I’ve heard of Julie Kagawa for years, but I never got around to reading her books. Why? No idea. But now that she has a book about a ninja and a fox shape-shifter, all of a sudden I’m in. Come see if Shadow of the Fox held my attention!
The plot (from Goodreads):
“One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.
Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.
Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.
There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.
With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself. “
This story had me fascinated from the very beginning. Yumeko has a very distinct personality, and I love how her fox-spirit fit her character. Kage Tatsumi is particularly well-drawn — I love that he doesn’t really understand his own emotions because he has to keep them boxed in. The tension and the intrigue in this story were so well done because of their opposite personalities.
And I loved the side characters too! A great ensemble always makes for a good story. The villains are proper villains — I hate them ever so much — and the plot is twisty in all the right places.
Kagawa is a fantastic writer, and Shadow of the Fox only serves to reinforce that fact. Already, this feels like a great Chinese fantasy series — I can’t wait to read the sequel!
Until the next page turns, I remain —
Karie the Maknae
Dramas with a Side of Kimchi