YA Horror novel:
Soojin is a 17 year old who comes from a long line of women who are able to resurrect the dead. All her life she has been warned to never resurrect anything other than small animals or else there will be sever consequence for her and whatever she resurrected. However, after the death of her elder sister, Mirae, Soojin decides she would rather face consequences than remain alone. Not longer after Mirae’s resurrection problems start to arise in their small town.
In my opinion this book had two main problems; pacing and the label of horror.
The pacing was all over the place and the flashbacks really dragged the pacing off course. Also, this isn’t a horror book. It does have some supernatural elements, but no horror and not much suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s Books for the opportunity to review this arc of And the River Drags Her Down by Jihyun Yun.

This book centers heavily on familial relationships, particularly in a Korean family, but also how life in a small town can effect people and how even if you have good intentions, the choices you make don’t always lead to a good outcome.

Soojin and Mirae are sisters who, after the death of their mother years ago, have a strong bond; and with Mirae only one year older she has unwillingly taken on the role of mother to her younger sister.

The book begins months after the death of Mirae and we learn that the women in their family are all blessed with the magic to restore life to animals after they have died. Their mother taught them the ways of the magic as children and warned them of why it can only be done to animals and never humans. There are consequences to such magic and it’s not safe.

Soojin in a desperate and emotional state performs the ritual to bring her sister back. But as time passes Soojin sees that the Mirae she brought back is not the one she once loved. She is almost a shadow of the real Mirae, flowing through life like water down a river, unexpected and disorderly. Desperate to have her sister back Soojin didn’t consider what would happen or how to keep her a secret.

This author writes about grief so beautifully that it made my heart ache. Watching Soojin and her father and seeing the toll that loss has taken on them and their relationship is such a strong representation of how grief is not just a solitary emotion.

I enjoyed this story for its strong emotional moments and the magical realism that is woven in but even more so because it is based off of Korean folklore. Will definitely be watching this author!

In a nutshell? In her grief and loneliness, Soojin decides to play God and uses ancestral magic to bring back her deceased older sister Mirae, to life.

While everything seemed fine after her sister's resurrection, it eventually takes a darker turn (as expected when you mess with the natural order of things 🤓☝🏽)

In this book it touches on:
An elder sister forced to grow up too fast
An understanding of grief and how to let go
What greed can do to someone and how far they'll push
Guilt and selfishness
Sisterly love
Childhood friendship
A parent so lost in mourning that he neglects his daughters' feelings/needs
The deadly cost of magic used incorrectly

I absolutely adored this book! <3

While I cannot relate to the main character in terms of dealing with the passing of loved ones, I can sympathize with her. To be put in that situation I could understand why she did what she did.
As well as what her SISTER did.
Did I think what she did was extreme? Yeah. Did they deserve it? I truly think they were the catalyst to everything that happened after the sisters' mother's passing.

I also loved Soojin's friendship with Mark Moon. THAT was a ride or die friend.
And despite being tender with her he also knew when to be real with her, to tell her what she needed to hear, even when it was hard.

Would I recommend this book to anyone reading this review? Definitely. My chest feels heavy just thinking about being in Soojin's shoes. Or even the father's, having to witness his daughter leaving him a second time. (You know a book is good when it makes you feel like staring up at the ceiling on your bed and trying not to cry 🥲)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. This was a deeply unsettling and beautifully written.

And the River Drags Her Down is dark, atmospheric, and absolutely raw. Yun writes with all five senses in sharp focus , you don’t just read this book, you smell the rot, feel the damp weight of grief, taste the river’s salt and secrets. The pacing is deliberate, almost punishingly slow at times…Yun doesn’t let you look away. Grief in this novel isn’t a theme; it’s a living, breathing presence that drags you down with it.

This book had a haunting, almost Pet Sematary vibe that I was totally falling for. Soojin is a deeply relatable character, navigating intense grief and trauma, and her emotional unraveling is both raw and compelling. The atmosphere is chilling and immersive, pulling you in with its eerie beauty. While the ending didn’t quite land for me emotionally, the journey there was gripping and intense. A thrilling, emotionally charged read that blends horror and sorrow in all the right ways.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jihyun Yun, and Knopf Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a unique and haunting read. The writing is absolutely beautiful - poetic without being too much. Some lines really stuck with me like: "Not letting go is the only prerequisite of a haunting. Our harms never leave us if we don't let them leave."

What stood out most to me was how deeply the book explores grief. As someone who's experienced the loss of multiple friends due to mental health, parts of this book really hit close to home. The way Yun write about grief -how heavy, isolating, and all-consuming it can be- felt incredibly real. I appreciated how she captured that emotional weight with honesty and care.

I wouldn’t say I felt strongly connected to every character, but the complicated bond between the sisters was powerful and felt very honest. While the revenge arc that developed was intense, I liked that the story didn't offer easy answers.

Overall, this was a dark, emotional, and beautifully written story about grief and sisterhood. Definitely worth the read. :33

This book was not at all what I was expecting it to be. I mean, you've read one "bring them back from the dead book", then you've read them all but this book was so much different from any other than I had read from this genre. This book evoked such a sadness in me. Yes, it was a horror book, but it was a tragic horror book. The bond between the sisters was beautiful and it was obvivous that after their mother died, all they truly had was each other. I especially enjoyed the revenge angle that Mirae explored by murdering the ones responsible for her mother's death, I probably will not recommend this book to my middle school kiddos since the subject matter is fairly dark but I think it will be totally appropiate for high schoolers. Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC of this book! I will certainly recommend it to my book club mates and my other adult readers that enjoy this genre!

This unfortunately a dnf for me. It was much… detailed in gruesome item. This is likely my fault for not reading the description close enough

This YA Horror packs an emotional punch.

The Han family women carry a secret. With a piece of a dead being, some dirt, and their familial magic, they can bring things back from the dead. Only animals, never humans. Or at least that's what they promised. That is until Soojin's older sister, Mirae, drowns and Soojin is lost in her grief. But is this really her sister she brought back?

And the River Drags Her Down is a haunting tale of sisterhood, grief, and what happens when you refuse to move on. It is incredibly emotional. Soojin and Mirae's bond is strong and felt throughout the book. But you also get their need to grow, to be their own people, to love and move on, which is easier said than done. I loved the sisters.
I think all the characters were so well fleshed out. Mark was by far my favorite. He deserved better but he was loyal and so stinking sweet.

This was a well written novel that carried some very heavy feelings well. Overall, a good read.

This is a story about grief, the kind that messes with your mind, warps your sense of reality, and pushes you to make choices you never thought you’d face. When Soojin’s older sister is found drowned in the river that cuts through their town, she breaks every rule of her family’s magic to bring her back. At first, it feels like a miracle. But soon, Mirae starts to change. She’s restless. Hungry. And determined to get revenge for a past that destroyed their family.

And then the rain starts. And it doesn’t stop. And Soojin has to ask herself if the sister she brought back is the same one she lost, or if she’s brought something else entirely into the world.

The heart of this novel is sisterhood. Soojin and Mirae’s bond is messy, raw, and painfully real. Yun nails that messy, unconditional love where you’d do absolutely anything for each other… even if it means bending the rules of nature with some light necromancy.

There’s something about Jihyun Yun’s writing that just gets under your skin. She weaves grief, reincarnation, and horror together so seamlessly that you barely notice when the hair on the back of your neck starts standing up. And this book is dark, emotional, and a little unsettling - in the best way. Honestly, parts of it broke my heart, especially anything involving the animals.

I loved that the story was told in third person, giving us access to the thoughts of multiple characters. This perspective kept things moving during slower stretches and made the town itself feel like a living, breathing presence. Soojin, though, is very much an unreliable narrator - her fierce devotion to Mirae blinds her to truths she doesn’t want to face.

It’s haunting, sad, and beautiful all at once and it’s going to stick with me for a long time. Highly recommended!

My copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Knof Books for Young Readers for this ARC. I went into this book, thinking it would be a horror book, but I was surprised to learn that this book had so much heart and depth into it. For example, this book really showcases the emotions of grief and the stages that a person goes through and how their grief is handled throughout their life the main character Soonjin was such a believable and likable character. I totally fell for her, and I wanted to see her succeed. The love she had for her sister, and the pain of such a loss was beautifully displayed throughout this book. I loved the bond that the sisters had, and I also loved the folklore that was written within the story. I would highly recommend this book and I think that it was more of a mystery than a thriller horror book.

A beautiful, haunting, and emotional book about the ugly sides of grief and the complicated bonds between two sisters, after one of them has died. I enjoyed this immensely!

Soojin’s beloved older sister, Mirae, died recently from a sudden drowning, while her mother had died in a car crash years before that. Now she lives with her emotionally unavailable father in their small tourist town, unable to move on from her grief. The women in Soojin’s family possess magic that lets them bring the dead back to life as long as they bury part of them in soil., though Soojin has only ever used it on small animals before. But unable to bear life without her sister, Soojin buries Mirae’s old baby tooth and brings her back to life. At first, it’s like Mirae had never died and Soojin is happy. But Mirae has an insatiable appetite, bleeds water rather than blood, and mysterious and gruesome deaths occur in the town. Soojin begins to wonder if it was really her sister she brought back to life.

Soojin is a messy, complicated character who doesn’t always make the most likable or logical decisions, but she also feels truly human. It’s hard not to empathize with her grief or understand why she acts as she does, and a lot of her messy parts I can see in myself too. Her relationships with other characters, like her sister, her father, and her friend Mark, are equally complicated and nuanced, and there’s layers to them and the other characters that appear, even just a slight twist that changed a character from how they initially presented and how Soojin saw them. I liked seeing Soojin’s character develop, her struggles with grief, and she did feel truly compelling to me, relatable and facing the consequences of her actions.

It is multi POV, including Mirae’s, the undead sister, and I believe has elements from Korean folklore, like water ghosts. The magic elements were light but fascinating, and I really enjoyed the flashbacks on the origins of this magicZ I was expecting this to be horror, and while it does have elements like some body horror and necromancy and some animal cruelty (specifically a rat), it’s definitely more of a slowburn horror that gives more of a dark atmosphere and creeping sense of dread than straight-up horror. I’m not sure what genre it would be labelled under, but I liked it enough that I don’t really care. There was always tension, with things taking a worse turn as the story went on. I also really loved the complicated family and sibling dynamics here with Soojin, and the exploration of the burden of the eldest daughter from Mirae’s POV.

This had great writing that really expands your vocabulary and built up the haunting as well as put into words some truly complicated feelings toward grief and family. It did manage to tug at my heartstrings at time with the emotions and heartbreak that characters went through.

This was such a well done debut novel with messy but engaging characters who felt so real, a mystery that’s unraveled with time, all revolving around the bond between sisters. Really enjoyed this!

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf Children’s for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: I picked this up having no idea how much I was going to love it. It's been on my kindle as a book that I felt like "oh very pretty cover, not sure I remember what it's about but I'll pick it up eventually." Then one night on a whim, I decided to start it and couldn't stop. This book is incredible. I will start this review off by also saying, this book is hardly YA outside of the ages of the main characters. It very easily could pass as adult horror. As an adult myself, this book left me on edge, feeling sad (in a good way), thinking a lot, and scared. It is a vast, complex, horrifying but also beautiful story. If you have read Bat Eaters by Kylie Lee Baker, you will love this.

The story is told in three distinct parts and feels like a movie. It is written so fucking good, it's lush, atmospheric, suspenseful, it just captures so much that I clearly cannot write in this review. As I'm trying to write this review, I just feel so overwhelmed with gratitude for what this story represented and what it put me through. I cannot fully find the words to share that with you all but I will just say please read this book if you are at all interested in it. It is so much more than I thought it would be and I have no complaints about it.

Trigger warning for extensive animal harm and also pet loss. This is a big trigger of mine however, the novel is so caring that it helped me feel things I often avoid to which was a positive.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book before its publication date.

It took me a while to warm up to this book. I was intrigued by the premise, but it didn't grab me right away. I am glad that I stuck with it. The character grow that Soo undergoes throughout the book is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. I can't wait to get a copy of this book for my library.

Easily one of my top reads this year, this book masterfully navigates the grieving process. It starts with a sense of knowing and anticipation, then engages you with a mystery that is rich with empathy. A poetic and tender exploration of loss, it's a horror story in its bones but is held together by love.

Words cannot express enough how captivating this book truly was!! I never thought a YA book would move and destroy me, but i was proven entirely wrong. The synopsis intrigued me and the writing style kept me HOOKED. The whimsy, lyrical style felt like a dream. The imagery painted clearly in my mind, almost like a movie. Every emotion that was written I could feel coursing through me. It read phenomenally and held the theme close to the reader’s heart. Between each characters POV, you still held the sisters at the forefront of your mind.

Speaking of the different characters, each one was done beautifully! All of them were flawed in their own way which helped wove the story together, especially Soojin and Mirae. Soojin was brilliantly flawed, making her feel real. Having experienced a similar situation myself(and at a similar age), I saw a lot of myself in her which helped me grieve in my own sense. All her emotions felt justified. She isn’t perfect, never claimed to be. That’s what makes her so amazing. She let herself break down and shatter which led her to do something she never thought of doing because of the hurt and anger. The grief was too immense for her to handle alone. Mirae was forced to grow up at a young age. Her identity was gone so she could become the piece of the puzzle that kept the family from shattering. Chapter 35 had me taking pauses between paragraphs to allow myself to breathe. Her character was executed beautifully.

The embodiment of grief forced its way through every crack. It lingered on characters’ tongues and nestled itself in their minds. A presence you desperately wish to ignore, but see in the corners of your eyes.
Truly a job done well! I felt the grief from each character no matter how small it was.

A top contender for my favorite book of the year for sure! The prose, excellent characters, and the vivid imagery had beat my expectations. This book is one you should definitely keep an eye on for fans of a deep haunting that falls you, sisterhood, and grief!

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for allowing me the privilege to read this eArc in exchange for an honest review. I cannot wait for my preorder! :)

And the River Drags Her Down isn’t your typical “raise the dead” story—it’s tender, terrifying, and steeped in longing. After her sister Mirae’s drowning, Soojin breaks her family’s cardinal rule of necromancy: never bring back a human. Of course she can’t let go. And when Mirae returns… she’s not the same.
This is slow-burn horror at its best—rain-soaked, atmospheric, and laced with Korean folklore, creeping dread, and the raw, tangled bond between sisters. It’s about resurrection, yes, but also about grief, secrets, and the love that refuses to die. Lush, haunting, and deeply human.

This book is hauntingly beautiful. It’s a slow read but I think for this story, it was the right pace. I loved the characters and I’m so glad I got to read this beautiful tragic story that I’ll never forget.

Sad. Grief. Haunting. Beautiful. Sisterhood.

It pulled me back into my grief losing my mom how I would give anything to have her back. I understand Soojin a lot. Then being able to bring someone or something back from the dead but when they return they aren’t the same ugh! I just my heart broke. Is a slower paced story which definitely helps build that creepy sensation. I think if you’re looking for that creepy,haunting book this is definitely for you.

I really enjoyed reading this book!

This book follows Soojin Han after the death of her mother, and her sister, Mirae. Soojin and her dad are struggling with grief and are disconnected from each other. But one thing people don't know about the Han women - they're able to raise things from the dead. One night, when the grief and loneliness are too much for Soojin to bear, she uses her powers to resurrect her late sister. But there's a price to pay when Soojin plays God, and her actions might have deadly consequences.

The author did a great job of creating a spooky atmosphere with this book. The slow creep of dread throughout make me unable to put the book down.

Each character was realistic. Soojin's selfish desire to have her sister back. Mirae being burnt out due to the caregiver role she had to adopt. The father's disconnect from his children in the wake of his wife's death. I think all of these are super realistic things to happen after the death of a family member. I think the conclusion wrapped up the issues nicely and helped each character come to terms with their flaws and begin the healing process.

I feel like a few things could've been explained better, such as Mirae's extreme hunger. However, this book was overall a really enjoyable read, and I look forward to the author's future works.