The legends of MeoShín’ké by hwa hwa studios is a colorful exploration of fun, creative characters in dynamic poses! I had so much fun with this! It was a relaxing break from the world. My favorite was the jangbalgui, because I am obsessed with snakes and very much would like my own, but for now this little creature does wonders!

I think it is really neat that this is based on Korean myth and legends, yet Meoshin’ke is essentially its own realm and series.
This book is like an encyclopedia. It has a really good introduction to the lore and the realm. I love how we are given charts to visualize how all the creatures are broken up by type and energy.
The creatures themselves are fascinating. There were so many I hadn’t heard of before (I’ve studied a little) and it was really fun looking at the charts for each on to see their strengths, habitats, etc. I really like the Medusa, hoemm, and chungu. The art makes them even more fun! I love the style and the colors.
I also like how the original Korean language is left for the names too. For me. That is easier to understand for pronunciation than the romanized names, and it was fun identifying common roots in the names.
Overall very fun and entertaining and I think it would appeal to a wide range of ages.

This is a delightful guide on various creatures, ghosts, and other otherworldly beings from Korean culture, with influences from other East Asian cultures as well.

As I understand it from reading this, HwaHwa Studio made an animated series, MeoShín’Ké, featuring the creatures listed in this book, and this is giving more info on them. It starts with an introduction on the basic origins of where these creatures came from, the classifications used in the book (like if they were originally humans or ghosts, if they’re magical), their affinities, how harmful they are to humans, and their age and size. It kind of reminded me of like Pokemon stats. The illustrations for each creature were very bright and pop-y, and they made a lot of even the scarier creatures look kind of cute. At the end there’s a bibliography for where the info came from, which seemed to be a lot of Korean sources, and an appendix which has what looks like hand-sketched art of the creatures and fun fact-esque details.

If you watched k-pop demon hunters recently and want to learn about some of the creatures and lore that came up there, I think this gives a good starting point to learning more about them. If you’re generally interested in mythology and folklore from around the world, you’ll also enjoy this.

Thanks to HwaHwa Studio and Andrews McNeel Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I am someone who has followed Korean culture for many years, and this illustrated guidebook has been incredibly enriching for me. Although I already knew a lot about Korean food and music, I knew very little about its mythology and monsters. I really appreciate all the dedication put into this work. It’s evident that every fact, description, and illustration has been carefully researched and thoughtfully presented. If I’m allowed to choose a couple of my favorite mythological creatures, I would definitely pick the Haetae and the Upshin.

Thank you to NetGalley, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and HwaHwa Studio for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

what an interesting take! i absolutely loved the cute art. thank you so much for letting me read this beautiful book 💖

This was so amazing! The style, the color-- the illustrations alone make this worth looking at again and again. But the stories in the guide were wonderful; everything about this was fascinating.
The monsters and mythology were so different from what I know in Western culture, and this made me want to keep learning more about Korean art and language and history and culture.

We need more asian inspired histories and this book is exactly what we need.
As a korean folkore inspired world we are provided with this "dictionary" of creatures.
Short, straight to the point, a bit whimsical and very korean.
I think this would be an amazing guide to create korean inspired D&D characters, since the information provided it's super complete, I'll give it a try in my next session.
Only downside I personally did not love the illustrations, and would love to have a pronunciation guide since my korean is non existent.

I would recommend it to mythology and folklore lovers, D&D players.
I was provided a copy of this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book surprised me. I was expecting a tale in general but the book introduces characters and gives details about them. I really enjoyed this style. It reminded me of game character stats books. I think illustrations were very pretty. The colors were bright and captivating. I am not sure if AI was used since I am not very good at detecting it but I do not think it was used.

When it comes to the historical and cultural aspect of these characters, I am not educated enough to write about them. However, I liked that they have mentioned the sensitivity of these topics so I assume that they have cared about it.

I think this book would be a perfect gift to someone who is Korean or is interested in Korean culture and history. The content may be too much for younger audience but I think 15+ can pretty much read this book. It is easy to read it as a digital copy but I am pretty sure it looks even prettier on paper.

Huge thanks to Netgalley, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and HwaHwa Studio for this advanced reader copy.