Yue is the last of her pack of Nine Tailed Foxes, determined to avenge her sisters' deaths she follows their killer to the city of Longhao, knowing she has taken a large risk by roaming the streets of such a large city. However, with her magicked mask that transforms her into a beautiful young woman she is certain that she will be able to stay ahead of any hunters. One day she wanders into the path of a young man she takes as a simple night watch guard, letting her guard down she doesn't realize that he is in reality Prince Sonam the Demon Hunter of Jian by the time she realizes her mistake he and his partners Wen and Sooah have captured her and brought her before the King. Within minutes the shamans of the Jade Palace have opened a portal to Hell and in a last-ditch attempt to save herself she pulls Sonam with her, and his partners dive straight in after them. At first the group is ready to kill each other. however, it becomes very clear that for any of them to make it out of Hell they will need to team up, easier said than done for mortal enemies and it becomes even harder as the four of them, but Yue and Sonam especially realize that they may have far more in common than they would have ever possibly imagined.
I loved Kwan's first book, it was one of my favorites from last year (maybe year before last) so I was super excited when I heard about this one, and I'm happy to report it is just as good if not better The Last Dragon of the East!
Legend of the Nine Tailed Fox rewrites the story of Houyi and Chang'e, in Kwan's version the Nine Suns are sent to Hell and as punishment for crimes against humanity Death makes each of them the Judge of one of the Nine Courts of Hell, where they force souls to go through trials in order to pass through the Gates and assumably enter the rebirth cycle (I can't remember if the book says Heaven or Rebirth Cycle given this is based on Chinese Mythology I would think Rebirth but I really feel like they say Heaven in the book). One of the Sun Gods escapes though and plots to take his revenge against Houyi being the actual reason Chang'e drinks the Immortality Elixir. I spent a great deal of time to see if this wasn't actually a version of the original story I had just missed at some point, and I can say with 95% certainty it's not. Which makes this one of the best rewrites of this story. Most of the rewrites I have read focus a lot on the Sun Gods' mother Xihe and how mad she was that all but one of her sons were taken out. Having one of the actual Sun Gods be the villain was a great twist. It gives Kwan a perfect comparison in terms of whether or not someone is inherently good simply because they are a god. I think making the Sun Gods the "judges" of the Nine Courts of Hell was an interesting spin as well. They are supposed to be down there serving time for already being jerks but the few that we come across clearly aren't taking that seriously, they are still jerks who seem to take pleasure in watching humans fail their trials.
Yue is amazing, of course. Kwan establishes pretty early on that Yue is definitely not the monster in this conversation and I enjoyed that. Even without the comparison to the evil Sun God, she's a good person. She's clever and funny, of course, because you can't write a nine-tailed fox and not have them be those two things, but she is incredibly human. She has deep seated insecurities and she empathizes with people far more than most humans do, and she genuinely tries to make a difference where she can. Granted its eating wife beaters and evil brothel owners but ya know some people actually deserve being ate by a giant fox as far as I am concerned.
Sonam is pretty cookie cutter for this type of story. All demons are monsters, and all monsters must die as far as he concerned for most of the book. I think what makes him different is I don't think he consciously realizes that he's changing his mind about Yue for most of the book. I mean, yes, he finally does when they are in a situation where Yue is under serious threat but it I think because he's lived a pretty lonely life, he doesn't have much frame of reference when it comes to understanding his own emotions.
What makes the two of the click so well is how similar they are though. Honestly, they both have these pretty high moral standards, and they are the same. Bad guys need to be dealt with; they just differ on who the bad guy is for most of the book. But more than that they are just two lonely people who want to feel needed and loved and that's what makes them work so well together. Which in turn keeps us hoping that they will put that one very small difference aside.
World building is excellent in terms of describing the portions of Hell we do end up going through. I think the one thing I truly enjoy about reading stories that feature Hell, is everyone sees it differently. Kwan's held the basic shape that I have read in other rewrites of Chinese Mythology/Fairy tales/Folklore but that's it. She's created her own unique version that includes a sentient city which was a surprising inclusion to say the least. At no point to expect a character to be like "Hey guys, I think we need to let this city eat us!' Pacing was excellent too; I was kind of afraid we were going to actually go through all Nine Courts of Hell and like I'm not sure I could have survived it. Her decision to future the ones she did and the trials they contain were well done, they obviously are meant to push the story forward, but it doesn't feel like a plot trick, it just feels like this is the way everyone has to get through Hell.
Highly recommend this one, I feel like we have a ton of retellings or new fairy tale involving Kitsune (obviously), Gumiho, but I can't think of one featuring a Huli Jing which is the Chinese version of the Nine Tailed Fox, well okay a fox spirit it doesn't have to have nine tails. Also, I can't say for certain that she meant too, but if you keep track of the Hunter's Log that Sonam writes throughout the book, it feels like he is making the first encyclopedia of Yaoguai, which is pretty freaking cool.
As always thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for the eArc!
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