Me, My Shelf, & I’s Reviews > The God and the Gumiho > Status Update

Okay so I know I was complaining about the tone and the YA vibes, but it's also very readable. It's got a fanfiction quality to the writing (affectionate) and while I think it's a little over-the-top with the characters, I can see what the author's going for and it's fun.
I'm not fully charmed by it, cause it's still got some things that don't make sense with the setup. But when I picture it as a show I quite like it

“There’s the Hill of Knives, of course, if you committed murder. Imagine a toboggan ride down a mountain of blades—without the toboggan, of course. Not to mention the Tongue Field, where jeoseung saja stretch out your tongue until it’s long enough to plant trees on. I helped design that one.”

Good, creative hell.

So the book universe and our world are the same? Jack the Ripper is a constant between the two? I'm so confused about the cutesy coffee shop vibes and now this.

"Fear, because there is nothing more dangerous than mortal men who believe that they are entitled to the world and more."
I really hate this sudden tonal shift, execution, and surface level engagement with the topic. It came out of nowhere, kinda undermined some of the elements already set up, and also perpetuated the belief that rapists are strangers (only 7% are strangers)

I am disappointed to say that I'm finding the world-building nonsensical and the prose feels YA and I'm not enjoying the hand-holding elements.
But, um, the cover's really fun at least? So there's that, I guess.

So I just remembered this is supposed to be an Adult book and now I'm feeling a little less generous toward it. I'd fully forgotten and thought it was YA.
And just now there was some very heavy-handed foreshadowing and handholding explanations for the reader that I just don't expect from an Adult novel. Which has kinda killed my vibes.

" Tear tracks run through her face’s layer of BB cream in zigzag patterns, and her black mascara has been smudged in circles around her eyes. He finds, amusedly, that she reminds him of a panda.
"An emotionally perturbed panda who has witnessed two drownings."

"Corporate jobs do have a tendency to suck the life from people."