was good, but not GREAT. Give me a cliffhanger that makes me NEED the next book pronto mucho. The Devouring Gray leaves you with unanswered questions and a definite opening for the sequel, but I’m not feverishly refreshing the author’s Instagram page for release updates. For these reasons, I docked it one star – 4/5.