Small Gods of Calamity

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. This is a thriller-esque paranormal mystery novella set in Seoul. Kim Han-Gil from the Jong-ro Police Department isn't just any detective: he can see ghosts and smell spirits, and this has earned him the derisive moniker “spirit detective” from fellow practitioners and alienation from his police colleagues. The book opens with Han-Gil and his brand new (and 5th) partner, Choi Wonshik, at the scene of a body: was the cause of death as it appears to be or were supernatural forces at play?

The mystery and the world of gods and spirits all lured me to burn through this, and I was pleasantly surprised by the sprinkle of romance/friendship, adoptive-sibling relationship, and queer/bi representation. The book transformed from a mystery with a detective-noir tone to something more focused on exploring grief with a supernatural subplot. I absolutely enjoyed both stories, and was satisfied with the ending, I guess at the end of the day it felt like two different books in one. Sometimes that sits fine with me, but in this one it left me wishing they were two different books.

In this debut novella, I had minor qualms with some repetitive descriptors and think it did suffer a bit from “novella syndrome,” i.e. wanting more due to the smaller number of pages. By the end I was craving more from the relationship between Han-Gil and Wonshik and the siblings. I will absolutely look out for Yoo's next couple releases and I would love a book two (and three!) focusing more on the aforementioned character relationships and new supernatural mysteries.

I think fans of P. Djèlí Clark's Djinn Universe might like this one and this handles trans characters and transphobia in a similar way as Light from Uncommon Stars (for me that's a good thing, but it might not be for you). Content/trigger warnings for self-harm, transphobia, suicide, violence with knives, blood. Psst...thanks for the ARC NetGalley and publisher, I am indeed not a bot and I was not programmed to have these opinions nor were they generated by AI - they are the product of my neurological system.