Red Winter by Annette Marie: Japanese Urban Fantasy

As a lover of Asian-themed fantasy, and always a judge of a book by its cover, I had wanted to read Annette Marie’s Japanese urban fantasy, Red Winter, for quite some time. Whether I picked it up in a Kindle Deal or Prime Reading, it had been sitting on my TBR for a few years.

It wasn’t until Red Winter’s Audible deal that I got around to it… and wow.

It’s told from a single viewpoint, that of Emi, a kami-gakari, who is preparing to become the living vessel Amaterasu Ookami (literally, Great Kami, the equivalent of a goddess, and considered to be the divine progenitor of the Japanese Imperial family until they renounced their divinity after WW2). Her ascension to immortality is just weeks away during the Winter Solstice, and she will spend it in a Shinto shrine tucked away near a remote mountain village to keep her out of dangers that all kami-gakari face.

While Emi starts off somewhat snobby because of her honored role, captured in a prim narrative voice, I couldn’t help but to be intrigued by the author’s masterful hook, which lets the reader know Emi is scarred by a past event, and gradually hinting at what that event was. My investment in her character grew as she learns more and more about what it means to be a kami-gakari, and I realized how much she’d sacrificed in the past and what her future will be like.

The prose is wondrous, with Emi’s self-aggrandizing snark evolving over the course of the story. I thought there was a love triangle in the making between her, the guardian monk Katsuo, and the kitsune Shiro—I confess I’m a big fan of love triangles, and they’ve often kept me invested in a book that otherwise fell flat—but it’s pretty clear where this one is headed early on. Emi’s story, the prose, and the mystery and intrigue had me wanting to listen to this audiobook even when I wasn’t driving.

The worldbuilding is based on Japan’s indigenous religion, with much of it well-researched; I am not well-versed enough in Shinto to know how much of Red Winter’s details—such as humans becoming living vessels for gods—is authentic or part of the author’s imagination. However, the description of the deity Izunami as a beautiful woman contradicts ancient texts that describe her resembling a rotting corpse—though perhaps this will be explained in the sequels. Also, the author’s use of Sohei—warrior monks—would not be historically correct, since they are technically the guardians of Buddhist temples; and I would have liked to see more Buddhist elements given their role in Japanese society.

There were also some mundane mistakes about Japanese life that pulled me out of the story for brief moments, like a character expecting money for Christmas (minor holiday in Japan, whereas New Year’s Day is the biggest holiday, and kids do get money), needing an hour to dry clothes (most Japanese households don’t have a dryer, and they hang out the wash), the main character being embarrassed by using coins to pay for bus fare (buses have coin meters to count fare).

Other than that, though, the storytelling is engrossing and immersive, and while I usually only listen to audiobooks in the car, I found myself wanting to catch up at other times. Emily Woo Zeller nails the narration—she’s absolutely amazing at breathing life into the story.

With the excellent character-driven story and lively prose, tempered by some of the worldbuilding issues, I rate Red Winter 8.5 stars out of 10.

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