Meanwhile, a detective is investigating the mysterious deaths of a number of men in and around Seoul, and his suspicions fall upon both Miyoung – as perpetrator – and Jihoon – as one who is helping a criminal evade justice. Their search for information and talismans to help in their proposed ritual leads them into contact with more legendary beings, as well as with friends and enemies from Miyoung’s past, and that of her mother. Outside school, Miyoung and her shaman friend search for ways to replace the yeowu guseul – stashed safely in one of Miyoung’s pocket – in its rightful place within Miyoung’s body. Jihoon tries to befriend Miyoung and is at first rebuffed, although she is eventually forced to recognise that she needs the support of Jihoon and his friends if she is to avoid the attentions of the mean kids at school. However, he meets her twice in rapid succession: once in a dream and then again the next day at school, where she is introduced as a new transfer pupil. After his encounter with two beings he’d previously thought only existed in the bedtime stories told to him by his halmoni, he returns home expecting never to see the girl again. Fearing that the boy has seen too much, Miyoung swears him to secrecy before making a rapid exit, hoping never to see him again.Īhn Jihoon was in the forest to exercise his grandmother’s dog. Miyoung rushes to aid the boy, and although she eventually kills the dokkaebi, the magic it uses in the fight causes her to become separated from her yeowu guseul – the fox bead believed to house a gumiho’s soul. While tracking her latest prey, Miyoung strays deep into the forest and encounters a human boy who is being attacked by a dokkaebi – a goblin. This means she can only hunt at full moon – when her powers are strongest – and relies on a young shaman, who can communicate with the recently deceased, to find evil men to kill, thus bringing closure to their victims. Unlike the others – including her mother – she refuses, however, to take innocent lives or to inflict a painful death on her victims. Gu Miyoung is a gumiho and, like all of her kind, she needs to feed on the energy of humans in order to survive. The story begins with our heroine making use of both modern technology and ancient magic to track down an evil man. As I’ve read next to no fiction set in Korea (present day or otherwise), the setting of this novel gave me an additional incentive to read it. So I was very excited to spot this retelling of the Korean version of the legend: the gumiho (or kumiho in some renderings into English).

My favourite trickster character from international folklore is the nine-tailed fox, a trope I’m most familiar with in the form of the Japanese kitsune.

Stevie‘s review of Wicked Fox (Gumiho, Book 1) by Kat ChoĬontemporary Young Adult Fantasy Romance published by G.P.

Gumiho book