A great urban fantasy read!

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jliu618 Avatar

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- 4.75 Stars -

"You're the brightness," the girl said. "The sun chased by shadows. She's the shadows."


Miyoung is a half-gumiho (nine-tailed fox) who needs to suck the gi (energy) out of men in order to survive. Because of this, she is forced to keep her identity secret. However, when Jihoon, a normal human boy in high school, is attacked by a goblin, Miyoung decides to save him and reveals her nine tails. In the process, she loses her fox bead (her gumiho soul), which puts her in great danger as we soon find out that whoever wields the bead can control her.

I truly love this book, the plot, and the characters in it SO MUCH.

Aspects I loved:
- I loved the Korean mythology in this book. It was so interesting to read about, and I appreciated the little background stories about the mythology scattered throughout as well.
- I LOVED the characters. Most of them are morally grey, which I actually enjoyed in this book, and they deserve the actual WORLD.
- Miyoung and Jihoon's character development. Because of their experiences throughout the book, Miyoung learned to open up to people and Jihoon became more mature.
- I loved the inspiration taken from kdrama tropes. The romance was so cute!
- The plot twists. There were so many things I didn't see coming; I was VERY surprised during some moments of this book.
- I had a few remaining questions about the ending, but I think overall, the story wrapped up very nicely.

Aspects I disliked (the only thing keeping me from giving this a full five stars):
- Something about the plot development in the first third felt a little scattered to me. Luckily, this did get better later on in the book, where the story progressed in a very intriguing way, and the pacing was impeccable.

I definitely recommend this book, especially to those who love kdramas and mythology inspired fantasy.