I should have loved Shadow of the Fox, but I didn´t. Yes, it was somehow a reading pleasure, and I liked what I read for most of the story. But I didn´t fell in love with it. It was like watching a movie right before my inner eye. Julie Kagawa has a wonderful way to describe everything, and I liked the setting of the novel. But some parts of the plot seemed a bit childish and I had my problem with that.
Im Schatten Des Fuchses*
by Julie Kagawa
Shadow Of The Fox Series #1
Translation Beate & Ute Brammertz
Original Title Shadow Of The Fox
Publisher Heyne fliegt on September 23, 2019
Genre Fantasy
Pages 475
Format Hardcover
Source Publisher
✶✶✶✶
The fox girl and the samurai.
She holds the fate of Iwagoto in her hands: the shapeshifter Yumeko. Only she can prevent a dark prophecy that sweeps the entire Empire into darkness. Yumeko has to bring a secret scroll to a remote temple. When Samurai Tatsumi joins her on the way, Yumeko is overjoyed: The journey is long and dangerous. But she must conceal from the samurai that she has exactly what he is looking for. And he, too, keeps a secret that could kill both of them. Especially when they fall in love … (personal translated by ©Vi at Inkvotary).
Story
Yumeko was raised by monks and has lived all her life at the Silent Winds temple. All her life she has trained to hide her yokai nature. Because she is half kitsune, half-human. When her home is burned to the ground by demons, she gets told to keep the part of the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers safe and away from those who are willing to kill to get it. For Yumeko, an adventurous and dangerous journey starts where she soon learns that the way how she sees the world is not how others see it.
Style
Julie Kagawa´s style is soft, sensitive, and very well written. I love how she brings things to life, how she describes everything, and that she obviously has a passion and huge love for everything Asian. I could literally see everything right before my inner eye. No matter if it was life at the temple itself, in the wood or when Yumeko and Tatsumi had to fight demons or other creatures on their way to the imperial city. But I didn´t love the story the way I should have. Or the way I would have liked. Yes, I enjoyed most of the plot and had fun watching the growing affection between Yumeko and Tatsumi, but that is not everything that makes me turn the pages. There is brutality, a hate that is shown by some of the figures, that I couldn´t entirely understand. Why were they acting the way they did? Only because of the needed drama? Or just because they are that way?
Characters
Yumeko is a very naïve and gullible girl. She literally believes everything people tell her. At first, it was nice to watch that and to see how she needed some seconds to get the real meaning behind the words. But with the continuation of the plot, it became somewhat annoying. Don´t get me wrong here. She is a figure with the heart in the right place. She can´t harm others unless her life depends on it. But the way how she was raised brings her often enough into a dangerous situation. On the other hand, she is kind of smart. Sees things others don´t notice and acts as if there is no evil in the world. All in all, she is a combination of emotions and character traits that make her look very childish and easy going. Life and the world, in particular, are just fun for her. That her task is dangerous and anything but fun and easy is something she does not realize until the end of this novel.
Conclusion
Partly a very poetic novel with a very surprising but well-written end. Good, I am not over the moon with Shadow of the Fox. And I didn´t love it the way I loved other books by the author. But nonetheless, I wanna know how the story about Yumeko will continue. So, my advice: read it and judge for yourself how you feel about this book.
Happy reading
*This book was kindly provided to me by Heyne fliegt in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Thank you. Therefore, the cover of the German edition is shown first in this review.
*The title was published Shadow of the Fox by Harlequin Teen on October 2, 2018
Julie Kagawa
Julie Kagawa was born in Sacramento, CA. She moved to Hawaii at the age of nine. There she learned many things; how to bodyboard, that teachers scream when you put centipedes in their desks, and that writing stories in math class is a great way to kill time. Her teachers were glad to see her graduate. Julie now lives in Louisville, KY, with her husband and furkids. She is the international and NY bestselling author of The Iron Fey series.
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