Urban Tales of Demons and Spirits: Book of Thunder

2.5 ⭐SummaryGu Yu escapes his hellish family life by moving hours away to Yan City to attend university. Once there, he rekindles with an old childhood friend and gets involved in his family affairs. Gu Yu starts to dream about inexplicable things: demons, ghosts, and monsters haunt him, but in his dreams, he also sees a strange man in Daoist robes. Gu Yu quickly finds out that the man, Wen Jiubo, is very much real, and works as an exorcist near the university. Wen Jiubo hires Gu Yu to work at his store, and eventually the two team up to solve supernatural cases all the while Gu Yu tries to uncover the mystery behind his new employer.ReviewI'm of two minds with this book. 1) It really isn't that great when you look at its construction, but 2) the premise is interesting enough to keep me reading despite all the plot holes. Seriously, there are more plot holes in this thing than in Swiss cheese. The translation is also really iffy, and the editing is seriously lacking. Now, I'm no stranger to reading fan translated works, and I can overlook a lot of things for the sake of the story, but in this case, this is not technically a fan translation. It's a finished, published product that I bought, so I expected a higher quality read. I'm just going to list a bunch of pros/cons to simplify this review.Pros• The premise: I love a good ghost story, especially when it features an investigative team that solves crimes and mysteries. Urban Tales is interesting because it features several cases that are all weird and unusual. It reminds me a tiny bit of [b:Ghost Hunt, Vol. 1 555430 Ghost Hunt, Vol. 1 (Ghost Hunt, #1) Shiho Inada https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320558736l/555430.SY75.jpg 542635], except GH is leaps and bounds superior in quality and in plot.• Wen Jiubo: The strange long-haired Daoist exorcist makes for an interesting lead character. We don't know much about him, and we don't know how he knows Gu Yu so intimately, but he clearly has a backstory that has yet to be revealed. This makes him mysterious and interesting to read about. He seemed OOC at times, but in general, he is a fun second protagonist.• Folklore: Although not really the focus of the story, the few moments where Wen Jiubo talks about the types of ghosts and demons is actually quite interesting.Cons• Gu Yu: He is one of the worst MCs I've read in a long time. Gu Yu acts very irrationally most of the time. He gets angry for no reason and lashes out at people (especially Wen Jiubo). When he's not angry, he's irritating and whiny. He doesn't feel “real” and is more a caricature of a young man than an actual person. • Plot holes: Once again, there are so many plot holes in this novel that the whole thing is just one giant hole at this point.• Choices that lack common sense: Why is Su allowed to bring her cat to school? Why does Gu Yu's mother insist on dressing him like a girl? Why did Bai hide himself for so long, only to pop up and claim he'd been looking for Grandma Li for years? What even happened to Bai after the case with Xiaoying? He just vanished from the story?? How come Wen Jiubo walks around in ancient clothes all day long, and no one bats an eye (the story takes place in modern times, fyi). Needless to say, the bad outweighs the good in this story, which doesn't make me inclined to continue with this series. There are tons of better reads out there, so I know I won't be returning to this particular world any time soon.