Review Detail

I'm a huge fan of diversity in YA novels. For this reason I'm always on the look out for fantasy worlds that are based on other cultures besides the usual Anglo ones. Seriously, there are other cultures out there! We need to see them!

GILDED has Jae Hwa Lee, a sixteen-year-old, Korean American who has to move to Seoul because of her father's job. Let's just say she's not too excited about leaving LA and her new school in Seoul is almost too much.

Then she finds out that some of the Korean tales her mother used to tell her in fact might be real and her own family plays a part in it. The Korean demigod, Haemosu, is very interested in her family and now her. Though Jae has a black belt and is very talented in archery, this might not be enough to save her.

I really liked this story! I love reading about other cultures and worlds and GILDED fit the bill!

Jae is a strong protagonist. She has a black belt and aces archery. But she doesn't like moving to Korea and misses her friends back in LA.

The strength of this story has to be the rich Korean mythology that is woven throughout. Jae is pulled into the spiritual world and has to fight against a demigod. The author words bring life to these ancient tales which collide with our own world. Her grandfather believes in the reality of the mythical world though her father brushes them off as a sign of him being senile. At first Jae agrees with her father but later finds out that her grandfather is right. He becomes her biggest ally.

Marc, is the cute guy at her new school. She's drawn to him but doesn't know why. It would have been easy to have him be the one to break the vicious cycle of the demigod but no, it's Jae, who is the strong one. I really liked that. Sure, he doesn't give up and does his part to help but in the end it's Jae who has to save the day.

There is only one little concern I had about this very engaging fantasy. I would have liked some Korean guys as minor characters. Or maybe even in the next book, one that could be a love interest or a close friend.

There's a glossary in the back to help with the Korean words, terms, and other cultural references.

Rich fantasy world based on Korean mythology with one kickass heroine readers will cheer for!