Wednesday, December 4, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wicked Fox by Kat Cho




Wicked Fox is a K-Drama* inspired young adult fantasy by author Kat Cho.  Take one part romance soap opera, another part young adult story about growing up with rough parents and a lot of internal blame and guilt, and another part Korean-Myth inspired fantasy, and you have this novel.  Unsurprisingly - given its inspirations - its a book that follows quite a few classic tropes, which I (and I presume other readers) will recognize quite well as they come up along the way.

*Despite several authors I enjoy tweeting about them, I've never actually watched a K-Drama (Korean Drama ), so that's the extent of my writing about them in this review.  

 Of course, tropes aren't a bad thing and Wicked Fox weaves these tropes in so well that I rarely groaned whenever a new one would come up to cause a swerve in the plot.  Cho weaves these tropes around a pair of excellent main characters - a high school boy and a teenage girl who's actually half-gumiho (the Korean myth version of a nine tailed fox) - and their development and romance through it all makes the book really enthralling from beginning to end.


-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------
Gu Miyoung is no ordinary teenage girl - she's a gumiho, a nine tailed fox, who must feed at least once a month on the gi of men in order to survive.  But despite her mother's wishes, Miyoung has never wanted to take others' lives, and has tried to limit the damage her hunger can cause.  It is so hard to do, especially when discovery of her secret has led Miyoung to flee to new areas and schools throughout her childhood, with no friends or companions other than her strict and overbearing mother.

Ahn Jihoon is seemingly an ordinary teenage boy - easily liked by others, with a pair of really good friends, and a charm that can let him get away with quite a lot more than he should.  But after being abandoned by his parents with his grandmother, Jihoon keeps everyone at a distance and finds it hard to care too much about doing well at anything.

But when Jihoon and Miyoung's paths cross, everything changes: for Jihoon sees Miyoung's true form as she saves him from a Dokkaebi (goblin), and in the process of saving him, Miyoung's Yeowu Guseul - a fox bead that can control her soul.  And when Miyoung's latest school is also Jihoon's, he can't help but try to get close to her, and to be the friend she's never had.  And for Miyoung, not only has the loss of Miyoung's bead has left her in potentially dire straits, but Jihoon's refusal to go away irritates....and confuses her.

But as Miyoung's supernatural problems get worse, Jihoon and Miyoung will find themselves facing difficulties neither could ever have expected....not the least of which is each other.....
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Wicked Fox is told in chapters mostly alternating between Jihoon and Miyoung's perspectives.  The exception to this are a few interludes here and there in which an omniscient narrator tells tales of Gumihos throughout the ages, from the past up to the present.  Our setting will be somewhat familiar to readers even if they're not familiar with Seoul - classic high school setting + fantasy elements, and the Korean terms used are pretty easy to understand in context (and if not, the back of the book has a glossary of terms).  But the main thing about what makes book so good are our two leads, and they are excellent.

Miyoung is the more conventional at first: the girl who has a supernatural secret whose discovery has forced her to transfer numerous times, who keeps to herself and doesn't try to make friends.  And of course she has a heart of gold, not wanting to feed by killing anyone who isn't a bad man - and even killing in a way that's less efficient so that it's less brutal and monster-like.  And as a result of her mother's protections, she has nothing really that brings her happiness, and feels tremendous guilt over her own existence - and has no idea what to do with a boy who wants to try and be her friend despite her urging otherwise.  In another book Miyoung's cold heart would eventually warm up and shift her personality, but it never really does here in anything like a cliche manner - even when she finds herself enjoying Jihoon's company, her guilt and own upbringing doesn't allow her to change how she expresses herself much.

And then there's Jihoon, who on the surface appears to be the classic delinquent boy - smart but not trying too hard at school, well liked by all and with at least two pretty good friends to accompany him.  But there's a ton of inner turmoil for Jihoon, stemming largely from his parents (particularly his mother) abandoning him with his grandmother as a child, causing Jihoon to have a hard time wanting to get close really to anyone, even his closest friends.  He has a hard time letting go of the need to blame others for their wrongdoings - or what he feels to be wrongdoings - and it makes him find it difficult to deal with people after such actions occur, no matter how close they once were to him.  If it weren't for his absolutely caring grandmother, he'd be miserable, but that love shelters him and allows him to have fun with his two friend and video games.

Put the two of them together, add in a bunch of very excellent side characters who have a lot more depth than they seem at first (particularly Miyoung's mother), and add in a plot that has as many swerves as a daytime soap opera (or a K-Drama, I would presume), and you have a really great read that's hard to put down.  And while the book ends on a satisfying conclusion, it comes packed with an epilogue that includes a sequel hook, which makes me pretty excited honestly, because I'd love to see these characters in future stories.  It's not all perfect of course - while I really enjoyed the side characters, one in particular: Jihoon's friend Somin, seemed to pop in and out of the narrative to little impact despite how important she clearly is to Jihoon.  And while I enjoyed all the tropey swerves, I did yell in my head "COME ON" at least once at the sheer coincidences that would sometimes occur.  But the book justifies these coincidences well enough, and again it all comes together really damn well.





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