Book Review :: Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa

Shadow of The Fox by Julie Kagawa
ISBN: 9781489267368
Series: Shadow of the Fox #1
on 2018-09-24
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 384
Source: HarperCollins NZ
Find at Harper Collins NZ
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A single wish will spark a new dawn.

Every millennium, one age ends and another age dawns...and whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers holds the power to call the great Kami Dragon from the sea and ask for any one wish.

The time is near and the missing pieces of the scroll will be sought throughout the land of Iwagoto. The holder of the first piece is a humble, unknown peasant girl with a dangerous secret. Demons have burned the temple Yumeko was raised in to the ground, killing everyone within, including the master who trained her to both use and hide her kitsune powers. Yumeko escapes with the temple's greatest treasure - one part of the ancient scroll. Fate thrusts her into the path of a mysterious samurai, Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan. Yumeko knows he seeks what she has and is under orders to kill anything and anyone who stands between him and the scroll.

Last updated on 14 October 2023

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What is Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa about?

Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa is about Yumeko, a mischievous half-kitsune, trained in illusion at the Silent Winds temple. But when her home is destroyed, she flees with a piece of the ancient scroll. Many covet the dragon’s wish, including Kage Tatsumi, a samurai of the Shadow Clan.

Fate brings them together. Yumeko promises to guide him to the scroll, forming an uneasy alliance. Demons chase them, and Yumeko’s secrets hold the key to the world’s fate.

My thoughts on Shadow of the Fox 

What drew me to this book was the Japanese myth and lore that it promised (and delivered!). Growing up we always had Japanese students come and live with us for a period of time while they studied English in New Zealand, and they always brought with them this wonderful culture that I grew to love. A few years ago my friends and I went to Tokyo for a week, and it was amazing; I would love to go back. The culture, myth and legend and lore all intrigue me, so when I saw that that was exactly what this book was about I was really looking forward to reading it.

Unfortunately, I really struggled with it.

Plot

I suspect my struggle was more to do with the timing of my reading, rather than the story itself. Perhaps I was in a bit of a slump. But I loved the plot idea, and the the coming together of two completely different characters from completely different walks of life. As they venture from the Silent Winds temple through the country to try and reach their destination, Yumeko and Tatsumi run into all sorts of demons and monsters, and other characters that show up both help and hinder them on their journey.

Characters

While I appreciate that any quest story is going to have a range of supporting characters, Shadow of Fox felt like every turn was a new episode in a TV show. Which is fine…if it were a TV show. Every ‘episode’ had a different supporting character, or someone they met briefly on the road, or a demon attacking them, and, again, while this is totally fine and it definitely works in a story, it didn’t work for me in this one.

“In this vision, I have seen blood and flames and death, demons shrieking and rivers of bones, and the world grows dark with fear. But a single fox stands above it all, untouched, a great dragon cast in her shadow. Her name is Yumeko, child of dreams, for she is our hope against the coming darkness.”

The fact that Yumeko was a kitsune (half fox with cool magic, something which I already knew about thanks to watching Teen Wolf haha) was definitely one of my favourite features … but her as a character I just didn’t really enjoy. I forget how old she’s meant to be in this story but she seems like 12 the entire time. I understood that she’s meant to be naive as she’s grown up in the temple her whole life and has no experience of the outside world, but a lot of the time I was thinking she seemed way to young for her character. Tatsumi was meh for me as well, and I didn’t care for his chapters.

Suki is another character who features sporadically in the story, and I actually liked her. She’s the daughter of a flute maker, and we meet her right in the first pages. She goes to work for Lady Satomi, but gets killed, and then spends the rest of the story as a ghost, making the odd chapter appearance here and there. I’d rather a story about Suki the ghost, to be honest.

Writing

One of the things I like about stories based in non-English speaking countries is all the vocab you get out of them. While some of the words I already knew thanks to aforementioned Japanese students, reading books like Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh, and trips to Tokyo, there were lots that I didn’t know. Thankfully there was a glossary at the back of the book (always check for a glossary before you start reading – it’ll save you so much questioning!), and after a little while you learnt what words meant what in English. The downside to this is that often it was explained in the same sentence, which seemed arbitrary, especially when you already know what the word is.

Overall thoughts

This has been a tough review to write. I know that I didn’t hate the book, far from it, but I didn’t love it either. Like I said at the beginning, it may have been the time I read it, and my thoughts might change if I re-read it in the future. But that aside, I’ve decided to go with 2.5 stars; it was okay, and there were parts that I enjoyed, but it’s not one that I’ll be rushing out to grab the second book, Soul of the Sword, when it comes out next year.

Don’t let my ‘meh’ review stop you from reading; in fact, please do read it and let me know what you think! Maybe you’ll persuade me to change my rating.

What about you? Have you read or are you planning to read Shadow of the Fox?

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I received this book for free from HarperCollins NZ in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.