Book Review
Title: The Legend of Akikumo
Author: Dani Hoots
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Folklore
Rating: ***
Review: I didn’t know much about The Legend of Akikumo when I signed up to the blog tour, but it is set in Japan which I am almost guaranteed to love. We are following a kitsune (Fox spirit) named Ketsueki, which reminded me of Wicked Fox by Kat Cho but I have read a few other novels set in Japan, the most recent being More Than Alive: Death of an Idol by Fernando A. Torres which I’d highly recommend for VR/AR and fantasy fans. The opening chapter was interesting as we are introduced to Ketsueki, who was left at an Inari Shrine a century before by her mentor, Akikumo who disappeared after that. However, one thing I noted that the author got wrong straight away is the yokai who live in the shrine complain about Ketsueki not behaving when kitsunes by their very nature are mischievous and cause trouble for their own entertainment. In terms of the actual mythology, this is wrong but maybe for the character this behaviours is correct as the other yokai are shown as being quite peaceful. We then jump back to July 1336, which is in the Muromachi Period, where Ketsueki is recused by Akikumo, who is an okami or wolf yokai after her parents are killed in the battle. As she is only a small child, Ketsueki formerly called Aiko by her mother, breaks the magic hiding her kitsune form and is brutally attacked and hunted by the humans before being rescued which explains her current resentment towards humans. This flashback was actually a really great scene as it perfectly blends Japan’s quite bloody history with its fantastical folklore seamlessly.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we are back in the present where we learn that Ketsueki doesn’t get along well with the other kitsune at the shrine possibly because she has less tails than them but it is her that gets called upon by the Inari and they want her to run an errand even though she thought she was going to get kicked out of the shrine. We get another flashback here, where we see the relationship between Ketsueki and Akikumo develop into an almost father/daughter bond as she travels all over Japan with him, although Ketsueki refuses to give up on her hatred of humankind and doesn’t want to interact with them at all unless Akikumo bribes her with hard to find foods like mochi. Back in the present, Inari has given Ketsueki the task of finding out what has happened to Akikumo by using his last sighting to track him down but she has to take the human son of the Head Priest with her, which she isn’t happy about but she can’t deny Inari’s wishes. From the past sections we know that Akikumo seems a bit like a messenger of the Gods or Kami, which would explain why he travelled so much and was so cautious most of the time, but it doesn’t explain why he kept Ketsueki with him unless he thought she could help him in some way.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, I had a feeling this was going to be the point in the novel where things started to get interesting. Ketsueki doesn’t want to take Yamato with her but she has to because unlike most other humans, Yamato has the ability to see yokai like Ketsueki even if they are using magic to disguise themselves. Together they are going to travel into the mountains, but it means passing through some very populated parts of Japan which is hard for Ketsueki. Although it is very funny to see her reactions to things like trains, automatic doors, and modern restaurants since she has been alive for 700 years and barely interacted with humans and has had no contact with them for the past century. During the time they are travelling we do begin to see different types of yokai and learn more about Akikumo’s relationship with Ketsueki. However, the most interesting part is Ketsueki’s dynamic with Yamato as she doesn’t want to like him purely because she wants to go back to the life she and Akikumo had before even though that life would be impossible with the development and expansion of the world but she doesn’t find him strange and is curious to know more about him which I think will be very interesting to see develop later on in the novel.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, we continue to bounce between the past and present and it got a little distracting at times since the past sections don’t really offer much except relationship building between Akikumo and Ketsueki and they also show us how much Ketsueki has grown over the past few centuries but we can see that she still has a lot to learn and Yamato is helping her do that even if he doesn’t know it. By the time they reach the mountains and begin climbing in search of Akikumo’s home, they encounter one yokai which Ketsueki easily defeats. However, they soon come to a path and they are warned to take the longer one but decides on the shorter one because it saves time only to encounter a really powerful yokai that tries to attack Yamato. Ketsueki defends him but has to use her most powerful attack which she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to keep full control over, but she does. I did like seeing how Ketsueki doesn’t really hate humans, but she has been treated badly by them. The two examples we have are when her parents died, and she was attacked before being rescued by Akikumo. But the second is more interesting in my opinion as Akikumo takes her to help with a landslide and there is a trapped child, however, she can only get to the child if she transforms into her fox form which she does. The child is calm and relaxed as it knows she is trying to help but the child’s mother attacks her, frightening her to the point she flees and hides until Akikumo finds her. While I don’t think Yamato is going to completely change Ketsueki’s opinion on humans, I think she might be one of a few humans that she might tolerate for extended periods of time.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, the yokai they encountered on the mountain injured Yamato so he can’t walk and Ketsueki offers to carry him and for her that is a big deal. Their relationship develops further when Yamato says he will never hurt Ketsueki like other have in the past even though he doesn’t know specific deals I have a feeling that he sees more about Ketsueki’s past than even she believes. Together, they manage to reach the yokai onsen where some kappa who Akikumo helped in the past tell Ketsueki says they have seen him recently, although in yokai terms this could be a several decades or even centuries prior but at least they have a general heading on where they will find Akikumo. In the flashbacks time is passing as Ketsueki has developed her third tale and we seem to be moving towards the time when he left her at the shrine. Along the way they met Yamiyo, Akikumo’s younger brother, a samurai and for a time they all journey together but we know from Ketsueki’s reactions in the present that Yamiyo isn’t alive any longer as she clearly states they are only searching for one wolf, Akikumo. So far, the relationships and the different types of yokai are the highlight of the book as there hasn’t been much else going on.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, the pace does begin to quicken as Yamato and Ketsueki head towards the home of Akikumo in the mountains and are attacked by several different kinds of yokai who believe he is dead which is why they are allowed to roam freely on the mountain. While Ketsueki tries to refute their statement, she was alone small when she was travelling with Akikumo and didn’t pay attention to much, but she does mourn the loss of the necklace he gave her as it was the only part of him, she had left. That is until Yamato finds the katana that Akikumo always had with him almost as if he was abandoning it on his way home but Ketsueki doesn’t understand why he would have left it when it was made of his and Yamiyo’s katanas fused together, two halves of the same whole much like the brothers themselves. Before we can learn more, the pair flee the yokai by heading into the river where something grabs hold of Ketsueki and begins dragging her down. In the flashbacks we can see that there is something Akikumo isn’t telling Ketsueki, something important but at that moment in time we understand that she would have been too young and too rash to be reasoned with if he had said anything that upset her.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Ketsueki manages to save Yamato from the river yokai but he almost dies in the process as she is beginning to realise how much he means to her. However, that night something leads her to Akikumo’s former home and from its state of disrepair Ketsueki knows that Akikumo has died and that just didn’t want to accept this. When Yamato eventually finds her, they are confronted by a raiju but using some strange power Ketsueki fights it off. With Akikumo gone, Ketsueki knows she doesn’t want to return to the shrine, but she doesn’t want to be alone either, so the pair decide to stay together and carry on Akikumo’s job of helping yokai in need. While the story was ok and the characters fairly well done, there wasn’t much of a plot besides finding Akikumo and there was barely any action to move the novel forward so the pace felt quite plodding at time. Overall, I would say The Legend of Akikumo is a decent book, but it definitely had the potential to be much better than what we got.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from YA Bound Blog Tours
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