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novelheartbeat 's review for:
Shadow of the Fox
by Julie Kagawa
The dragon is rising.
Three things Jessi loves:
-Japanese culture
-Julie Kagawa
-Inuyasha
I knew I would love this book before I ever picked it up, because 1) Julie is my second favorite author of all time, and 2) I LOOOVE Japanese culture. There are not enough Japanese books in YA! In fact, the only other one I know of off the top of my head is my fave series, The Lotus Wars (by Jay Kristoff who happens to be my favorite author). This book reminded me so much of that world, and it made me love it even more!
Which brings me to my third point: This book is basically Inuyasha in book form. I wasn't expecting that going in, so it was a pleasant surprise! It felt SO much like Inuyasha, which is one of my all time fave animes, I enjoyed the shit out of it you guys! I had so much fun reading this book. The oni and yokai and the feudal era-esque world just screamed Inuyasha. It reads very much like an anime as well. It was awesome!!
I also want to say how thrilled I am that Julie is finally publishing a Japanese story. WINNING. And even better that it's a kitsune story! The kitsune myth fascinates me, and when she teased it at a signing I went to a year or two ago I was beside myself! I'm so glad I got my hands on this book.
Now, on to the story. The world and culture were definitely my favorite part! I adored all of the colorful and imaginative Japanese culture and legends brought together. And the idea of a wish granting dragon that awakens only once in a thousand years - um, AMAZING?! It was such a unique and magical concept, and Julie's beautiful storytelling brought it to life.
"I am nothing. I am a weapon in the hands of the Kage. My life exists only to be the bearer of Kamigoroshi and to obey the orders of the Shadow Clan."
The characters were really outside of Julie's typical norm. Yumeko is very naive because of being locked away at the temple her whole life and experiencing basically nothing (SHE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND SARCASM like what even is this in a Julie book, no sarcasm from our main character?!); and Tatsumi had the personality of a loaf of bread due to being an emotionless soldier (he has to lock his emotions away because if he doesn't the demon, Hakaimono, that's trapped in his sword will take over his soul and that = reeeaally bad mkay). I'm so used to Julie's snarky, fiesty characters that it was VERY different to read these two. Reading Tatsumi's POV was a bit difficult at first because there is ZERO emotion to it whatsoever. But over time you can see the clear change in him as he starts to feel (
Spoiler
which ultimately ends up allowing Hakaimono to take him over, oops. I'm glad that after all of the building up and foreboding about Tatsumi having to suppress his emotions to avoid that outcome, Julie didn't spare him and have him to overcome the demon when he let his emotions get the best of him!But, of course, we couldn't have a Julie book without at least one snarky character; so we have Okame, the honorless and sarcastic ronin to save the day! He was my favorite (of course, again)! I loved his snark, especially when Yumeko took him seriously. Banter is my fave and Julie is a pro at writing it!
There are switching POVs - which is something that only works for me half of the time. But with this one, it worked! The chapters in the ARC weren't actually labeled even though they switch off between Yumeko and Tatsumi, but I never forgot who I was reading or got lost in the POV. There was a clear distinction between the two!
Um, THAT ENDING? Of course I knew it would be a cliffhanger. It's Julie. But dammit, I wasn't ready for that!
Spoiler
Yumeko is going to have to go all Kagome and bring Inuyasha, I mean Tatsumi, back from the demon side. *waggles eyebrows* MY BODY IS READY.
P.S. Kamigoroshi (the sword that Tatsumi wielded) was badass and TOTALLY reminded me of Inuyasha's sword. Just sayin'.
AUDIO RE-READ, JUNE 2019
I originally gave this book 5 stars even though I didn’t love it quite as much as I wanted to the first time I read it, but I enjoyed it a lot more the second time around on audio! I didn’t care for Yuki’s narrator (Joy Osmanski), but I adored the narrators for Yumeko (Emily Woo Zeller) and Tatsumi (Brian Nishii). Especially Tatsumi! They were both perfect, and brought the characters to life!
This review was originally posted on Novel Heartbeat. To see a breakdown of my assessment, please visit the full review here.