the god and the gwisin by sophie kim
I'm back with another review of an advance copy I got from NetGalley a few months ago. With this one done, I still have four more books to review from my frenzy of requests, so I still have to read some more before I'll have a high enough percentage to be approved for books again. So much to read, so little time. Anyway.
The God and the Gwisin is the second book in the Fate's Thread series by Sophie Kim. Anybody who's read my reviews in the past may recognize this name from a review I did a few months ago of a book called Reign of the Talons. It was after reading that book that I applied for and received a review copy of this one...and then promptly realized I hadn't read the first book.
I read that book a few weeks ago and I really liked it, and I liked this one too. Unlike the Talons series, this one is marketed for adults instead of being YA. My impressions are that this means more swearing and somewhat more explicit sex. This isn't why I liked this book or the prequel, it just means that it's a bit different and the people who liked the original series should be aware of that.
That being said, I was a bit more lukewarm about this book than I was about the prequel or the author's other series. The characters were funny, the mystery was good, and it was really nice to see some resolutions to things broken in the previous book. However, it just fell a little bit flat to me.
It's hard to explain this without really talking about what happens in the book and that's more or less impossible without spoiling a major plot point in the first book, so I don't really want to go into it, but the whole situation just felt kind of rushed. I wasn't as invested in the characters as I was in the previous book or in the Talons series. There was just so much stuffed into so little space that there was a little opportunity to become truly invested. I think this pacing worked really well in the first book because of the cast. But this book just didn't give time to process any of the heavier things for me.
I'm not really sure if there's going to be another book in the series since it seems the author has a completely unrelated book coming out, but if there ends up being another book, I'll probably read it. Seokga's (one of the main characters) awkwardness and passion are something that I really liked and I continue to love the alternating perspectives that Kim has used thus far in all of her books. I just wanted a bit more from this book.
And that's okay. People who have liked her other books will like this one—I did too after all! I'm excited to see what she comes up with next and wishing her all the best. I'm definitely looking forward to her next book.
Updated 2Â months, 3Â weeks ago