Dokkaebi | Kat Cho

 

Title: Dokkaebi / Vicious Spirits

Author: Kat Cho

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Release date: August 18th, 2020

Genre(s): Young Adult fiction

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Purchase links: Bookurve | Popular Online | MPH Bookstore | Bookalicious | Book Depository

Blurb

As Vicious Spirits begins, Miyoung and Jihoon are picking up the pieces of their broken lives following the deaths of Miyoung's mother, Yena, and Jihoon's grandmother. With the support of their friend Somin, and their frenemy, Junu, they might just have a shot at normalcy. But Miyoung is getting sicker and sicker by the day and her friends don't know how to save her. With few options remaining, Junu has an idea but it might require the ultimate sacrifice and, let's be honest, Junu isn't known for his "generosity." Meanwhile, the events at the end of Wicked Fox have upended the forces that govern life and death and there are supernatural entities lurking in the background that will stop at nothing to right their world.

(Source: Goodreads)

My Review

You're in for a treat if you like watching Kdramas because this book is a perfect imitation of the renowned Kdramas that you might have heard about. Imagine Guardian: The Lonely and Great God meet with My Roomate is a Gumiho, all together amalgamated deliciously into this book; Dokkaebi! The book itself is just stunning in terms of its delivery, and I wasn't planning to exaggerate that the scenes described in this story are cinematic and exactly as what I've pictured in Kdramas. So, if you're a Kdrama lover, this book should be already on your auto-buy list. Okay now count how many times I typed Kdramas in one paragraph 👀 See, that's the main gravitation of this book. 

Though before we dive deeper, noted that this book is a companion to the first book (Gumiho: Wicked Fox) It is advisable if you read the first book before delving into this one because they're often correlated and I don't want you to end up lost if you were to begin reading this book. 

Having read both books, I would say that Kat Cho definitely has good momentum in maintaining a simple narration yet manage to keep me intact to the storylines. I think her core strength in keeping storylines interesting is the way she ties up all Korean Myths such as Gumiho (fox spirit), Dokkaebi (goblin), Sansin (a mountain god) Jeoseung Saja (reapers that collect spirits), Gwishin (ghosts/spirits) and many more into one relevant story. It's just refreshing to see a book packed up with so many myths yet they don't get jumbled together. Instead, we can follow up the storyline easily without getting confused. 

The first book tells us about Miyoung, a gumiho falling in forbidden love with a human, Jihoon. While the second book pivots around Somin and Junu but Miyoung and Jihoon still appear as the side characters. 

Written from the third point of view, the second book gives you an epochal journey of Somin and Junu facing a rift that has caused a tear between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Life is not the same anymore when an 18 years old Somin begins to see ghosts roaming on the streets of Seoul whereas Junu, a 100 years old Goblin who lives in the facade of a self-serving con-man has suddenly been visited a reaper from his past. The reaper warns him that a catastrophe will be taking a place if the rift is left open. As they figure out the main cause, together along with their friends; Miyoung and Jihoon, try to stop the rift from becoming a thread for the gwishins to cross over to the world of the living. 

If you have read the first book, you'll know something has happened at the end of it which leads to the reason why the ghosts from the world of the dead are able to transgress into the world of the living. 

Let's talk about what I love about this book. First, it's the dynamic growth of the characters. Junu's character is just what I love the most. Even though on the surface he always appears as an arrogant, flirtatious, manipulating dude, but this same dude turns out to be the most sensitive person ever; frail, and a coward. After all, him living an immortal life is not a choice but a punishment. For that, Kat Cho never fails to amaze me with the way how she explores each character in depth by not leaving even one character overshadowed by others. We can see that every character is involved in contributing to the story. Like Somin, she's a character who rather punches Junu in the face rather than being alone with him. That's how much she hates him. Due to some conflicted parts that have happened in the first book, these two end up not in a good term. Though behind her fiery lies a heart that always cares for others. Her character has so many layers that I would constantly find myself agonize over the way she puts others' happiness first before her own happiness - because that's just neglecting yourself, isn't it? But you should trust in Cho's way of developing Somin's character, it is getting better through to the end. 

I can say the relationship between Junu and Somin is more to a sugary enemies-to-lovers trope. However, I don't really feel a connection to these two in the first half of the book. There is this one scene where they're verbally fighting off/dissing each other, and then the next heated moment they suddenly kiss. To be honest, I was caught off guard because it was too quick for the romantic feelings to settle in. Unless they actually kissed each other out of frustration, but I didn't really marry the idea of that. Though gladly, I started to feel the connection when I came to the second half of the book. Man, that's the point where I need to send kudos to Kat Cho for successfully creating well-developed characters. 

By the way, it's not just a pointless fantasy story. There are so many good takeaways - 1) love can be found in any form such as in family, friends, and partners. 2) It also reminds us not to dwell on the past. Reading this book does give me that euphoric feeling because I used to reminisce about my past so much especially when I ended up getting a choice that felt so wrong to me. And to see how I crawled out from the regret and made the best of what's in front of me is pretty similar to what the characters have been doing in the course of the story. Seeing the actual life events happen in a fictional story is really euphoric because you're able to resonate with the characters' motivation. I hope when you're reading the book, you can find yourself in the shoes of the characters. All in all, I would totally recommend this book to young readers, fantasy beginners and, Kdrama lovers.