Book Review: ‘The God and the Gumiho’ is for the Kdrama Fans + Fantasy Readers Who Love a Modern Take on Ancient Mythology
Where are all my fellow Kdrama fans at?! If you love Kdramas and urban fantasy, you’ll probably enjoy Sophie Kim’s The God and the Gumiho. It’s an enemies to lovers story with a fallen Hades/Loki-like character who’s been banished to the human world after a failed coup. He’s understandably a grump, has lost most of his power and is tasked with capturing and dispensing 20K “unrulies” aka magical creatures doing bad things in the human realm, before he can ascend again. The only thing he likes? Coffee. One cream, and one sugar. And the only thing our FMC nine-tailed fox loves more, aside from men’s livers, is messing with him when he comes into the Creature Cafe where she works as a barista. She’s been staying undercover for many years, but is the infamous scarlet fox, a Gumiho who went on one too many killing sprees in her past. Yeah, this sounds a bit dark right? But honestly, it’s pretty light. In fact, that’s one of my biggest issues with the story. They’re both supposed to be thousands of years old, but their dialogue sounds like they’re petulant teenagers. The lack of maturity didn’t quite vibe with either of their supposedly dark backstories. And don’t get me wrong, I love banter, but sometimes this felt a little over the top. Was I invested by the end though? Yes. Should I also warn you it’s a bit of a Ktrauma? I mean, aren’t most Kdramas? This one is no exception. But let’s get into it…more thoughts below.
ProTip: The cover image above is my Fairyloot special edition. I’m on a mission to read through more of my physical TBR!
Things to Know:
Korean Mythology and Creatures
Urban Fantasy
Curses
Enemies to Lovers
Grumpy sunshine
Murder Mystery
Dual POV
Completed Duology
As I mentioned above, the FMC, Hani, is an ancient nine-tailed-fox wanted for going on a killing spring a hundred-ish years ago. But she’s hidden herself well, and she’s full…when she finds out the trickster god, Seogka, has a deal to go back to the heavenly realm if he catches her and another unruly wreaking havoc, she decides to pose as his assistant to mislead him. They naturally loathe each other…until they don’t.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Hani for a lot of this book because her character backstory and behavior and way of speaking don’t really match. I struggled with that a bit. She reads like a super young, kind of annoying brat. So while I believe this is technically an adult book and does have some minimal spice, it reads more YA.
I really liked that we had a dual POV, and I’m not going to lie, I enjoyed Seogka’s chapters most. He was just so broody and it was hilarious trying to see him not fall for her.
Was it predictable? Honestly, yes. I did guess everything. But that didn’t necessarily make it less enjoyable.
There is a sequel that is thankfully already out, so I definitely will want to pick that up to see how the story plays out—especially after that ending…no spoilers though!
I did an immersive read with my physical hardcover and the audiobook, and it is dual narrated since we have the two POVs, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the female narrator, but the male narrator was great. Still, if you’re an audiobook reader you can find the audiobook on Audible or Libro.fm (ProTips: Audible is 99 cents/mo for three months (99 cents/book) right now AND you can get two free audiobooks on Libro.fm with the code SWITCH right now).
Favorite Quotes:
“Hani is like a shooting star flying through the night, a shooting star that he wishes upon—wishes for the two of them to come out of this fight alive.”
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