Pt 2 was delightful (+no cringey pronunciations!!)

I think one's opinion on this entire book as a whole will be based on on how much you already know about Yokai before reading this book and/or what you want out of the listening experience.

Personally, I'm fascinated with Yokai and knew a fair amount about them, so I really wanted a book compiling different Yokai and the lore/tales associated with them.

I would say the 2nd part of this audiobook (The Yokai Codex) delivered on this. The author gives brief summaries of each Yokai, usually including what they're believed to look like, their behavior/purpose, and if they've been portrayed in any famous media (books/anime/video games/a LOT of Studio Ghibli/etc.). I really loved how the Yokai were separated into different categories of where they were known to occur (Wilds, Water, Countryside, Village & City), it really organized them and kind of installed a curiosity of how these Yokai might interact with one another!

The 1st part of the book (Yokai Culture) was much more focused on... something else? I would say if you've never been exposed to Yokai or Japanese culture in any shape or form, the first part of the book will really help you understand the cultural reasoning/merit behind Yokai. Most of this section is just the author talking about his experiences in researching this book, which (no offense intended to Foster because he did a GREAT job compiling and translating this rather isolated lore) was kind of boring and dry at times.
To be honest, I definitely would've skipped the 1st half of this book had I known the actual Yokai stories were in the 2nd half.



All in all, this book was a nice summary of Yokai! My only comments are
1) For one or two Yokai, I really wish there had been more in-depth information provided. Some had too brief of summaries to really understand their "character" or purpose within the world of Yokai. It also would've been interesting to hear about the relationships between different Yokai, in the same vein as Roman/Greek mythology (assuming there's any evidence of hypothetical interactions)
2) It would've been convenient if Audible had bookmarks within the audiobook to be able to locate each individual Yokai for future re-listening


P.S. Last note- The narrator did an AMAZING job, thank you SO MUCH for getting someone who could actually pronounce Japanese!! It saved the listener from 9 hours of cringe (& it even helped me realize a few puns/connections between yokai names and certain characters/product names because of the correct pronunciation!)

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26 people found this helpful

Not about Japanese yokai stories

This book isn’t about any yokai stores at all. It’s about some guy going to places in Japan and thinking about yokai. That about sums this up.

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9 people found this helpful

Almost complete

I really quite enjoyed this audiobook, and have no criticism of it, except that there is so much description of the yokai that it would have been VERY, VERY nice to have had a supplemental attached PDF with pictures.

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7 people found this helpful

thanks, i hate it

I just rage-quit. I am halfway done and only ONE creature has even been seriously mentioned. It was brief and then was quickly buried under how-to-gather the information details, and how difficult and time consuming it is...

This sounds like the author is just patting himself on the back—which is deserved—but come on. Get to the gd yokai. Stop talking about yourself.

I’ve tried slowing the voice down, speeding it up. And nothing makes it any easier to listen to. The mans voice just made me irritated, irrationally so. If I heard one more “I, I, I, I,” I was about to scream.

I’ll admit that ᴍᴀʏʙᴇ this wouldn’t have been so bad if I had gotten the paper version. That’s a big maybe. A seriously doubtful maybe. But I’ll admit it exists.

I regret using my credit on this and will be exchanging this with another book asap.

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5 people found this helpful

A top notch study on Yokai

This book is more than a encyclopedia of yokai, but a insight into their nature

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3 people found this helpful

Endless Terminology

It's a research paper not a book. And is worse in audio than would be in book form, endless terminology.

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1 person found this helpful

Great info

Fascinating. It’s just that I feel I need to see the actual book to appreciate the appearances of the various Yokai.

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Pokémons Origin story here!

Absolutely wonderful listen and well written - The cultural aspects of Yokai are presented concisely in way that engages the listener. Id recommend it for anyone interested in the subject.

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Tales and explanations of Yokai

This book takes a very unique perspective. It’s one of those books that makes you want to learn more about the symbolism embedded in rich cultural beliefs.

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Off topic, misleading, boring.

It's called the book of yokai, but the whole book is about the history of the people inventing and writing about yokai, and philosophies and theories around the folklore. It hardly talks about the actual yokai themselves.

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