Wicked Fox by Kat Cho

My rating: five stars

Genre: YA, Romance, Urban Fantasy

Edition: Hardback

Goodreads Summary: Eighteen-year-old Gu Miyoung has a secret–she’s a gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who must devour the energy of men in order to survive. Because so few believe in the old tales anymore, and with so many evil men no one will miss, the modern city of Seoul is the perfect place to hide and hunt.

But after feeding one full moon, Miyoung crosses paths with Jihoon, a human boy, being attacked by a goblin deep in the forest. Against her better judgment, she violates the rules of survival to rescue the boy, losing her fox bead–her gumiho soul–in the process.

Jihoon knows Miyoung is more than just a beautiful girl–he saw her nine tails the night she saved his life. His grandmother used to tell him stories of the gumiho, of their power and the danger they pose to humans. He’s drawn to her anyway.

With murderous forces lurking in the background, Miyoung and Jihoon develop a tenuous friendship that blossoms into something more. But when a young shaman tries to reunite Miyoung with her bead, the consequences are disastrous . . . forcing Miyoung to choose between her immortal life and Jihoon’s.

I have always enjoyed learning about Asian culture – the food, music, beauty, fashion, etc. Especially Japanese and Korean culture. So when a book taking place in Seoul, about a gumiho, pops up, I am so down! I heard that people who like k-dramas – me! – would love this so I bought it as soon as I could! 

Likes: Mythology of all sorts has always interested me, and so the fact that this book is just saturated with Korean mythology made me really enjoy it! I didn’t know much about gumihos before reading this book and I found that they are so interesting. I love how much it teaches about Korean culture, and how it has a glossary at the back for words that I am unfamiliar with. Miyoung finds herself entering this friend group and I found it realistic how some of them were wary of her at first. Not every friend group comes together seamlessly at first and I appreciated how that was shown. There were also some twists that I didn’t see coming, I always enjoy a book that can surprise me.  

Dislikes: As with most romances, I did not like how most of the problems in this book could have been solved with some communication. Sure, real life is like that. People don’t communicate how they should. However, you would think a gumiho that is more than a thousand years old (if I am remembering correctly), and who only has one other person they can trust, would communicate with that person!! Her mom had so many secrets for literally no reason and it was so frustrating that there were so many terrible things that happened just because she wouldn’t be honest! Also, Miyoung kept on seeing horrible thing after horrible thing happen because of lack of communication, so you would think she would learn to talk to people. But no, she didn’t! She just kept on keeping secrets or not explaining herself. I don’t know. I understand that she is a gumiho and so she has to keep some secrets to protect herself, but there were scenes that could have been avoided if she had just talked to someone. 

Overall, I gave this a five out of five stars. Though the lack of effective communication clearly frustrated me, I enjoyed the book enough that I could get over it. My opinion is probably biased because I love k-dramas and Korean culture, but who cares, it is my opinion 🙂 This book made me feel a roller coaster of feelings, and though some of them were annoyance, I love almost any book that takes me on a wild journey of vivid emotions! I would recommend it to everyone who loves mythology and a little bit of romance!