Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa

What I drank: post-Thanksgiving treat yo self because it’s been DAYS of family time and not enough tome toppling. Kicked off with fancy bourbon from Husband’s bday, then cranberry sour from TJ, and now wine.

What its about: like inuyasha but better and also inuyasha is a girl and there is no time traveling.

So we’re in mythical Japan where demons are a thing

Characters
– We’ve got Yumeko the half human half kitsune (fox demon)
– Tatsumi the strong silent samurai type
– A straight up ghost
– A ronin comes in at one point. (A ronin is like a disgraced samurai, and also a movie starring robert deniro that my dad has watched a LOT.)
– Also a ruthless villain, some potential allies, and many demons of unusual sizes

There is a long held myth (so, a real thing) that if you can assemble the pieces of a legendary scroll you can summon a sea dragon and win all the things, so obviously everyone is trying to make sure bad dudes dont get the pieces. Many adventures happen and secrets are revealed.

What I thought: LOVE LOVE LOVE.
It’s kind of the best elements of literary-ness, fairytale, and anime, but that anime bit may be bc Netflix has SO MUCH anime lately. (I would 100% watch Shadow of the Fox as an anime.) But sooooo…literary. I dont know know how to better express this, other than this doesn’t read as YA but as a substantive literary novel. I just really enjoyed reading this book. It could have been super trope-y or fallen into a rut like so much YA fantasy, but it was so fairytale saga and a damn delight to read. Yumeko’s innocence and Tatsumi’s honor bound conscience could get old but work out so so well. The transition between narrators, which isnt delineated super clearly, ends up being handled very well. I’m not in love with how the ronin character was worked in but I’m willing to see how this plays out in book 2.

What I gave it: 4 scroll fragments

What I’d pair it w: oooo so many options, but who doesnt love a cold lager after a long journey?

FBGM,

linz