The God and the Gumiho

The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim★★☆☆☆   2.5/5—ARC received on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.I came into the story expecting a K-drama-esque story, and a K-drama-esque story is exactly what I got. The story is a cute, mystery rival-to-lovers, cat-and-mouse chase (god and fox chase lol) - embodying all that you could come to expect from a K-drama. If I watched this on screen, I imagine I'd thoroughly have a good time. The stylistic choice of writing, however, made reading a struggle. There were quite a few times where I wanted to DNF due to the clunky narrative. The plot was interesting, but the way it reads like a fanfic is somewhat off-putting and made it difficult to immerse into the story. A few scenes felt immature and YA (situations and behaviour that I'd expect of a teenager but not of a 1000 year old gumiho). There was a decent amount of fluff, which I think could have been cut out to tighten the pace of the story, where it seemingly dragged a little too long from time to time. I struggled a bit with liking the characters individually. Hanni comes off as a immature, self-important bitch - but she did become more palatable throughout the story. Seokga just did not really hit for me. Truth be told, I found his dialogue a little cringe. I think Hanni and Seokga's interactions is what shined the most, filled with cute and witty banter and reminiscent of your typical K-drama romance plot. It's unfortunate that I felt as if the progression from rivals-to-lovers was a bit abrupt and needed more time.I'd probably settle for an “it's okay” regarding the book. Reading The God and the Gumiho was neither immersive nor exciting, and I struggled to complete the book. I can see why others may love the book but unfortunately, this was a miss for me.