“For all stories have an ending as well as a beginning. But a beginning is where you choose to plant your foot, and the ending is only the edge of one's own knowledge.”
― Yangsze Choo, The Fox Wife

I have eagerly awaited this book because I have a penchant for foxes and folklore and love for Yangsze Choo's The Ghost Bride. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Net Galley for the opportunity to listen to The Fox Wife before its release on February 13th.

The Fox Wife is set in Manchuria in 1908 but travels to Japan as well. Choo has written a beautiful, lyrical tale of a young fox woman, Snow, on the hunt for a murderer, set on revenge. Her perspective and voice are so distinct - I warmed to her immediately and loved learning about Northern China's myths of Celestial Foxes contrasted with humans' mistrust of foxes - particularly female ones.

It's a dangerous life for foxes at this time for they are blamed for all society's ills. It's also a dangerous time to be an unaccompanied woman so Snow takes her life in her hands, in either of her forms, as she travels searching for a photographer. Her story is alternated with a detective, Bao. He, a self-made detective, is also travelling. He's searching for the identity of a dead young woman. Sadly, most people don't care about young women, alive or dead.

Bao's chapters begin to overlap with Snow's and together Choo crafts a taut mystery along with the lyrical and historical tale. Yangsze Choo narrates the audio version of The Fox Wife and she does a beautiful job. I want to buy the printed book though and read it again. I highly recommend this book!

"Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi, but nothing could be further from the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only better looking."
This is a beautiful lyrical story that I loved. I have not read anything like this ever before. I truly love a book that transports me to another time and place. This stunning story explores a world of fox spirits which tempt and beguile as they intertwine with the humans in a tale of secrets, old loves, second chances and a mothers' love. It is a mystery, a story of revenge, a love story and ancient fox folklore all woven together.
I listened to the book by audiobook and the narration by Choo was so enjoyable. It is enchanting from the very beginning and left me wishing it would not end and that I could stay with Snow in her journey of 1000 years. This book is truly a treasure and reminds me of why I love reading books!
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to experience this beautiful book that will be staying with me for some time!

This is not what l’m expecting at all. Maybe because I am a Chinese, grown up very close to the place in this book. I was addicted with fox spirit metrology since I was a little girl. I read Pu singling’s <liaozhai> in ancient Chinese in grade school. But this book, I do not have the fox spirit vibes at all.
I fell sorry to say that, but you should give this book a try if you are interested in Chinese history, mythology or tradition. The writing is good, though the pacing is slow. The story gives you two pov, the fox lady and the detective. A spirit and a human, a woman and a man.
The author narrates the book herself, it’s quite impressive. Great job.

I give a honest 3 star, （if I am not supper familiar with fox spirits, I would give 4）

Once I had reached the end of the story — the author Yangsze Choo had ensnared me completely into this world of foxes — I feel that possibly reading the author’s note and the end of the book at the beginning may be helpful for some people— and allowing you to get into the story and culture faster — since I was listening to the audiobook — I was unaware of this author`s note until the end — I felt that be beginning of the story was slow for me to get into the characters and the culture as I was trying to learn it along the way —but once I got a good grasp on who the characters were then the story was engrossing and hard to stop listening too. The author narrates the story — and she does a wonderful job— her voice is soothing and her accent and pronunciation are wonderful.

Yangsze Choo's books always manage to create a setting that feels realistic without having to overexplain the period or the culture. My knowledge of Chinese folklore and history is moderate but the author writes in such a way to explain while she goes but not make the reader feel ignorant or like this is a history lecture. I enjoyed all the characters and their interconnections with each other- very realistic in the fact that not everything gets resolved nor do we know the character’s future.

The writing prose is wonderful — Choo`s narration was lovely and dream-like — and drew me into the fairy-tale world as well as parallel historical elements. Greatly enjoyed this novel!

I just love how this story mixes reality with myth and fantasy. Not only does Yangsze Choo blend these themes and genres so well, but she also does it fantastically with the characters and their plots. By following two main characters, Bao and Snow, who just so happens to be a fox that is out for revenge against someone involved in the death of her child. These two characters' stories intertwine and are woven so well, that I smiled and laughed every time I noticed an intersection or predicted one.
I was holding back tears by the end because it was just so beautifully written and told. I had several quotes that I enjoyed immensely from this story:

“The first rule about foxes is you don’t talk about foxes.”

And then later in the book:

“The second rule is don’t fall in love with foxes.”

“It never ends. The pain of living in this world.”

“You are my heart’s treasure.”

The narrator of the audiobook was perfectly suited to the story and helped me to feel immersed as I listened to The Fox Wife.

The prose in this book was lyrical at times, it read partially like a fairytale and partially like a detective story. While it was slow in some parts, this helped to build the narrative. I had never read any of Yangsze Choo's books before, but I will have to go back and read the rest now! The narration was very good!

Thank you to NetGalley, Yangsze Choo, & Macmillan Audio for providing me with this audiobook of The Fox Wife in exchange for an honest review! This is a pretty fantastic audiobook and I loved listening to it! Yangsze Choo does a marvelous job narrating her own book! I believe, though I'm not certain, that this is my first experience with an author narrating their own book. I think it was an excellent choice for her to do so. She made me fall in love with her book by the way she told the story! If a voice can ever truly connect you to the emotions of love and grief on the pages of a book, I think Yangsze Choo did that. I want to say that the best way to experience The Fox Wife has to be this audiobook.

The Fox Wife is a historical fiction book, and will appeal to anyone who is a fan of that genre. It's also a historical fantasy/folklore tale with detective story type mystery and a sweet, slightly sad, kind of low-key romance. I think if you're interested in any of those concepts this will be a book worth trying!

I really enjoyed the characters in The Fox Wife! My favorite was Snow. I love her personality and her interactions with others, especially Kuro. All of the characters were very well-written, which honestly is what I think I love the most about this book, even more than the plot. I think the characters were real & memorable and I cared about them. There is just such a rich quality to how they were brought to life! Again I do in part attribute my feelings to this on how well Yangsze Choo did narrating them.

There is a dual pov throughout this book that I thought was done very well. I enjoyed Snow's pov best but I really liked Bao as well. Both of our narrators are on compelling journeys that had me hooked. I will say this book is a little slow, but I found it to be slow in an atmospheric way that I really enjoyed. It's certainly not action from cover to cover but I really appreciated how this was done. Yangsze Choo has a beautiful writing style. I absolutely want to read some of her other books for me to get more of it! I get that slow-paced books aren't for everyone, but if you're ever going to try one this would be a top recommendation from me!

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo is a highly anticipated book of 2024 and one that is written impeccably.
The story follows Snow, a fox who is seeking vengeance and Bao, a detective who knows when one is lying to him. The novel narrates two stories, each featuring the aforementioned characters until finally their stories intersect.
The depiction of foxes in Chinese culture is interesting to say the least and Choo does a beautiful job of beginning the story with gripping folklore.
While I enjoyed the core of the story, the representation of multiple Southeast Asian peoples such as Manchu, Chinese & Japanese and the prose, the novel did not engage me. I found the scenes repetitive and the mystery uninteresting. The story remains quite slow throughout and this was disappointing for me.
I was excited to receive an ARC of The Fox Wife because I’d heard only praise for Choo’s The Night Tiger, but sadly this upcoming release was not for me.
Thank you Macmillan audio for the arc, the book is out on Feb 13.

This was just perfect! I loved the slow burn mystery, the folklore, the atmospheric vibes. I loved every second of this novel! The author does a phenomenal job with the narration. I want to dig into everything about foxes in Chinese folklore now! Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

I have some mixed feelings on this one. It was magical and whimsical and based in folklore and so otherworldly. But it also took me a long time to get into for a book of its length. I was expecting to be immediately swept into the magic and mythology the story is based on, but there was so much background and set-up that it was not as eager to pick it up as I wanted to be.

With that said, this book was rich with enchanting tales of ancient stories and beliefs. Choo does an incredible job at weaving Chinese culture together with a mystery plotline and it was such an incredible feeling, knowing I was both learning about a culture and their beliefs while also trying to figure out what happened to Snow’s daughter and Bao’s client. The magic and mystery of this one was captivating once I got into it.

I listened to the audio of this one, which is narrated by the author. I always feel that when the author narrates, as a listener we are getting the most authentic version and this one was nothing short of that. It was delivered with inflection and tone and so much feeling. I was truly immersed in the audio version, moreso I imagine, than I would have been had I read the text version.

This is narrated by the author and OMG what a narrator! I swear this book scratched an itch I had somewhere in my soul. It was everything. I am obsessed with Chinese Folklore and this is it.
I love the murder mystery, all the characters, and the setting. There is also sad romance and I love that too.
Lets see if any other audiobooks in 2024 can top this perfection.

This is my first read by this author despite having The Night Tiger on my TBR forever. I have heard so many good things and was expecting this book to blow my mind. Instead of blowing my mind, it put me to sleep. I wanted to love this, but I just kept drifting off while listening to the audiobook. Nothing against the narrator (author) but I just wasn't invested/interested enough in the story to keep going.

I did really like the Chinese folklore and was expecting that to keep me interested if nothing else but I could not connect with this one. Many readers will love this book and I still look forward to trying other books by this author.

Official DNF at 40%.

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Yangsze Choo for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Yangsze Choo for the audio ARC.

The story moves at a steady pace. Wonderful written story about love, friendship and loyalty. I enjoy listening to this story very much. Highly recommend.
.

I cannot get this audiobook to play on the Netgalley app player. I really really liked the first couple chapters that would play and am now super curious!! It started off amazing. The first couple chapters played, but then the app would crash and I couldn't get it to play past a certain point. Maybe about 10 minutes in.

I cannot really rate, as I only listened to the first couple chapters, but I'll rate 5 stars because it was such a strong opening.

If you fix the error, please let me know! I want to listen. : )

This book is slow and atmospheric, but in a really wonderful way. Simultaneously not a lot happens, but a lot happens. It's odd. But I loved it.

This book is a dual POV of a fox spirit and a detective. The fox spirit is on a story of revenge for reasons we don't fully understand, and Bao is trying to solve the mysterious death of a woman found frozen outside of a local shop. These characters are so different from one another, and their voices are very distinct. I enjoyed both of their stories equally, as they intertwined and went their own direction.

Choo does a great job of teaching the reader about fox spirits through the novel. I was so intrigued by these creatures, and I wanted to keep learning more. The writing wasn't particularly flowery, but I was very impressed with the author's ability to write the character's voices. I really enjoyed this one and will likely be checking out more of Choo's work.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

An absolutely captivating story! This novel by Yangsze Choo is part folk lore and part crime novel. The audio version is narrated by the author and she does a marvelous job.
The Fox Wife has complex characters, an irresistibly engaging plot, and is beautifully written.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

NetGalley, mystery, folk lore

The Fox Wife is an intricately woven tale of magic, mythology, and historical fact set in early-1900's Manchuria. Drawing on tales of magical and dangerous shape-shifting foxes, we get a multi-perspective mystery that looks at the treatment of women in China at that time, and the role of folktales and religion in the lives of everyday people. Independent or seductive women were sometimes thought to be foxes or possessed by a fox, but this makes myth a reality and then complicates it. The pacing is on the slow side and I would say it leans literary, blending historical fiction with a bit of magic and mythology and complicated characters. I thought it was a little too long for the pace, but overall it's a beautifully written book and worth checking out if the premise appeals to you. The audio narration is fine, though we didn't get a lot of voice differentiation for the various perspective characters. I received an audio review copy from NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

4.25⭐️

TW: Death of a child

This was such a great book! You follow a grieving mother/fox spirit on the hunt to kill those who contributed to her daughter’s death in one pov while following a detective on her trail in the second pov.

I really liked the dual povs! In one of them we just jump right into the story, and then the other one is trailing along providing the context for the other story while still being it’s own pov at the same time. I really liked how each pov held its own and I never preferred one over the other, they were very well balanced.

I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by the author!! It was the perfect narration for this book, it really added to the story. The author/narrator’s voice is exactly what I imagined the woman main character’s voice to be.

I wish I could tell you that this was magical, that I was swept away by its fantastical narrative, and that the gorgeous prose captivated my heart.

That’s what I want to tell you, as that’s what I’d hoped for with The Fox Wife, but the premise was beguiling and none of the aforementioned qualities surfaced in this rather slow, emotionally detached, blandly communicated story.

It wasn’t completely awful, but it certainly wasn’t great.

I loved the fox mythology or, at least, the driving force of this concept. I’m not sure the author delivered it well, though. I also celebrated the feminist theme, but felt disappointed in its conveyance. Rather than painting a vivid picture for her audience to imagine, the author flooded the reader’s mind with words regarding what she wanted us to understand about misogyny, especially within the culture and historical setting of her novel. I wish we would have been trusted to think for ourselves; to derive meaning from a thoroughly depicted narrative, but it seems the author does not believe we are capable.

What bothered me the most was how simplified this was. Steeped in such rich mythology, I expected depth and beauty. This lacked both, and that narrator seemed so disconnected from the story being told.

Perhaps some will argue that it’s because she was a fox, but I’m ready to argue that this is no excuse.

I was pleased with the uniqueness, particularly since this was partially a detective story, and unlike any mystery I’ve encountered before. In consideration of my other thoughts, please know that I hate being so harsh with this novel. It has its positive points, but it failed to be the enchantment I had prepared to lose myself within.

I am immensely grateful to Macmillan Audio, Henry Holt and Co, and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ALC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I can't believe Yangsze Choo narrated this - her voice is BEAUTIFUL and her narration style is perfect for the story. This is my first book by her, and I will definitely pick up more.

I loved the setting of 1908 Manchuria. I am very interested in this time period of pre-WWI Asia, so this was perfect for me. Loved learning about fox folklore in a combination of cultures from China, Manchuria, Mongolia and Japan. This book is a delightful mix of fantasy, history, mystery, and romance that I really enjoyed.

This is quite a long and slow-paced book, which is why I'm rating it a 4 and not a 5. It was a nice change of pace from what I usually read, but it felt a bit too slow at times.