Asian American Literature Fans

A Review of Julie Kagawa’s Shadow of the Fox (Harlequin Teen, 2018)
By Stephen Hong Sohn

Ah, so, Julie Kagawa has graced us with a new series; the first installment is titled Shadow of the Fox (Harlequin Teen, 2018)! I’ve been so busy though that I’ve been writing reviews far past the time I actually finish the books. Generally, this approach is a bad one, as I forget some of the basics, so you’ll have to forgive me for some potential inaccuracies. In any case, here’s B&N with our basic description: “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 shapeshifting 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.”

So, this editorial description does give us the basic set up, but I’ll obviously have to provide some other spoilers, so I’m here giving you your requisite spoiler warning in case you want to turn away. What is left out of this context is that Yumeko is part kitsune, so she is also technically a type of demon, even if she is far from the kind that have burned the temple and killed everyone. Once Yumeko takes the scroll away for safekeeping she naturally links up to a person who also happens to be a demon hunter. Yes, my friends, Kage Tatsumi’s mission is to find the scroll (not realizing that Yumeko is the one carrying it), while also dispatching with any demons in his way. Readers will obviously see the predicament being telegraphed from ten thousand miles away, but nevertheless, the knowledge that we hold propels us forward, as we wait to see how the developing and inexorable romance will end up shaking out.

The other element in the story is that Tatsumi’s wields a sword that in and of itself holds a demon within it, so Tatsumi continually struggles to overcome the influence of that demon, while using that sword’s great power to get rid of anyone in the way of his quest. Once Tatsumi becomes Yumeko’s protector and escort to a temple where the scroll must be taken—and Tatsumi only thinks he’s taking her there, while not understanding that she is in possession of the scroll, and finally believing that he might find answers to where the scroll might be once he gets to that temple—they embark on a longer journey in which they encounter numerous demons and other figures hell bent on destroying them. Along the way, they also manage to pick up some comrades, including a Ronin named Okame, as well as Taiyo Daisuke, a nobleman who wants to duel Tatsumi to the death (but puts aside this battle until the escorting has been completed).

There’s a lot of wonderful action to make this young adult fiction stand out, but Kagawa’s biggest asset, at least from my readerly perspective, is the creative engagement with the many demons that pop up throughout. It is reminiscent in some ways of the other monster-type narratives that I’ve seen that make you wonder about the vast and complicated world of these mythical figures. Alongside the demons, there are many spirits that inhabit numerous objects, places, and things, so the speculative dynamics are quite rich. Kagawa is obviously drawing on Japanese culture, and this novel is perhaps the first of hers that so squarely engages her ethnic heritage. By the time the novel concludes, you can guess that there’s more mischief and mayhem to overcome, so you can expect more “demon-irific” installments.

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Review Author: Stephen Hong Sohn
Review Editor: Gnei Soraya Zarook

If you have any questions or want us to consider your book for review, please don’t hesitate to contact us via email!
Prof. Stephen Hong Sohn at ssohnucr@gmail.com
Gnei Soraya Zarook, PhD Student in English, at gzaro001@ucr.edu