Wicked Fox Review

Happy Monday! I hope you have an excellent day. To kick things off, let’s dive into a book I’ve been holding on to for months. Today you will be getting the last two books I read in April.

Customary warning: This is a reminder that these are my personal opinions. My thoughts and feelings are not your thoughts and feelings. I may not always be the target  audience for a book; sometimes I am. If I do not like a book, that doesn’t mean you’ll dislike it. If I love a book or simply like a book, you may hate it. Take everything I say with this knowledge. If it sounds interesting to you despite what I’ve said, then go ahead and read it. You’ll only know you like something if you read it yourself.

That being said… Spoilers ahead.

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Wicked Fox by Kat Cho

Synopsis From The Book

Eighteen-year-old Gu Miyoung has a secret–she’s a gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who must devour the energy of men in order to survive. Because so few believe in the old tales anymore, and with so many evil men no one will miss, the modern city of Seoul is the perfect place to hide and hunt.

But after feeding one full moon, Miyoung crosses paths with Jihoon, a human boy, being attacked by a goblin deep in the forest. Against her better judgment, she violates the rules of survival to rescue the boy, losing her fox bead–her gumiho soul–in the process.

Jihoon knows Miyoung is more than just a beautiful girl–he saw her nine tails the night she saved his life. His grandmother used to tell him stories of the gumiho, of their power and the danger they pose to men. He’s drawn to her anyway. 

With murderous forces lurking in the background, Miyoung and Jihoon develop a tenuous friendship that blossoms into something more. But when a young shaman tries to reunite Miyoung with her bead, the consequences are disastrous and reignite a generations-old feud . . . forcing Miyoung to choose between her immortal life and Jihoon’s.

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Fantasy | YA – E | Parental Neglect, Parental abuse, attempted murder | Familial love, Sacrifice, Loyalty and Dedication, Trust

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Initial Thoughts Before Reading:

Alright lets do this! I have had this book forever, from my FL box. However I have not had the chance to read it. I’ve had it on my TBR forever. I have needed to read this and it just never happened, because I ran out of time or motivation to read a lot. So! I’m excited to read this now. This is my last OWL book for the year! I got this!

Initial Thoughts After Reading:

WOWOW. That was a bit longer than I expected, if we are being honest. It went over like everything. There were multiple villains. It was great in general and I really did like the novel. It was also just long. And it could have been a stand alone. So like. WOW.

Plot Overview:

Miyoung is a gumiho, a fox demon, who sustains herself on the souls of men and has a deadly fear of water. With her friend, a shaman named Nara, she consumes the souls of evil men every full moon. Jihoon is a boy who does little than play around at cafes all the time, and is charming. One night Jihoon’s dog goes off into the forest and Jihoon follows to find Miyoung. Miyoung, who already finished feeding, saves Jihoon from death of another demon. In the attack, Miyoung’s fox bead (basically her soul) escapes her body. She doesn’t know how to put it back.

Miyoung then joins Jihoon’s school. The two of them are tense with each other at first, him wanting to speak to her, her wanting to speak to no one. However, Jihoon helps Miyoung out with the bullies, which begins a lot after a while, and they grow closer. In the two months that they get to know each other, the two grow very very close to the point that Jihoon thinks he loves her. Miyoung on the other hand, during the first month tries to figure out how to get the bead back in her with the help of her friend Nara. They fail on the first month’s full moon and Miyoung is plagued by the ghosts of those she killed. On the second full moon, she realizes Nara is not her friend.

Nara’s grandmother has lured Miyoung into a trap in order to kill Miyoung like how Yena, Miyoung’s mother, killed Nara’s mother. There is a large fight, and Jihoon saves Miyoung. Jihoon takes her to his house, where Yena finds them. She attacks Jihoon’s grandmother and stabs him, to protect Miyoung. Miyoung tries to save him and uses Jihoon’s grandmother’s gi (energy; at the behest of the grandmother) to save Jihoon. She then disappears with her mother.

For the next few months, Jihoon is plagued with seizures. In order to save him, Miyoung implanted her fox bead in him (he doesn’t know.) His grandmother is in a coma and won’t wake. He feels betrayed that Miyoung left without saying anything and asks her to come help save his grandmother over and over again. In time she does return and for weeks she tries to, until she is forced to meet with him. She then reveals what she put inside him and he feels betrayed by what he did. Jihoon’s grandmother finally dies.

Miyoung finds out that Detective Hae (a detective that Jihoon likes) is her father. She finds out that her father was with her mother until she was one. One night after a bad seizure, Jihoon is kidnapped by Yena. Yena reveals to him, while Detective Hae and Miyoung are approaching, that she once had a family that betrayed her. Her family tried to kill her so she was alone for a long time until she met Detective Hae. She thought she could trust him and he then gave her up to the Kim family (the Kim family is Nara’s family) who wanted to use Yena as a sacrifice to cure Nara of her sight. Yena lashed out, but didn’t mean to kill them. Grandmother Kim got to Detective Hae and convinced him that Yena was evil. He then gave his own daughter to Grandmother Kim, who used it to bargain for Yena’s fox bead. She gave her bead to Detective Hae, and he tried to drown Miyoung in a bathtub.

Detective Hae knocks out Miyoung once she hears the truth, and the ceremony to destroy the beads begins. A big fight breaks out. Yena’s bead is destroyed. Miyoung’s is saved by Jihoon. They try to save Yena with Miyoung’s bead. Mother and daughter have one more talk and then Yena disappears. Miyoung’s bead never reappears and she becomes depressed, thinking there is nothing left for her (mother dead and going to die in less than a month). After one hundred days, Jihoon tells her that she did not die and she moves on in her life not sure how she will. Neither does Jihoon because he lost his grandmother who was his everything. They move on together.

Epilogue: Miyoung visits the forest and her mother’s spirit tells her things are not over.

What I Liked:

Jihoon; Lol he was kind and understanding while being charming? That was the reason everyone liked him, despite him being just about average in every way. I won’t lie, a good personality pretty much defines a person and he was good inside and out.

Miyoung; I liked her. I really am happy for her. I feel bad that she had to isolate herself the whole story but I am happy that she was able to find happiness in the end (for now).

Yena; She was my favorite character. She was exceedingly strict, but ultimately for a good reason. Her family tried to kill her. Her husband tried to kill her, use her, and then kill her daughter. Nah, I stand by her. Sure she was horrible to Jihoon, but that was because she really didn’t know if she could trust him. I think in other situation she may have accepted him. She was a mother trying to protect her own after such tragedy and I will never hate that.

Changwan; He was a chill friend, the rich boy in the group of a rag tag friends, and the coward. He was a good balance against Jihoon and Somin.

Somin; She was beautiful, feisty and amazing. I love her. She may want to try to break less school rules, but who am I to judge. She’s amazing and a good friend to the characters in the end.

Jihoon’s halmeoni; What a wholesome character who cared for her family above everything else, even when her daughter couldn’t be around her. I really loved her and am devastated that she died. She was a wonderful guide character.

Nara; We didn’t get a whole lot on her, but from what we did get she was dedicated to her family but truly didn’t believe Miyoung was all evil. I really hope we get more on her in book 2.

Junu; I love the mysterious character who helps out from the shadows and is seductive and charming. He was all of those things, while also giving off illegal vibes from the store he ran. Probably my favorite character to read when given his interactions.

Detective Hae; Screw this guy. Like I see how much he tried to help the other humans, but seriously screw him. He tried to drown his daughter in a bathtub. Irredeemable.

MiyoungxJihoon; Lets talk about how this relationship begins over months. Lets talk about how it continues months later. Lets talk how they do say I love you but I was totally fine with that because of the situations they were in. They trusted each other, helped each other, and constantly risked themselves to save each other. This is the sort of dedication I adore. So I adore them together.

What I Would Have Liked or Changed:

Honestly, with the way that this ended it could have been a stand alone. I’m interested to see where it goes from here, but I’m not sure it was needed.

Rating: 4.5/5

Notable Quotes:

“When something is important to you, you’re willing to give up a lot for it.” – pg 117

“Looking at life with humor doesn’t mean I don’t take it seriously. You need to be able to laugh at things, even the sad scary stuff sometimes.” – pg 140

“Maybe its wrong for us to hold any one person as our whole world. Maybe… Maybe it’s wrong of us to owe all our happiness or sadness to one person.” – pg 410

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