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4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
First and foremost, a huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this eARC!
The God and the Gwisin managed to capture the charm and humour of the original with ease. It's a miracle that Sophie Kim could take what seemed like a perfect standalone and create a sequel that feels satisfying, and she manages it phenomenally.
I personally enjoyed the baby Hwuanin aspect immensely, and loved seeing Nam Somi get her own happy ending. The character work was exceptional, and the true star of the novel, as Kim unravels the inner workings of her characters and guides them towards a beautiful conclusion.
(Also that surprise in the epilogue had me screaming!! Wonderful!!)
This duology has been a complete and utter delight to read, and one I'll find myself revisiting over and over again.
The God and the Gwisin managed to capture the charm and humour of the original with ease. It's a miracle that Sophie Kim could take what seemed like a perfect standalone and create a sequel that feels satisfying, and she manages it phenomenally.
I personally enjoyed the baby Hwuanin aspect immensely, and loved seeing Nam Somi get her own happy ending. The character work was exceptional, and the true star of the novel, as Kim unravels the inner workings of her characters and guides them towards a beautiful conclusion.
(Also that surprise in the epilogue had me screaming!! Wonderful!!)
This duology has been a complete and utter delight to read, and one I'll find myself revisiting over and over again.
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy
The God and the Gwisin by Sophie Kim is the third person dual-POV fantasy romance sequel to The God and the Gumiho. Seokga has been searching for Hani’s reincarnation for years and finally the red thread of fate tying them together leads him to her incarnation: Kisa. Only Kisa has already died and is now surviving on a boat in the afterlife and Seokga has to find the person who tried to kill his brother.
I loved The God and the Gumiho, so I was super excited about this one. The cover is dynamic and it has a lot of my favorite pieces from the last book, including the mystery elements, the tension between Kisa and Seokga, and how well Sophie Kim blends fantasy, mystery, and romance together. This book met my expectations and Sophie Kim is now an autoread author for me because sticking the landing in a genre blend and then adding mythology and K-drama flair once was already hard but doing it twice shows a lot of skill.
The Ship of Theseus thought experiment comes up quite a bit as Kisa and Seokga contemplate their new relationship and its relation to Seokga’s relationship to Hani. Kisa and Hani have different tastes and interests on top of looking different and having different names. Hani was a freeloader when she saw the chance while Kisa was a medical professional at a young age. Hani also lived for hundreds of years as a gumiho while Kisa was a shaman. They’re very different characters but certain things about them remain the same, such as their love of spicy historical novels and their intelligence even if it presents differently. I loved that this book explored the question of reincarnation through the thought experiment because it is a very interesting question and the ways that it relates to romance open up a lot of doors for angst and character exploration.
Seokga and Kisa’s relationship takes time to develop and Kisa wants to keep them as friends and struggles with being reincarnated. She is very much attracted to Seokga early on like he is to her, but she pushes those feelings away in favor of taking a more academic approach because it’s safer for her. She’s also somewhat scared because she’s never had a relationship and lacks experience in a lot of ways and I appreciated how Seokga responded to these concerns. I also liked Seokga’s journey with what it was he loved about Hani and how it connects to Kisa.
I would recommend this to fantasy of fantasy mysteries and Romantasy and readers who loved The God and the Gumiho
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The God and the Gwisin was everything I wanted and then some. Sophie Kim has seriously leveled up—this book is lush, romantic, a little eerie, and somehow both fun and emotionally resonant. While I enjoyed The God and the Gumiho, this sequel felt sharper, more focused, and honestly? Better.
The dynamic between the leads had me grinning and emotionally invested. I loved how the mythology continued to unfold with rich detail but never felt overwhelming. And the banter? Top-tier. The romance was slow-burn in the best way—tension, pining, payoff. Yes, yes, and yes.
It’s rare for a sequel to step out from the shadow of its predecessor, but The God and the Gwisin didn’t just step—it twirled, winked, and left me swooning.
Our crew is back and this time, they are on a cruise through the underworld!
I had a difficult time getting into this installment, unfortunately, it doesn't get interesting until around 22%. There were many character introductions and setting that needed to be laid out, which was difficult to get through when this is supposed to be a continuation of an already existing story. I was saddened by how many lovable characters didn't even make an appearance in the novel. The story ended up suffering from second book syndrome (aka should have left book 1 a a standalone).
My biggest complaint was the romantic relationship. The red string of fate ended up just being annoying (the snippets of thoughts shared through it were weirdly formatted), the relationships being constantly compared made it seem like they weren't actually fated at all, and the spice was a weird mix of juvenile and over the top?
Thank you to Del Rey and Netgalley for the ARC!
I had a difficult time getting into this installment, unfortunately, it doesn't get interesting until around 22%. There were many character introductions and setting that needed to be laid out, which was difficult to get through when this is supposed to be a continuation of an already existing story. I was saddened by how many lovable characters didn't even make an appearance in the novel. The story ended up suffering from second book syndrome (aka should have left book 1 a a standalone).
My biggest complaint was the romantic relationship. The red string of fate ended up just being annoying (the snippets of thoughts shared through it were weirdly formatted), the relationships being constantly compared made it seem like they weren't actually fated at all, and the spice was a weird mix of juvenile and over the top?
Thank you to Del Rey and Netgalley for the ARC!
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
This was good. Not quite as good as «The God and the Gumiho», but still good. When I finished that first book in this (presumably) duology, I was bawling. I was also really looking forward to the sequel, while also dreading it somewhat. Mainly because I loved the dynamic between Seokga and Hani in the first book and was not all that confident that Sophie Kim would be able to recapture as incredible a dynamic between Seokga and whoever Hani’s soul reincarnated into. And my doubts were kinda right. The dynamic between Seokga and Kisa is very different from his dynamic with Hani, but it still works. Just not quite as perfectly as before. Ultimately, Seokga and Kisa are still really sweet and loveable together, and I’m jealous that they get to live in a cozy cottage in a magical library.
Oh and the plot was good too I guess. I mean the plot was once again centred around a case Seokga (and Kisa) had to investigate, just like in the first book. This time I guessed who the killer was pretty much immediately, which was not the case in the first book, but that didn't detract from the reading experience for me. I don't really have much else to say about this, since the detective case is very much just a background story, with the main story being the relationship between Kisa and Seokga. I think I slightly preferred the case in the first book, but not by much.
Lastly, I think it would've really helped to have a pronunciation guide somewhere in the book. These often annoy me in Fantasy books because ultimately it doesn't really matter if some made-up fantasy name is mispronounced, and also the 'phonetic' spellings used are quite confusing for a non-native English speaker (especially the vowels). However, since the 'fantasy words' in this are actual real names of entities in Korean mythology/folklore, I would've loved a pronunciation guide. I read the first book as an audiobook, so I knew that the <s> in 'eoduksini' and 'gwisin' is pronounced more like an English <sh> than an English <s>, but loads of other words I'd never heard before.
Oh and the plot was good too I guess. I mean the plot was once again centred around a case Seokga (and Kisa) had to investigate, just like in the first book. This time I guessed who the killer was pretty much immediately, which was not the case in the first book, but that didn't detract from the reading experience for me. I don't really have much else to say about this, since the detective case is very much just a background story, with the main story being the relationship between Kisa and Seokga. I think I slightly preferred the case in the first book, but not by much.
Lastly, I think it would've really helped to have a pronunciation guide somewhere in the book. These often annoy me in Fantasy books because ultimately it doesn't really matter if some made-up fantasy name is mispronounced, and also the 'phonetic' spellings used are quite confusing for a non-native English speaker (especially the vowels). However, since the 'fantasy words' in this are actual real names of entities in Korean mythology/folklore, I would've loved a pronunciation guide. I read the first book as an audiobook, so I knew that the <s> in 'eoduksini' and 'gwisin' is pronounced more like an English <sh> than an English <s>, but loads of other words I'd never heard before.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes