"It may not seem it, but its a rare gift hes giving you, his friendship."
"I didnt ask for it."
"Its not something you ask for, that's why its a gift."
I didn't know at first it was purposely written as a Korean Drama but I immediately felt it. The characters are sweet and deep, with difficult pasts and strained familial relationships.
I instantly liked the characters. I liked how Jihoon has the personality of what most (at least in my opinion) assume a Fox spirits to be. Hes attractive and uses that to get his ways, he's playful and mischievous. I like that irony.
The first scene when Miyoung met Jihoons Halmeoni and they had dinner together was so sweet and wholesome. You got this build up of their relationship and then seeing it through someone else's view was really nice to see. It got me choked up for Miyoung.
Which leads me into a positive of this book. I feel the emotion really hits. Going back to the Korean Drama aspect, I don't personally watch them. I think the acting is usually too dramatic and cringey. You dont really get that when reading. (Minus the couple of times when the group of friends all "bust out laughing" at the same time at a joke thats not really THAT hilarious.) But this book hits the elements in a natural and heartstring-pulling kind of way.
I think its interesting that it takes about 200 pages for the whole friend group to finally come together. Its actually kind of nice. The build up seems genuine and realistic. You see the struggle she had alone, then the struggle to accept Jihoon and then it all just comes together.
My next point being that this book felt fairly long, but I didnt dislike it. I feel like I still went through it pretty quickly and enjoyed my time. It took time to set up the drama and relationships and I think it really paid off.
Let me get to some negatives and why its not a 5 star before I wrap up my review:
This isn't necessarily a negative but a preference, or at least a warning. In my opinion when I think of a Fox-Demon I image their mischievousness, their fox-fire, their trickster or illusionary power. In the book their kind just beautiful, and strong, with the ability to live off of human life force, that's it. The fantasy element isn't taken too far in this book so measure your expectation as this was kind of disappointing to me.
I also feel like we didnt get to see much of her powers and abilities before the "drama" set in to where she couldn't really make use of them.
This next part is about a particular plot element at the end, so spoiler:
[Im sorry but one of the most annoying sentiments is when someone younger, usually the child or in this case grandchild, lose their parent/ grandparent and think its their fault, or it should have been them. Like NO parent or grandparent would EVER trade their life for their childs (I mean in most cases where we assume love is involved) Quite frankly its stupid and selfish to think that. Would your Grandparent really be better off if they lived on while their grandchild died...come on. You should want to live right by your family that died, not wallow and think it should be you. You have your whole life ahead of you, and Grandparent wouldnt want that gone.
The sentiment really only works with siblings (and ofcourse parents that lose children.) I just cant wrap my head around a child thinking that about the grand/parents. (hide spoiler)]
I know one of my positives was the 200 page mark/ friendship group thing. But I did want to point out that I wish they stayed in the story a bit more, they aren't that prevalent and I think it would have been nice to see Miyoung finding alot of people to care about not just Jihoon.
Finally: After the drama picks up, there's a lot of time and distance skipping, it was kind of jarring. The way she wrote the climb to the climax/resolution wasnt very smooth and could have used some more work.
Those are really my only grievances. I really quite liked it and the cover is beautiful so Im happy to say its staying on my bookshelf! I think it would be a good reread if Im ever going on a trip or a romantic getaway.
I was actually nervous the ending twist or resolution wouldn't be satisfying. But I still was surprised by the actual reveal which was nice! I honestly didnt think I would have these feelings for certain characters but it all paid off quite nicely.
Lastly I definitely appreciate her glossary in the back of the book and details she added to help the reader. I know it sounds small but I just finished a Nigerian styled book and the way the author wrote it left the reader not know what anything was and gave no help to educate us. I;m not Korean or Asian at all so I hope she did her culture justice because it felt really immersive and I really enjoyed being entertained and educated with the Korean practices, language and foods.
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