First book review of 2026! Let's do this thing!
The first thing we do is meet Snow.
I exist as either a small canid with thick fur, pointed ears, and neat black feet, or a young woman. Neither are safe forms in a world built by men. (page 2)
FOX PEOPLE!!
We learn that Snow is hunting for the man who paid the man who killed her child for her fur. She takes on the role of a caretaker to an elderly lady as part of her investigation. Meanwhile, in another city, we meet Bao, a man who can tell when people are lying because their words cause buzzing in his lips. He's investigating the death of a courtesan found frozen in the doorway of a restaurant. Then the plotlines slowly converge. We travel from China to Japan (time on a boat pleases me!), meet more foxes, and learn secrets.
The book started slowly and it took me a hundred pages or so to really get into, but then I spent most of a Saturday curled up on the couch reading it and ignoring my to-do list and the dog nosing me for a walk. I wanted Bao to have a happy ending and I wanted to know all of Snow's secrets.
There are some big problems. Consider the line where Snow describes herself. There is SO MUCH EXPOSITION in the fox scenes. Snow just can't but tell us everything we need to know instead of letting it come to us naturally in the world. There are also pretty graphic depictions of violence against women which I wasn't prepared for based on the tone of the rest of the novel, but it wasn't unrealistic. I don't know. There's just a part of me that wishes not every book had "normal men" threatening/enacting sexual violence. It gets exhausting.
It was kind of exciting to read such a genre mashup, though. I put it down as fantasy on my spreadsheet, but it's a mystery novel with some historical fiction elements, too. That's fun. I like that Choo is taking risks and that a publisher took a chance on a book that isn't easily categorized.
The ending was exciting and the book picked up the pace towards the end. Are you interested in Chinese folklore? The relationship between China and Japan in the early twentieth century? Fox people? Give it a try. 4/5 stars
Lines of note:
Revenge is a terrible dish to consume. It eats one from the inside out, no matter what the say about it being best served cold. As the Chinese saying goes, "When a gentleman takes his vengeance, ten years is not too late." But you and I know that chilled food inevitably leads to an upset stomach. (page 117)
Hope, of course, is the most painful thing in the universe. Clinging to a thin strand is the most agonizing way to live. (page 170-171)
Things I looked up:
drowning of the child emperor Antoku at the Battle of Dan-no-Ura (page 129)
Antoku - Emperor Antoku (1178 – 1185) was the 81st emperor of Japan. His reign spanned the years from 1180 through 1185. His death marked the end of the Heian period and the beginning of the Kamakura period
Battle of Dan-no-Ura - During Antoku's reign, the Imperial House of Japan was involved in a bitter struggle between warring clans. Minamoto no Yoritomo with his cousin Minamoto no Yoshinaka, led a force from the Minamoto clan against the Taira, who controlled the emperor. During the climactic sea Battle of Dan-no-Ura in April 1185, Antoku's grandmother Taira no Tokiko took him and plunged with him into the water in the Shimonoseki Straits, drowning the child emperor rather than allowing him to be captured by the opposing forces.
Hat mentions (why hats?):
..wearing a straw coat worn by peasants to keep off the rain and a bamboo hat. (page 68)
She indicated a hat hanging on a peg in the hallway. (page 207)
The Manchu bannermen on the train wear hats trimmed with otter fur and thick quilted jackets. (page 216)
The police arrived wearing smart uniforms and uncomfortable-looking hats. (page 257)
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Does your spouse ever recommend books for you? Do you wish you could shapechange into a particular animal?
This sounds really interesting. I am not a fantasy person at all though so am not sure if it’s for me. But it’s intriguing.
ReplyDeleteMy spouse doesn’t recommend books for me but he is not as much of a reader as I am and I read and research books so much that it would be tough for him to suggest something to me. I am the person trying to get him to read something. He used to read when we took the bus to work but now that we don’t take the bus anymore for a variety of reasons (mostly logistical challenges but also because the bus didn’t come back to our neighborhood) he doesn’t read anymore except on vacations. I am trying to get him to read with Paul and me when Paul does his 25 minutes of nightly reading.
Someone else mentioned this book recently but I cannot remember who. Rob doesn't generally recommend books, he reads mostly historical fiction which I tend to dislike. But he's reading one about Augustus which is epistolatory and he thinks I would like it. Meh. I have enough on my list, we'll see.
ReplyDeleteFOX PEOPLE!!!! I'm intrigued. I'm cautiously putting this on my TBR. I think I might like it? It sounds weird, but in a good way.
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool that Dr. BB recommended a book for you and that it turned out to be a 4/5!
ReplyDeleteA buys me a lot of books (off the NYT/New Yorker Lists), but I'm usually the one who recommends books (novels) for him to read. Sometimes this is frustrating, because he can get very moralistic over details. E.g., in _The Goldfinch_ (art thieves should go to jail) or _Anna Karenina_ (adultery is not romantic).
Good for Dr. BB to recommend a book for you! I don’t think my husband has ever recommended a book to me. He’s not a big leisure reader. He reads for information when he needs to know about something, like how to build a weir (an irrigation thing). He read about it and then he built one! Would I want to shapeshifter into an animal? Probably an Eagle! I could fly, but no other birds would mess with me!
ReplyDeleteDo you tend to like most of your husband's suggestions? I'd say Tara and I are about 50/50 whenever we read a book the other person has recommended.
ReplyDeleteI almost read this book last year when I was in Malaysia because Choo is from Malaysia and I like to match reading to travel. I read The Harmony Silk Factory instead and was less than enthralled by that book. Maybe I should have read The Fox Wife instead.
ReplyDeleteMy husband doesn't often recommend books for me, but last year he did recommend The Light from Uncommon Stars because it involves donuts, violin prodigies and eternal damnation and also was set in the part of California where I'm from - all things he thought I might enjoy. And he was right.