Review - Kojiki by Keith Yatsuhashi

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What more can you ask for with a book with magic god-like figures, each with a super cool guardian in the shape of a dragon, or thunderbird? How about tell me why I should care? There is very little that is relatable in this book. We only have one 'human' in this book. The rest are all gods or dragons, or whatever.

There is not enough time spent building the world and its rules for the reader to understand. You're just thrown into the action and I still had questions about the rules of the world at the end.

One thing that irked me, was that the Kami (god like person) aren't allowed to kill a guardian because of the 'rules'. This leads to cool scenes were a dragon, or something appears where the Kami's only choice is to run.

Very clearly inspired by Anime, this just felt like an episode of Power Rangers with very little to relate to.

Also, it's jampacked full with YA cliches.
“But you are different. More different than you realize. Different doesn’t have to be bad, Keiko. Sometimes it just means ‘special’ or ‘unique’."
“But why me? I’m nobody."
As much as she wanted Yui’s friendship, she didn’t like the thought of her father sharing so much with another woman, certainly not one so young and beautiful.


There's also a part where one of the Kami stops during a war to have a freekin' bath!!
“Seirin, we can’t afford the delay–” “Nonsense. The stench of war clings to each of you, and Yui’s clothes and skin are stained with dragon blood. A hot bath is exactly what you need to recenter yourselves.” In truth, Seirin chafed at the delay too, but they needed the rest –all of them. Too many had died already; she wouldn’t lose any more to fatigue.

There were also a lot of mistakes, missing words and just downright confusing parts:
A moment earlier he’d glimpsed a small change in a section ninety degrees above his castle’s courtyard, a trace of smooth surface in the otherwise rippling fabric. 90 degrees above?

More water covered the surface, for one thing, and even if the liquid looked duller than he remembered, incredibly, most felt more flammable. Water is not flammable.

These two confusing sentences appear of the same page...

If she couldn’t summon her power, she was as good as dead. No...if her power isn't summoned, she will die. Not 'as good as'.

Final thought

I apologise, this review was a bit more ranty than I prefer, but I couldn't help it. There were good things about this book. The last 100 pages of this book were fairly decent and I liked the whole 'who is the real enemy' thing. It felt like a good commentary on today's world. For me, it just needed more human elements for me to care about what happens in this story.
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