The Last Fallen Star by Graci Kim || Adventure Meets Korean Mythology

The Last Fallen Star (Gifted Clans #1)

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents Graci Kim's thrilling debut about an adopted Korean-American girl who discovers her heritage and her magic on a perilous journey to save her witch clan family.

Riley Oh can't wait to see her sister get initiated into the Gom clan, a powerful lineage of Korean healing witches their family has belonged to for generations. Her sister, Hattie, will earn her Gi bracelet and finally be able to cast spells without adult supervision. Although Riley is desperate to follow in her sister's footsteps when she herself turns thirteen, she's a saram--a person without magic. Riley was adopted, and despite having memorized every healing spell she's ever heard, she often feels like the odd one out in her family and the gifted community.

Then Hattie gets an idea: what if the two of them could cast a spell that would allow Riley to share Hattie's magic? Their sleuthing reveals a promising incantation in the family's old spell book, and the sisters decide to perform it at Hattie's initiation ceremony. If it works, no one will ever treat Riley as an outsider again. It's a perfect plan!

Until it isn't. When the sisters attempt to violate the laws of the Godrealm, Hattie's life ends up hanging in the balance, and to save her Riley has to fulfill an impossible task: find the last fallen star. But what even is the star, and how can she find it?

As Riley embarks on her search, she finds herself meeting fantastic creatures and collaborating with her worst enemies. And when she uncovers secrets that challenge everything she has been taught to believe, Riley must decide what it means to be a witch, what it means to be family, and what it really means to belong.

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Perfect for readers who want:

• Adventure and mythology along the lines of Percy Jackson.
• Except, you know, with Korean mythology and characters!
• A thoughtful discussion on adoption, family, and belonging.
• Magic and witches and ghosts.
• Action that just doesn’t let up.
• Self-sacrifice and sibling bonds.
• A dragon scooter (a.k.a. dragon on wheels) named Boris.

Many thanks to Rick Riordan Presents and Rockstar Book Tours for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I will forever read everything Rick Riordan Presents comes out with! So when I saw a book coming out based on Korean mythology, you can bet I was all over it! Also, is that cover not freaking delightful?! I’m so in love with it.

The Last Fallen Star is an adventure steeped in Korean mythology, chock full of mysteries and secrets, and delightfully delves into the bond between sisters and family.

The mythology in this was top notch, and I absolutely loved learning more about Korean mythology! AND THE FOOD! be prepared to constantly drool all over your book. There were, however, a lot of what felt like conveniences, where things were resolved too easily or just handed to characters. Middle grade readers are unlikely to notice or be bothered by these, in my opinion, but I definitely did. Overall, though, a fun read that I think middle grade readers are sure to love!

The Last Fallen Star introduces the reader to a whole world of Korean mythology—some of it interesting, some of it terrifying, but all of it just plain fun.

I’ll admit that I don’t know as much about Korean mythology as I should, so a lot of the creatures that pop up in this book were new to me. There were some beautiful ones, some wonderful ones, and then some that I definitely wouldn’t want to meet late at night in a dark alley, if you get my drift. Well … okay, maybe I would, but only because it’s me. Take my word, that’s probably a bad sign for “normal” folks.

This is by far my favorite part of the book! Kim does a fantastic job of weaving in all different aspects of the mythology in a way that’s easy to follow and understand. I did kind of want a little more from the world-building in terms of how magic works in this world and how these mythological creatures tie together. However, that didn’t really dull my excitement to meet all these new creatures and beings!

There’s a lot of adventure in this book, but underlying it all is the journey one sister will take for another. And it’s a beautiful thing.

Have I mentioned before how much I love sibling bonds? This book goes above and beyond that. Not only is the relationship between Hattie and Riley utterly adorable, but they’re adopted sisters, which takes it to a whole new level. As someone who has no full siblings and lots of step siblings, I loved seeing this even more! Especially the lengths they would go to for each other.

This adventure isn’t just about sisters, even though that’s the main driving force. It’s about family overall. For some secondary characters, it’s the loss of family that really affected them. In other cases, it’s finding new family. Sometimes it’s just finding where you fit in your current family and learning to inhabit that space. There’s such a strong theme of family in this book, though, and I love all the different ways Kim approached it! Despite its darker overall plot, there are some hardcore heartwarming vibes in this book that touch on super important ideas.

The secondary characters in this are not only varied in personality but all somehow really fun and interesting!

Almost, I would dare say, more than the protagonist herself. Riley just didn’t catch my attention on her own. She was essentially too good at everything, or conveniently able to immediately find whatever she needed when she needed it, without any real flaws. But the secondary characters? They had some spunk to them!

Riley’s sister, Hattie, is frustratingly naive. The sort you can’t help but love. She’s upbeat and positive and just wants to help the people around her, especially her sister. Sometimes I wanted to shake some sense into her, but only because she was such a precious cinnamon roll that I knew it wasn’t going to end well for her. It never does, does it?

There’s also another character who pops up later in the book named Taeyo. I won’t say too much about him except that he’s a tech genius who combines magic with tech. If that doesn’t sound like something you want, I’m not sure you’re in the right place. Because that sounds amazing. It was interesting to see some of the things that could be done.

Oh, and have I mentioned Boris, the dragon on wheels?! Why aren’t these a thing yet?! Quick, someone get working on this idea! We all need a Boris. While not technically a character, Boris does play a significant role in the story, and he has a personality unto himself that is adorable.

There are a lot of big, emotional lessons in this book, and I loved what a wide variety of subjects Kim tackles with subtlety, slipping them into the guise of an action-packed adventure.

For starters, Riley is adopted and knows it and struggling with feelings of not belonging. This is so important in middle grade fiction. Kids that age struggle with belonging in the best of times, but as someone who was adopted by my father, it means so much to me to be able to see adopted characters reflected with such thoughtfulness.

There’s also the idea of not jumping to conclusions and judging people before you know them. Sure, this idea has been done before, ad nauseum, but the way Kim approaches it is novel and works perfectly in the setting she creates in this book. It fits really nicely with the additional themes of sacrifice and service, which are two of the biggest ones that come up repeatedly. If I’m honest, those are probably the ones that will hit your feels the hardest.

The only theme that came off a little heavy-handed to me was that bullies have backstories too. But honestly, I’m a little over the idea that bullies need to be understood, forgiven, and redeemed in middle grade. So this is probably more of a me thing than the book thing so it doesn’t really count.

I highly doubt middle grade readers will mind (or even notice), but there were a lot of conveniences in this book that really stood out to me.

Things felt a little too easy, like the characters didn’t need to work out the solutions to their problems. They were kind of just handed the solutions. One instance that I really didn’t like personally was when they needed to find a ghost, they conveniently had an app for that. (Ghostr. Like Tindr. Get it?!) It made me roll my eyes hard because in my day we hunted our own ghosts the old-fashioned way: with a wing and a prayer and a ghost of a chance. (Okay, I’ll stop. Probably. Maybe. You’ve been warned.) Despite my feelings about this, I do think that middle grade readers might find this more charming (though I’m not sure they’d get all the semi-dated references made in that scene, though older readers will likely appreciate them).

About Graci Kim

Graci Kim is the bestselling author of The Last Fallen Star, book one in the Korean mythology-inspired middle grade adventure series. Called a “sparkling yarn” by Entertainment Weekly, the Gifted Clans trilogy has been optioned by the Disney Channel for a live-action television series, and was a 2021 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for “Best Middle Grade & Children’s Book”.

Graci is also one of the authors of The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities short story collection, published by Rick Riordan Presents (Disney Hyperion), which became an instant New York Times bestseller.

In a previous life, Graci was a diplomat for the New Zealand foreign service, a cooking show host, and once ran a business that turned children’s drawings into cuddly toys. She lives in New Zealand with her husband and daughter. You can find her sometimes on Twitter (@gracikim), more often on Instagram (@gracikimwrites), and always at her website (www.gracikim.com).

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3 winners will win a finished copy of THE LAST FALLEN STAR, US Only.

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