blandrea_reads 's review for:

The God and the Gwisin by Sophie Kim

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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This is a sequel that follows on from The God and the Gumiho and for my reading experience that context was really important. 

The God and the Gumiho gave me my foundation in Korean mythology, I spent a lot of time looking things up (and then getting distracted and accidentally learning) to have context for stuff that was given it’s original name not the English translation (ie Gumiho, and I look it up to learn that means a nine tailed fox).  So while initially I felt that this was a failure in story telling, it was pointed out to me that this was a failure in my expectations.  My unconscious expectation was that anything non European/English should come with an explanation.  I thought back on my experience and realised how much lore I learned and how much I appreciated that I wasn’t spoon fed. 

Fast forward to the God and the Gwisin, and I am armed with a better understanding and appreciation for the way Sophie Kim writes, I have my trusty resources ready to look up anything unfamiliar and I am ready to learn as part of my escapism. 

The God and the Gwisin focuses on Kisa, a doctor who now lives on a Cruise ship in the underworld,  Seokga has been desperately looking for Hani (see previous book).  He suddenly find a red string of fate around his finger and desperate to find Hani, is surprised to find Kisa at the other end of the string.  Kisa is different from Hani in so many ways and neither Kisa or Seokga really know what to do about it.  To complicate matters worse, there has been a mysterious death on the ship which Seokga and Kisa have to work together to try and solve. 

I had so much fun with this story.  This is definitely the case where a strong foundation was laid in the first book, and I liked it, but being able to read this as the second book, I absolutely LOVED it.  This gave me all the context, depth, and K drama goodness that I wanted, along with some pretty solid love across time vibes. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.