The God and the Gwisin by Sophie Kim Review

Seokga the No-Longer-Fallen is looking for his love. Since he lost Hani and was reinstated as a god, nothing has felt right - and he's been desperately searching for her reincarnated form ever since.
 

But when the red thread of fate leads Seokga to a cruise down the river of the dead, the woman he finds isn't Hani . . . she's Yoo Kisa, and she has no memory of him whatsoever - with seemingly no interest in regaining it either.
 

But when the Heavenly Emperor of Okhwang is murdered, Seokga and Kisa must solve the crime before the cruise ends. And as the mystery draws them closer, they will have to decide what they truly mean to each other.
 

There's something bigger at play aboard the ship, something that holds the key to their fated connection - and the very fate of the world.

Swapping the streets of New Sinsi in the 90’s for a luxury cruise upon a crimson river in the underworld, the God and the Gwisin is part two of Sophie Kim’s Fate’s Thread duology. Serving as both the continuation and conclusion following the God and the Gumiho’s dramatic ending, like its reincarnated main character, this book is both similar yet notably different from its predecessor. Having prior knowledge that this book has a different focus and approach compared to the first book which I really enjoyed, this one unfortunately wasn’t quite my cup of tea despite having many positive highlights. Leaning heavier towards its fantasy romance elements, this book is a great followup for those who wanted more romance from the previous book albeit at the cost of its crossover appeal and blending of different genres.

Note: As this is a review of a sequel book in a duology series, this review assumes prior reading or knowledge of the first book the God and the Gumiho. This review is only spoiler free for the God and the Gwisin, if you haven’t read the first book yet, please refer to my past review of it first.

After the decisive and largely satisfying conclusion to the God and the Gumiho, there are a lot of different directions its sequel could’ve gone given its open-ended epilogue. Other than the stated facts that Hani is promised reincarnation, the red string of fate now ties them together, and Seokga has been reinstated as a full-fledged god, there wasn’t much indication on where the sequel novel would take the story and how it would conclude the series. In the God and the Gwisin, the most prominent themes involve those connected by fate and reincarnation. Set several decades after the events of the first book, the story sees Hani reincarnated as a shaman and doctor to the supernatural, Kisa. Working off the general understanding of reincarnation and mechanical details previously introduced, Kisa is her own person, has her own life, and lacks Hani’s memories of the first book’s events.

Love stories across reincarnated lives are inherently difficult to navigate due to the inevitable comparison between characters, particularly in cases where characters do not retain the memories across different lives. As a character, Kisa is very different from Hani where the former is all about logical reasoning, planning, scientific inquiry, and purpose while the latter is spontaneous, sassy, yet resourceful. To Kim’s credit, she does a very good job at distinguishing them as different individuals and convincing the reader to root for Kisa the same way they did for Hani, even if she’s more reserved and less colorful. One of the book’s best highlights is the way Kim handles Seokga’s awkward familiarity and relationship with Kisa. Acknowledging their differences, confronting the comparisons between the two characters (Kisa’s feelings of inadequacy are particularly well done), and Seokga slowly coming to terms with the loss of Hani and Kisa’s own appeal are well done. Much like the romance in the God and the Gumiho, their relationship is a slow burn development comically aided by the almost sentient red string of fate that connects them to each other. While I occasionally felt like the string of fate was a bit of a gimmicky mechanic, providing mutual thought reading and emotional transference where I would’ve preferred it handled via carefully written dialogue, the concept matches up well with the core premise of the duology. As a new character and pairing, their banter and chemistry is quite different from Hani and Seokga’s; instead of Hani irritating Seokga for kicks, Kisa’s interactions with him are more restrained and softer which many fantasy romance fans will likely enjoy. This book has less death and violence and more reminiscent and tender moments.

The other element that I found particularly well done was how Somi was brought back and utilized in this story. Serving as a source of information about past events for Kisa as well as adding additional flavor and sass to the story, I loved what Kim did with her character and how she filled in the dramatic space vacated by Hani both literally and metaphorically. Her awkward friendship with Kisa who she previously betrayed pre-reincarnation and their mutual camaraderie around smutty romance novels was fun to read and I felt like her character was given a very nice send-off compared to her last few appearances in the God and the Gumiho. For those that felt like Somi got shafted in the first book and dealt a difficult hand, I’m happy to report Kim is fully aware of it and she has a lovely redemption arc, not to mention having strong character writing behind it. In addition to Somi, Hani also gets a meaningful final appearance in a chapter that was easily my favorite of the entire book, another great showcase for strength of Kim’s characterizations. I would’ve loved if there were more of this type of content in the book like Seokga dreaming about Hani as a more visual and vivid display of his conflicted feelings around his two different impressions of her.

While I appreciated the careful handling of Kisa and Seokga’s relationship and Somi’s redemption (though I would’ve loved to see her used more in the story), I personally was less interested and invested in this sequel book mostly due to the direction and focus of the story. Like the first book, the God and the Gwisin features a murder mystery investigation whose suspicious circumstances are linked to traditional Korean mythology and power plays amongst the gods. Similarly, the book features strong romance storylines involving fantasy elements of supernatural origin. The aspect I appreciated most about the God and the Gumiho was how it seamlessly blended different genres and storylines together in a fun, entertaining, and clever package with something for every type of reader. Sadly, the God and the Gwisin is far less successful with juggling its different elements.

My chief criticism when I was reading this book was that I found its murder mystery to be very underwhelming and the general pace of the story to be much slower compared to the previous book. While this story understandably takes a while to get going as it has to recap thirty years occurring between books and to introduce Kisa as a new character, the mystery angle and subsequent investigation felt like it was handled as minor filler material despite it being the catalyst for the book’s ending. While the murder victim and circumstances around their death sounded quite compelling initially and had so much potential on paper, there was a notable lack of clues being discovered throughout the book and majority of the developments were all crunched together in the last quarter of the story. The previously discussed romantic relationship and string of fate filled up almost all the book and while the content was good from a romance standpoint, the murder mystery angle suffered substantially. Additionally, despite being a detective when he was banished to the mortal realm in New Sinsi, Seokga did very little actual investigating and nearly every important development or discovery was from Kisa’s POV. Additionally, I found the grand reveal and overall crime plot to be very predictable and the clues to be very obvious compared to the first book’s predictable, yet more clever trajectory. I was able to guess the culprit a third of the way into the book and questioned that perhaps it was a purposeful red herring; it was not, the murder mystery was actually that simple.

The dual POV setup worked very well in the God and the Gumiho due to Hani and Seokga’s substantially different psyche as well as their different strengths, Seokga being more methodical, detail-oriented, and detached while Hani was resourceful and fiery, a yin and yang dynamic and almost buddy cop partnership. However, in this book, I felt like Seokga’s POV was very repetitive and his character to be far less interesting and layered compared to the first book. I had a similar issue with his POV in the latter chapters where I felt like his character became shallow and Hani obsessed overriding most other details, but for lack of a better way to describe him, Seokga just feels “whipped” and a lot less interesting as a character. While Kisa’s POV is full of details about the SRC Flatliner’s workings, her odd reunion with Somi, and most of the murder mystery clue finding, Seokga’s POV just felt like repetitive longing for Hani/Somi. Initially I enjoyed his early chapters detailing his tense relationship with his brother Hwanin following his reinstation as a god. However, once he is removed from the story and replaced with a baby, I found myself struggling to stay invested in his POV. Outside of the discussions with his therapist Dr. Jang and his connection to the other gods which is important for the book’s ending sequence, I didn’t feel like his POV contributed much to the story. If he’s not a useful detective, has his powers restored but can’t use most of them while in the underworld, has a one-track mind for Hani/Kisa and loses one of his most interesting storylines when Hwanin is out of the picture, what else does his perspective provide besides romantic pining?

While I’m infamously known amongst friends for not liking babies and infants, my distaste for the heavy presence of a baby in this book was much more than personal disfavor. The baby’s consistent presence throughout the story felt like it kept sucking the fun and excitement out of the story, or worse, taking up pages that could’ve been used for other storylines that could’ve used more development such as Seokga’s conflicted desire for paternal approval, his heartbreak of being repeatedly manipulated and used, Kisa’s friend Hajun that was just kind of there, etc. I initially thought that maybe the baby storyline was thrown in as a foreshadowing to some sort of familial image between Kisa and Seokga (this is a trope I greatly dislike when books portray marriage and a baby as the happily ever after end goal), and while utilized to a certain degree, the end result is a bit awkward given Seokga’s relationship to them which feels more uncomfortable the more I think about it. To make the situation worse, the baby angle almost feels like it comes out of nowhere despite it being a previously introduced detail in the series lore. Even if it was necessary as part of the plot, I feel like they could’ve been handled off-screen/page more often as I could not understand how or why I as the reader should care about them, especially since they are immortal and can’t be killed anyway. Seokga and Kisa’s constant over-protection and care for them makes sense as nobody wants a baby to be hurt, but in reality, there’s no consequence should it happen in this case.

Outside of the core mystery, POV split, and direction of the story, I sort of felt a bit underwhelmed by the overall read as a whole. Compared to the first book, there were substantially less supernatural beings featured, the vast majority simply being gwisin, less action, and surprisingly less callbacks to the Korean mythology until the very end of the story. Additionally, while still retaining hints of the Kdrama feel and aesthetic I previously reviewed and enjoyed, the presentation felt far more pedestrian and lacked that certain fantasy sparkle or rosy feel that made the first book more unique. The story takes place on a luxury cruise line on a river through the underworld filled with mythological creatures framed by the surrounding land stained in scarlet terracotta hue. The potential for grand visuals or opulent displays of luxury were endless and an early scene where Kisa and Seokga watch mermaid like creatures in the river was a glimpse of that. Yet apart from the characters’ first introduction to the ship and the verdant greenhouse, I almost forgot the ship was supposed to be a one-of-a-kind vacation destination. Cruise ships can be a really interesting setting when done right (a recent ARC book and review I did for Midnight on the Celestial being a good example), but this book’s use of it left a lot to be desired for me. Furthermore, the ending, while generally good, also felt a bit rushed not only for the book’s conclusion but for the series as a whole. While the story’s overall direction was more cohesive and focused compared to the first book’s variety of storylines and narrative elements, I also found myself growing a bit tired of the basic writing style that consisted a lot of “Seokga does this, then he thinks this, then he decides to tell Kisa this” when I would’ve loved for more dialogue, visual descriptions, or atmosphere. I had the same comment when reading the first book, but it felt more noticeable here given this story’s lack of action and generally slower pacing.

As the conclusion to a unique Korean folklore inspired duology, the God and the Gwisin mostly gets the job done. The book successfully transitions Hani’s story to Kisa’s and effectively handles the tricky concept of reincarnation with a few standout moments. However, its relationship-heavy focus, underwhelming mystery investigation, and relatively reduced number of mythological inspirations gives the book a notably more prominent romantasy feel compared to the first book’s more unique blend of genres. It ties up all the loose ends of the series and functionally is decent, but I can’t help but a bit disappointed by its general execution and distinctive shift in focus compared to the God and the Gumiho. Though the story’s overall direction and content wasn’t for me, I nonetheless still found it to be a fine read worth continuing, if only out of curiosity to see what happens to the characters since the first book ends on such a bittersweet note. For fantasy romance fans, it will also more than satisfy those who craved quieter character moments, love the “he falls hard first” trope, or enjoy a slow-paced exploration of a romance with extra baggage. However for those that enjoyed the series other elements, I would temper your expectations.