By Samantha Pak
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
The God and the Gwisin
By Sophie Kim
Del Rey, 2025
Seokga the No-Longer-Fallen has been reinstated as a god. And he’s working on himself. While he searches for his lost love, Hani, the trickster god attends some much-needed therapy. And when he feels the red thread of fate tug on his finger, Seokga ends up on a luxury cruise on its way down the river of the dead. And the woman on the other end of the thread isn’t Hani. Her name is Yoo Kisa, and she has no memory of him.
Yoo Kisa has had an exhausting afterlife. Whoever she was in her past life, they had racked up quite the karmic debt, and she’s been tasked with paying it off by working on the SRC Flatliner. If that weren’t enough, the red thread around her pinky has followed her into the underworld and when she meets the individual on the other end of it, he seems to find her lacking.
But when the heavenly emperor—Seokga’s brother—is murdered aboard the ship, Seokga and Kisa team up to solve the crime before the end of the cruise. But the closer they get to solving the mystery (and the closer they grow to each other), they realize that there’s something much bigger at play.
In this sequel to “The God and the Gumiho,” we see Seokga reunited with his true love. But the dynamics of their relationship are much different from what he shared with Hani. The pair is once again tasked with solving a mystery and it’s fun to see how they work together this time around, compared to last time. Kisa may not be as antagonistic or teasing toward Seokga, but she stands her ground just as much as her past self. She shares that same determination as Hani when it comes to working toward their goals—whether that’s not getting caught as the Scarlet Fox or doing what’s needed to be reincarnated—and won’t let anything stand in her way.
It was also fun to see the return of characters from the first book and I appreciated how Kim tied things together with where they fit into Seokga and Kisa’s story.
Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty
By Kaila Yu
Crown, 2025
Growing up, Kaila Yu dreamt of beauty. But back then, in the 1990s and 2000s, none of the beautiful women she saw on TV looked like her. It was a time when Asian women were often reduced to overtly sexual or submissive stereotypes, while the “girls next door” were usually white. So with this narrow framework, Yu came to the conclusion the only way for someone who looked like her that could have any value or be considered beautiful was to sexualize herself. And that is exactly what she did—fetishizing herself before anyone else could.
Blending stories from Yu’s life, with cultural critique and history, “Fetishized” is a memoir exploring feminism, beauty, yellow fever, and how pop culture and colonialism shaped the pervasive and harmful stereotypes around Asian women and their bodies. Sharing her experiences as a pinup and import model, auditioning for TV and film roles, and playing in an all-Asian-women band, Yu doesn’t sugarcoat how she had to alter her body in order to conform to Western beauty standards.
I’ll admit that while “Fetishized” is not an easy read at times—the trauma Yu experiences, including being sexually assaulted on camera and feeling helpless to do anything about it, will have you putting the book down to take a break—it is a must read, especially for any girl or woman of Asian descent who has ever felt they’ve been treated as just an object because of the way they look. This being said, this is also an uplifting read as Yu shares her healing journey and how far she has come.
“Fetishized” will also be a fun read for many Asian Americans who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s as Yu references very specific cultural moments, movements, and phenomena of the time that will have Gen Xers and Millennials smiling with nostalgia.
The Chow Maniac
By Vivien Chien
Minotaur Books, 2025
When private detective Lydia Shepard enlists the help of Lana Lee—manager of Ho-Lee Noodle House in Asia Village, and the Cleveland area’s resident amateur sleuth—it’s to consult on a case involving a rash of unsolved murders and thefts. The murdered individuals were all part of an elite (and secret) Asian order known as the Eight Immortals. Three have already been killed, and Lydia’s client is worried other members of the order are also in danger.
Together, the women must tread lightly as they infiltrate the secret organization—so secret even the Mahjong Matrons, who tend to know everyone in the local Asian community, know nothing about it. As they dig deeper, Lana finds unexpected associations and connections within Asia Village and potential ties to her own family that could be devastating.
As a longtime fan of this series, it’s fun to see how Lana’s skills as an amateur detective have grown and how she measures up when working with a professional. I appreciate the self doubt she experiences as she doesn’t want to let Lydia down, but also tries to stay objective when she learns that some people she’s close with could be involved. It’s a very realistic and relatable feeling when we come across someone in the same line of work, who may have more experience than ourselves.
In addition, I really enjoyed how Chien wove parts of U.S. history into this story—specifically Asian American history and the things Chinese immigrants would have faced during the years of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. While I was already aware of this part of history, I can see some readers learning about it for the first time and wanting to learn more. Stories are always a great entry point into learning about history—especially when it’s a tough subject matter—as readers can see how an abstract idea could affect real people.
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