Book Review
Title: The Epic Crush of Genie Lo (The Epic Crush of Genie Lo #1)
Author: F. C. Lee
Genre: YA/Fantasy
Rating: *****
Review: I have read Epic Crush before but when I was given the opportunity to read the sequel, I decided to reread this book and it also fits amazingly for one of the reading challenges for the Reading Rush so that was a bonus. Epic Crush opens with Genie seeing a boy being beaten up in the street and trying to help but it does not go according to plan and she ends up running away, losing her backpack in the process. She discusses it with her best friend, Yunie, at school when a new student is introduced, Quentin Sun, and it happens to be the same boy Genie saw being beaten and he has come to return her backpack. I immediately connected with Genie all over again as she laments the loss of her notes which are vital as an AP student and her sassy attitude perfectly reflects the inner me. We are immediately treated to Quentin telling Genie she is his, only to be met with violence in a manner I completely approve of, however, strange things happen when Quentin is around which Genie does notice but doesn’t think anything of at the time but I know there is something very strange about this boy.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, after witness a fight between Quentin and another man who he seemingly kills, Genie reacts the way anyone would with fear and apprehension. Quentin tells her it will all make sense when she knows his true name with is Sun Wukong, but it does not mean anything to her. Apparently, he is the Monkey King and even has the tail to match and that “person” he killed was a demon and he sent his soul back to hell where it belongs. Genie seems to hold some significant to Quentin as he won’t let anything happen to her and stick close to her even when she doesn’t want to be anywhere near him, making me think that there may be something special about Genie. At the dinner, Quentin and his parents are invited to Genie learns half of the tale of his origin where he was the Money King, terrorised Heaven, become immortal and was eventually trapped by the Buddha. Genie having witness this for herself is beyond freaked out but it gets even worse when Quentin tells her that he knew her in a former life and that she should read the second half of his story to find out how she exactly fits with him and his tale. I am flying through my reread of Epic Crush because it is so easy to read and Genie is a badass, sassy young woman, while Quentin is the joker but there is much more to him than meets the eye.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Genie learns the complete story of the Monkey King and Quentin tells her that she is the reincarnation of his most famous weapon, the Ruyi Jingu Bang and her reaction to this news was hilarious as she punches Quentin in his face. After sort of coming to terms with this news, Quentin begins instructing her on accessing and control the numerous abilities she has but the process of meditation is lost on Genie who thinks in facts and figures not feelings. While the humour was amazing, I was longing for a bit of action when six demons just randomly turn up at a bubble tea shop leading to a proper showdown. While the fight with The Demon King of Confusion was impressive, this was on a whole other level as well Genie use her own abilities, although subconsciously to save a human bystander and Quentin too. As the demons aren’t dead only injured Quentin has no choice but to call for some help from more people that occur in his past and things start to get even more interesting.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the Goddess and God that turn up to deal with the lion demons are an old friend and a frenemy from Quentin’s past which was delightful to see. However, they learn that there has basically been a jailbreak from hell and Genie is essentially a demon beacon drawing them all to her, so she and Quentin have no choice but to kick some demon butt straight back to hell. We also learn of Red Boy, a demon so powerful that not even Quentin could defeat him when he was at his strongest before and that he might be behind the jailbreak from hell and he is going to be seeking revenge which make things even worse. On top of all this Genie has normal human things to focus on like homework, exams and getting into Harvard, she also seems to be developing some feeling for Quentin which was nice to see as it develops quite naturally which is always nice to see in YA. We get some further development on the relationship between Quentin and Genie especially after she sees what the binding spell does to Quentin but I am feeling a little fishy about some of the characters and I have the suspicion that they might be demons or something that isn’t human.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, we see Quentin and Genie train some more in order to access to of their key powers, the power to identify demons by the energy they give off and lie detection. However, during their training session, Quentin senses a demon is close by and Genie tracks it down, but this demon has a small child in her grasp and the pair dive in to help without really thinking about it. The demon recognises both Quentin and Genie for what they really are and she immediately prevent Quentin from taking part in the fight so he rescues the little girl leaving Genie to deal with the demon and she does so with great effect using her new abilities but she also knows there are 99 more coming for them and they also have the threat of Red Boy looming over them. By the time they get an alert on the next demon, Quentin is almost sure there is something bigger going on with the demons, he just doesn’t know what it is yet. This new demon is almost as good as Quentin with magic and manages to get away so they have to call Guanyin and Erlang Shen for help and despite loving Erlang Shen as a character, if I remember correctly there is something really fishy about him.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, things begin to spiral downhill when after letting the one demon escape, Quentin has to drag Genie away from Yunie’s concert because of a demon which drives a wedge between both Genie and Quentin and in her friendship with Yunie as well. This wedge is only made worse when Genie catches Quentin kissing a girl at school she hates. After this they don’t spend all their time together and they begin drifting apart but they still fight demons. After killing 15 or so demons, the weight is taking its toll on Genie and she ends up talking to Erlang Shen about it which helps but when another demon sets fire to the school, Genie rushes to help to find 2 Quentin’s. It seems this demon has the power to copy Quentin’s image and aura meaning he is immune to Genie’s sight and the demon detection they have. After escaping from them, the demon kidnaps Yunie and another one of Genie’s friend which makes her furious to the point where she beats the demon to death, however, she doesn’t realises the demon has placed a spell on her friend and if Quentin wasn’t there they would have died. After this Genie refuses to speak to Quentin as she doesn’t want to fulfil her role anymore but after a conversation with Guanyin about duty and the roles they have Genie is going to continue and I can’t wait to see the climax of this novel.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Genie has some bad dreams about her Harvard dreams and she ends up taking it out on Quentin as she tells him to go back to Heaven and wait until she dies so she will be reincarnated in her original form again which really hurts Quentin who has come to care for Genie as she is now. Genie has a plan to draw all the remaining demons to her and go out in a blaze of glory if she can’t defeat them all when Erlang Shen tries to talk her into going to Heaven. This is when she learns of his true intentions and we get the big showdown we have been waiting for between Quentin, Genie, Red Boy, and Erlang Shen. During this fight we see Genie fully harness her powers and together with Quentin they literally scare the demon back into Hell. After it is all over, Quentin and Genie are finally together but the Jade Emperor has one last trick up his sleeve, for breaking the rules of Heaven and basically exposing them to humankind, Heaven has stopped its protection of California and any problem with fall to an appointed Divine Guardian who just happens to be Genie. The Epic Crush of Genie Lo was amazing, it is filled with humour, tension, and characters that you just fall in love with. After refreshing myself on this story I can’t wait to jump into The Iron Will of Genie Lo as soon as I can.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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