3 Great Books To Read If You Love KPop Demon Hunters

To say that Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters was a big hit would be a little bit of an understatement. The animated film wasn’t just a massive success, but it has become a full-on cultural phenomenon and people can’t get enough of Huntr/x, their catchy tunes, and just about every aspect of the high energy story of a K-pop girl group literally fighting demons and saving humanity. In fact, a sequel is already in the works and frankly, we can’t wait.

However, while our excitement for more KPop Demon Hunters is high, we do actually have to wait as a sequel is still years away, but fortunately there is a lot of other entertainment to help fill the void. We’ve previously suggested four anime movies you can check out if you loved KPop Demon Hunters, but if you’re looking for something else, there are some great books you can check out as well. Believe it or not, there are some fantastic fantasy, mystery, and YA contemporary novels that are perfect if you just can’t get enough of Netflix’s smash it. They’re all solid reads and, while different, each capture a bit of what makes KPop Demon Hunters so much fun.

3) The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim

If the elements of Korean mythology and folklore were of particular interest to you, then Sophie Kim’s The God and the Gumiho would be a fantastic read. The novel follows Kim Hani, formerly the terrifying gumiho Scarlet Fox turned barista serving customers in a coffee shop — which includes the trickster god, Seokga. As for Seokga, he’s been kicked out of the heavens and is now forced to work as a private investigator in the mortal world and he hates it. When a chance to be reinstated in the heavens comes along if he kills the Scarlet Fox, you know he takes it. But Hani isn’t going down that easy so she teams up with him to hunt down a powerful demon — so she can keep him from discovering her identity, too.

You get a little bit of enemies to lovers — perfect if you shipped Rumi and Jinu and were sad about how that worked out — but you also get a fun, clever, and sometimes funny adventure. It’s technically the first book in a series so if you end up really liking this one, there’s a second book for you to enjoy as well.

2) K-pop Confidential by Stephan Lee

In K-pop Confidential, Korean American girl Candace Park dreams of being a K-pop star and she has the talent to back it up. So, she secretly enters a global audition program by her favorite group’s label and is chosen for their trainee program. On the way to living her dream, Candace finds that she has a lot to learn about the world of K-pop and things get extra complicated when she meets a handsome boy trainee, there’s a no-dating rule, and she ends up in danger of being at the center of a full-on scandal.

It’s full of drama, romance, and a little peek behind the curtain of the high octane, high stakes world of K-pop. It’s perfect for fans of Kpop Demon Hunters because it leans in a bit to some of the challenges that we see the girls of Huntr/x deal with as K-pop idols — when they’re not hunting demons, of course.

1) The Band by Christina Ma-Kellams

In The Band, Sang Duri is a member of a Korean boy band at the height of global superstardom but it all goes sideways when his latest single as a solo artist creates controversy and he ends up cancelled. Not wanting the fallout to impact the band, Duri vanishes from the public eye and retreats to the home of a Chinese American woman he meets in H-Mart, but that makes for a complicated situation all its own At the same time, Duri’s band’s producer, Pinocchio, thinks back to his first group, a girl group that disbanded under mysterious circumstances.

While much darker than KPop Demon Hunters, The Band deals with the pressures of fame and the darker side of celebrity, which is something that we get a little taste of in the Netflix film with just how popular both Huntr/x and the Saja Boys are. The novel is also a bit of commentary on the music industry and is a smart, gripping read definitely worth checking out.

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