Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The God and the Gumiho

Also on Snow White Hates Apples.

Set during the early 90s in New Sinsi, a fictional city in the mortal realm where gods and mythological creatures roam among regular humans, The God and the Gumiho follows an unlikely duo as they work together to stop a demon of darkness from destroying the city and possibly the world.

One half of the duo is Seokga, a fallen trickster god who, after his failed coup, is now working as a detective as part of his sentence of having to slay 20,000 Unruly demons before he can reinstated as a proper god. He’s grumpy, prideful and certainly not the nicest to be around. But, does Hani care? Nope. As the gumiho known as the Scarlet Fox in her heyday, Hani’s not afraid of an ill-tempered fallen god. In fact, she’d fearlessly dish back what she gets, even when that lands her in hot water — and boy, it definitely does because right after getting on Seokga’s bad side, she has to worm her way into his good one so he won’t bring her and her friend to justice.

While this makes them sound like an ideal grumpy X sunshine / enemies-to-lovers duo, Seokga and Hani are, unfortunately, more annoying than I can withstand. For beings that are more than a thousand years old, they’re as mature as horny teenagers who’ve managed to find a spot and time away from adult supervision. It’s especially ridiculous how unprofessional both are when working. Like, arguing in front of the spirit of a murder victim? Making out and grinding at a stakeout? Peak bombastic side-eye, criminal offensive side-eye territory.

Also, since the main characters were just not it for me, I wasn’t a fan of the romance. The characters were too two-dimensional to bring their romance to life. Instead, they upped the cringe factor of tropes like ‘there’s only one bed’, ‘and they were roommates’ and ‘this is stupid and can come back to bite me in the ass but I’ll do it anyway’.

The aforementioned aside, I completely adore the mystery, the way the plot unfolded and the interwoven East Asian mythology. The detective plotline had me hooked in the beginning while everything that followed post-climax was *chef’s kiss*.

Thank you so much Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review! The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim is available at all good bookstores.

Content Warnings

lisashelves's review

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense 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? No

4.75

Content Warnings

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

Thank you to Del Rey for the physical ARC and to PRH Audio for the ALC - I am providing this review of my own accord <3

Premise:

They'll do anything to outsmart each other. Anything, except fall in love.In this delightful Korean contemporary fantasy, a fallen trickster god must pair up with a coffee-slinging, shapeshifting fox to track down a demon of darkness before it devours the mortal world.

I'm literally lol-ing at this premise because..... nvm, I won't spoil it *heehee*

Overall, I had SO MUCH FUN reading this one. I am so excited for the next book in the series because the ending was such a cliffhanger/shock. I was not expecting that, and it was so surprisingly selfless and bittersweet *sobs*

The tension and banter between Kim Hani and Seogka was perfection. I loved how goofy these two were, and I think this would translate so well onscreen if it was optioned and adapted hehe.

cw notes: also, I put "addiction" as a content warning because the character is described as having an addiction to coffee/caffeine, though I wonder if it's more of a dependency? Just curious wording idk.

Content Warnings

readabookortwo's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense 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

5.0

"The sound is as bright and sparkling as the morning sunshine. And like the morning sunshine , it annoys him."

Trigger warnings: blood, gore, violence, death, sexual content

The God & The Gumiho was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024 and I am SO happy to say, it absolutely did not disappoint me. I loved this book from start to finish, there wasn't a single second where I felt bored or wanted it to pass quickly I just loved it. In this book we follow Seokga, a fallen God who wants to become a God again and Hani, a Gumiho who is trying to leave her old life behind her but when a demon starts to attack and a deal is struck, the two of them find themselves working with each other even though they hate each other.

I'll start with Hani and I loved Hani so much!! Yes, she definitely was selfish especially at the start of the book but I really loved watching her growth as a character throughout the story. I also just loved her so much she was so funny and witty and her quick one liners when it came to Seokga absolutely made me giggle. You could tell that she was truly battling herself when it came to what she knew she should do and what she wanted to do and the way she came to care for Seokga my heart I loved them so much!!

My favourite character of the whole book, of course, was Seokga. From the very first chapter I knew he was my favourite. He absolutely is such a little shit but of course he is the Trickster God but he made me laugh so much. The way he absolutely hated Hani and then started to become fond of her and then their relationship I really loved. The way he started to really care for the people around him especially with Shim and he really again did have so much growth during the book. I mean of course he wad still a little shit but he really cared for these people around him and wanted to help the city he thought he hated. I just really loved Seokga and think he deserves every happiness.

One thing, I really loved about this book was the setting. Not just the setting of Korea which I did really love and was really beautiful but also the fact it was set in 1992. Its so fun when they talk about mobile phones and cars etc because you know that it's clearly set in the 90's and I loved the way Hani talks about getting her phone and how it's so hard to get etc because you compare that with what life is like now. I just really loved that and it made for really fun parts in the story.

Talking of the setting, I also really loved the Korea Folklore aspects of this book. I really found it so interesting learning about the God's of Korean folklore and of course the creatures such as Gumihos, Joseung Saja's etc I really love reading books about mythology and folklore from different cultures and really loved the way it was told in this book.

The Plot of this book was so, so good I genuinely loved every second of it. I see why some people think its a slower pace at the start but I liked that, it gave room to really build these characters and learn their personalities before getting into the really gritty stuff because whilst the characters created funny moments, this was truly a very dark and at some points quite scary book. The way the eoduksini killed their victims through nightmares and stuff really creeped me out and the darkness and all that kind of stuff was quite creepy but I really loved the atmosphere and the plot itself. I'd absolutely love to read another of the authors books!

I loved the relationship between Seokga and Hani. Watching it develop from genuine mutal hatred to reluctant acquaintances to friends to more than that was so fun. They had such good banter and the way they constantly threw lines back and forth they absolutely had me giggling and their romance was very sweet. The only note I have on this is whilst their relationship doesn't happen fast in the book, it does in terms of plot because this whole book takes places over around a week but I could honestly push past that because I loved them so deeply!
Overall, if you couldn't tell, I loved this book so much. It was truly an absolute amazing read that had me laughing and sobbing and everything in between. I truly loved Hani and Seokga so so much and they are characters I will hold so dearly to me for a very long time!! I am absolutely interested in a sequel but this book ended so perfectly in my opinion so I will wait until we get more information. But, overall, this is one of my favourite books of the year and I'm so happy I read it!

Content Warnings

asims723's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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

4.5

Content Warnings

mosreads's review

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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