Title: Shadow of the Fox
(Shadow of the Fox #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: YA Fantasy
Format: Audiobook
Length: 14 hours, 45 mins
Narrated By: Joy Osmanski, Emily Woo Zeller, Brian Nishii
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publish Date: October 2, 2018

Violence, Murder, Classism

Japanese-Coded

I initially received an ARC of this from Netgalley, and this was before I started getting back into blogging and I can’t believe I never ended up reading this when I had the chance. A part of me is bummed that I didn’t read it ahead of time, but another part of me is glad that I waited since now I can read all three novels back to back. I also really liked the fact that I was able to listen to this novel because that was one of the major things that I appreciated about this book. It’s been a while since I read this one, and I’m taking a long time to write my thoughts so I’m going to pull another brain dump with this one and see what I come up with.

First of all, Kagawa’s world building has always been one of my favorite things about her novels, and this one is no exception. I am so glad that she gave the world of Iwagoto a voice and a sense of realness that I could see in my own world. I legit wish that I was living during the time of Iwagoto and that I was a half-Kitsune girl like Yumeko because I was so enamored by this beautiful and amazing world that Kagawa brought to life with her words. It sounds like I’m saying the same thing over and over again but seriously, I loved this world. You could see the Japanese influence in Iwagoto, as if this were the Japan just beyond the vision of regular human beings. This was the world that we see when we close our eyes and dream about feudal Japan and see the ancient Samurai protecting their lords’ lands. I felt it all.

Second of all, I was so in love with the characters. I feel like if I don’t love at least one of the characters, it’s hard for me to enjoy a novel as much as I want to. The plot was solid. The pacing was solid. The prose was solid. But the characters really drove it home for me that I was going to love this book and this trilogy. Which I was right about.

This whole story read to me like I was watching a really great anime show or even just a Netflix original where they gave proper due to the Japanese inspiration of the show. Not some of those whitewashed shows trying to do justice and just failing. Of course, I knew that this was going to be top tier because Kagawa was writing it and I just knew that I wasn’t going to be disappointed.

Ugh there’s just so much that I wish I could say but it would get into spoiler territory and I don’t like to do that and I just have to say that I really loved this book. So that’s what I’m finally going to say, that I absolutely adored this novel and I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to finally read it. I’m so happy with our gang of characters that are on this journey together, and I love everything about this story! Literally everything about this story is gold tier to me, like I can’t even handle.

OH! Also the narration was freaking perfect! All three narrators are now my top list of narrators to listen to for any novel that they do, and I’m seriously happy with these choices.

• The Geeky Jock
• Caffeinated Fae
• Anna’s Book Nook
• Books Whit Me
• Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks