Kaori, Yuki and Shigeko are indigenous Ryukyuan girls on the edge of womanhood who find themselves trapped in a fictionalized Battle of Okinawa. They survive by connecting to their intuition, shiisaa guardians specific to Okinawa, and each other. Based on true events, shamanistic magic may be what brings them together, but the girls must ultimately find the power within themselves. Their sisterhood is what defies and defeats those that threaten them.
Trigger warning: Sexual violence is an essential part of the plot to represent the real life situation women in Okinawa face to this day, but there are no graphic depictions of the act in this story. It remains only a threat to the characters.
Praise for Inujini
“…a powerful condemnation of the treatment of a people. Read it and weep for those who were destroyed in the war, then read it and weep for their descendants destroyed during peace time.” Stephanie Ellis of The Horror Tree wrote a review of Inujini that blows me away. Such well-considered and beautiful observations about the story… this was a gift. Thank you. Read the entire review on Horrortree: “Epeolatry Book Review: Inujini by Angela Yuriko Smith“
“Three young girls come of age in the most brutal way in Inujini, the long-awaited debut novel from Angela Yuriko Smith, a harrowing tale of self-discovery set in the midst of war. While every page resounds with futility and loss, the Shimanchu island people collateral damage in a war between superpowers, Smith manages to squeeze a kernel of hope into a child’s palm, in a scrap of scented silk, and in the tranquillity of an island grotto. A cultural revelation.” —Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award®-winner and author of Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud.
“Angela Yuriko Smith writes a gripping tale of three young women coming of age while their world disintegrates. It is about a people caught between two warring sides, treated as little more that fodder for the machines of war and their homes made into a battleground. It is about belief and spirit and a wish fulfillment to right the wrongs that happened to the Okinawan people in World War II. Yet even with the aid of supernatural forces, devastation blast their hearts. Inujini was hard to put down and a heartbreaking tale to tell. Well worth the wait.” —Colleen Anderson, Rhysling Winner, President of the SFPA and author of Weird Worlds
“An obscured history remembered, an ancient force awakened, a power reclaimed—this is one mighty and bloody punch of a story.” —Kristy Park Kulski, author of Fairest Flesh and House of Pungsu
“I struggle for the words to adequately convey the impact this book has had on me. As an expat in Korea who came home burdened with the knowledge of the full extent of Japanese atrocities, this book forced me to reckon with the truth that it was, in fact, not the full extent. The Shimanchu suffered too – immensely.” —Amanda Worthington, author of No Quarter: A Novella in Verse.
“Angela is one of the great truth tellers who seeks to right the wrongs and atrocities that man has unleashed upon man.” —Dr. Fiona M. Clements-Russell
“This story shines a potent light on a tragic moment of violence and cultural erasure as well as the beauty and resilience found in honoring the memory and faith of our ancestors.” —Kiyomi Appleton Gaines, from her review on Goodreads
Thank you to Amanda Worthington for this moving review of Inujini on Goodreads. She says, “I struggle for the words to adequately convey the impact this book has had on me. As an expat in Korea who came home burdened with the knowledge of the full extent of Japanese atrocities, this book forced me to reckon with the truth that it was, in fact, not the full extent. The Shimanchu suffered too – immensely.” Read that review here.
“Reading a moving ARC of this important novel by angela_yuriko_smith, and it is ripping my heart out and stomping all over it.” Kerry E.B. Black via Instagram Kerry E.B. Black was also kind enough to take the time and leave a review up on Goodreads. Again, a beautiful review that leaves me at a loss for how to express my appreciation. I love that both reviews focus on the point of the novel: what happened on Okinawa to the indigenous people. What happens still. Thank you. Read that review here.
I’m horrified, heartbroken and have sobbed for the Shimanchu people. This is beautiful and devastating reading for me as a historian. I’m crying and inconsolable. I am beyond disgusted and angry. My courses neglected this. We must know. We must remember. Thank you for sharing your ancestry with us. It is needed. I’m crying in heartbreak, afraid and enraged. I will carry on reading but this is… since something precious, magnificent, magical and horrible. I am reading your heart. I feel so much tenderness and respect and love in this work, for these beautiful islands and people despoiled and corrupted by war, evil, pride, fear, dehumanization, Violences, and all its vileness and hatred! —Pixie Bruner, author of The Body As Haunted
First review on Amazon has me glowing!