I will start with the ending. This is how an ending should occur. It wraps things up, resolves questions raised throughout, and hints at the near future when the last page is turned. It’s smart and not pat. It’s nuanced and not cutesy.

The second thing I must say is that I savored the story during the entire reading experience. I can easily have read the pages faster and finished sooner but I didn’t want to. Fox Wife was atmospheric. I wanted the read to deepen and to linger. I wanted the characters to continue living out their stories through the words.

Choo does meticulous plotting while crafting the more intriguing story…and weaves stories within stories. And the storylines intertwine in a fascinating way…a way that firmly holds the reader.

I thoroughly enjoyed the depiction of foxes and the location of Manchuria. She has a mix of Chinese, Mongolians, Manchurians, Koreans, Japanese, and Russians. The story is set during the era of the “last emperor” of the Qing dynasty, a Manchu one.

She writes simply but deeply and poetically. A sentence can assault or heal. The overall tone is gentle, coaxing one through the story. That grip is soft but steady. And I frankly did not want it to let go of me.

Having read her two previous titles, I can assuredly state that she cares for her readers—she cares for them by treating them intelligently. I will readily read any of her future titles and am impatient for their publication.

And I’ll add that in all three books, Choo has the most appealing male characters. They are the most appealing Asian men. (So, forget A. Tan or C. Ng and their pervasive misandry and internalized racism.)

I thank Henry Holt and Co. for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A few of my favorite quotes:

Since childhood, he’s been able to discern falsehoods. Nobody else seems to hear this mysterious sound, a faint warning when a lie leaves someone’s mouth and hovers, like a bee, before their lips.

There’s a hole in his chest the size of an inkstone.

Bao learned long ago that frequency is a good substitute for intimacy.

Foxes, while often blamed as ill-omened creatures, are the needle that lances the boil.

Many years ago, I spent a year working in Hangzhou, China, which is roughly halfway between northern and southern China. I was told that it was considered “the South” since it was located south of the Yellow River. However, when the water froze in the winter, it felt positively arctic to this Californian! During my time there, I wanted to see the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in the far north of China. However, after seeing the sub-freezing temperature forecasts, I decided I to stay put in the “South.”

I’ve always regretted not experiencing the Ice and Snow Festival, so it was a lovely surprise when I discovered that Yangsze Choo’s newest book is set in wintery 20th century Manchuria! I loved the setting – the harsh winter of northern China pervades the novel, and this particular time and place was new to me historically speaking.

The Fox Wife brings Chinese folklore to life with its tale of a fox woman seeking revenge for her lost child, and a detective close on her heels. Snow (the fox wife) and Bao (the detective) narrate the novel in alternating chapters. Snow and Bao become involved with a large cast of characters and additional rumors of the supernatural as both protagonists edge closer to their respective targets. For all that this is a mystery, the pace is always a saunter and never breaks into a sprint. I wish The Fox Wife had managed to build up some more momentum. However, I found the clever and mischievous Snow and her fellow foxes charming as characters and felt that the audiobook was really well performed.

So long as they know not to expect a page turner, I think a number of my friends will also enjoy The Fox Wife, with its terrific premise, setting and folklore-inspired characters. Thank you to Henry Holt and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copies of the e-book and audiobook.

magical and intricate, the fox wife is an ideal book for a quiet winter evening. telling the story of snow, a fox spirit determined to avenge the death of her child, and bao, a detective investigating a mysterious murder, it effortlessly weaves together elements of fantasy and mystery to create a stunning story full of atmosphere and heart.

i really enjoyed the author’s debut novel, so i was super excited to hear that she had another book coming out in 2024. i like the fox wife for a lot of the same reasons that i like the ghost bride–the characterization is excellent, the storytelling is elegant and vivid, and the folklore that choo weaves into her writing is something that i’ll always be a fan of. in the fox wife specifically, it was intriguing to see how snow’s story connected with bao’s in so many ways. i also really loved snow–she’s such a fun and well-written character–and the tiny bits of romance we got between her and another fox spirit, kuro (their ending scene…yeah i died).

i will say that this book is pretty slow and it can take some time to get into if you’re expecting something that’s more fast-paced, especially since choo alternates between snow’s pov and bao’s every chapter (and their perspectives are very different). i don’t dislike bao, but i do like snow much more, so suddenly switching from her point of view to his could be super jarring at times, especially during more tense scenes. also, while i liked the mystery, it’s pretty predictable and resolves in a way that’s a little underwhelming, so i would recommend this book more for fans of historical fantasy.

all in all, i absolutely loved the fox wife and am endlessly grateful to have had the chance to read it early. it’s perfect for anyone looking for a slow-paced and beautifully written historical fantasy book that they can spend a long time with, and i can’t wait to read more of choo’s work.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing this arc.

I really enjoyed this book! The mythology was great and it was fun to see two stories merge into one.

What a startling gorgeous book that’s both a little fantastical and intimately realistic at the same time. I honestly fell in love with these characters and this story, it moved me in unexpected ways. The writing is gorgeous and I recommend this wholeheartedly. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the eARC, it’s one of those books that I’ll be purchasing so I can have a copy in the house so I can glance at and remember the experience of reading it. Also I’ll be leaving out little pieces of tofu in hopes of running into a fox. ;)

The Fox Wife is not a typical detective story; at least not the kind I typically read. The story takes place in Mongolia and is about Bao, a detective, on a mission to find out a dead girl’s identity, and Snow (one of her many names) who is seeking vengeance for her daughter’s death.

There are many secrets, stories, and rumors about fox spirits, shadowless men, ghosts, and spirits intertwined along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Fox Wife.

Another lyrical historical novel and sophisticated detective tale in the vein of Choo’s previous works The Ghost Bride and The Night Tiger, inspired by Japanese fox folklore and incorporating a strong mystery element.

A lush read, full of foxes, legends and bad weather. Here a reader will encounter mysteries within mysteries, murders, shapeshifting, flirting with intent, beautiful women, men, sexy foxes (worth a second mention), as well as many dinners and lots of tea, often with vaguely threatening digressions by the dinner guests, and occasional objects thrown. I recommend you stay jacketed, or have a warm covering and a cup of hot tea nearby as you read. And . . . have something fluffy available to pet, as well.

*A sincere thank you to Yangsze Choo, Henry Holt & Company, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for and ARC to read and independently review.* #TheFoxWife #NetGalley

I would like to thank NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it now in your local and online bookstores and libraries.

This is beautifully written. I love Choo's writing. The story is just very, very slow. I was interested in the characters and their adventures. The setting and time period were fascinating. It just dragged for me. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

FOX WIFE is a tale of love and revenge woven with folklore and magical realism. Each chapter alternates between 2 perspectives — a detective named Bao and a fox named Snow — and each chapter ends in a cliffhanger that left me thirsting for more. Book reads like a thriller and I found the pacing impeccable; I could not put this down!
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When I think about how to tell a story and weave a engaging tale that captivates from start to finish, I think of Choo’s NIGHT TIGER and now THE FOX WIFE. Choo’s storytelling craft is 👌🏽 and I’m a fan.
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FOX WIFE is undoubtedly one of my faves of 2024. I hope you get your hands on this one so we can chitter about it like little foxy thangs.
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(Thanks @netgalley and @henryholtbooks for eARC.)

Book Review: The Fox Wife
By Yangsze Choo


The Fox Wife is a beautifully written, unputdownable historical fantasy set in Manchuria during the final years of the Qing Empire. It is a tantalizing mystery and enchanting folktale told through two entwined storylines.

Bao is hired to discover the identity of a woman found frozen in the doorway of a popular restaurant. The owner hires Bao, a scholar who has taken up detective work in his retirement. He is highly sought after for his preternatural ability to sniff out the truth. As the investigation ensues, whispers and rumors of fox spirits’ involvement in the young woman’s death have him intrigued. Bao will chase clues from northern China to Japan as the body count increases.


Snow arrives in Wu Village in search of her missing child. Upon discovering her child’s death, she is overcome with grief, despair and a fierce need for vengeance, even if it means giving up the thousand-year journey towards enlightenment. The mysterious Snow finds employment with the retired proprietress of a famous Chinese medicine shop, Madam Huang, whose grandson may hold the key to finding her child’s murderer.

The Fox Wife slowly unfurls, drawing the reader into parallel mysteries with just the right amount of magical realism and dramatic tension. As the story unfolds, we encounter family curses, revolutionaries, past loves and of course foxes! Is the fox a celestial creature, a cunning trickster or a beast with supernatural powers? You’ll have to pick up a copy of The Fox Wife and decide for yourself.


Many thanks to the author @YangszeChoo, @HenryHoltBooks and @NetGalley for the pleasure of reading this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a pleasure this was to read!

Initially, I was really struggling to get into the quiet, pacing and flow of this book… It also took until about 20% of the way to really orient between the dual perspectives, and how they alternated each chapter. I think also until that point you are confused how these two perspectives are going to tie themselves together, once that starts to be revealed in small snippets, it is such a beautiful and satisfying way.

Truth be told, I was drawn to this book solely based on the title, in the premise of women who can transform into foxes, but this book is so much more complex and deep than that. it gives you historical fiction and snippets of Chinese folklore and culture that even as an outsider, the author paints it in such a vivid, and easy to understand way. For example, there were numerous terms and settings that I had absolutely no concept of what they could look like, yet the next sentence or two would reveal them to me and a poetic way.

This novel was also full of beautiful and poignant truths about the harsh realities of being a woman not just in Asian cultures, but across time and history. Well, initially many of the main characters seem cold and distant or hard to latch onto… Once you do, you never want to let them go. I will be thinking about this book for a long time and treasuring it on my own thousand year journey.

The Fox Wife is one of those rare books that lulls you into the childhood feeling of being told a fairy tale. Though it is a lengthy book, the central mystery creates a compelling hook and the prose has a lyrical, dream-like quality that maintains its enchantment throughout.

The book alternates between two narrators. Snow is an immortal fox who returns to human civilization for the first time in quite a while seeking vengeance for the death of her daughter. Bao is a detective with the gift of being able to identify lies investigating a mysterious death.

I was delighted and surprised by how neatly the storylines came together and the depth of the interconnections. Though I initially found it difficult to keep up with the many names and places we are introduced to, it is all worthwhile when you discover that each detail has a satisfying purpose. The book's setting of Manchuria in 1908 also added a layer of specificity that enriched the text and interest to me, since I know very little about that history.

I also really enjoyed the characters. The main cast is made up entirely of characters who are three dimensional, with motivations that make sense but behaviors and decisions that are imperfect. Even side characters that we meet briefly are often memorable and rich. There is a healthy and interesting mix between characters that are easy to root for, those whose motivations are a bit more selfish, and those who embody the trickster energy and mentality.

The overall pace is perfect - drawing out the reveals long enough to cultivate tension without becoming boring - though there are parts here and there that drag.

I'm walking away with that warm blanket feeling over my brain of having read a book that was engagingly complex, lightly magical, and extremely satisfying.

Thank you to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy!

From the beginning, I was intrigued by this connection of foxes to beguiling women, bewitching presences, and this idea of a joyful moment in consumption. In The Fox Wife we mostly look through the eyes of Bao and Snow. I will say, this book is slow. It has an unhurried lead up to trying to get a good sense of who both these characters are. I will say that The Fox Wife is committed to character development and detail. But because of that, just be prepared for a slower lead up especially if you're expecting more mystery and revenge.

4/5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for the advanced copy of The Fox Wife!

The Fox Wife is a slow-building story of whimsy, magic, and folklore set in 1908 Manchuria following Bao, a detective, and a mystifying young woman seeking retribution.

Despite a dragging start, The Fox Wife is an immensely beautiful story of spirits walking amongst the human world, with an often charming and witty voice that captivated me. It took me a while to get through, but I was ultimately dazzled by the convergence of characters and stories (and surprisingly, a really beautiful story of love…”you are my heart’s treasure,” *sobs*).

This would not be my typical read, and it was very dense and often difficult to get through at times (hence the four stars). However, this is definitely a read to consider if you are a fan of folklore and magic

In 1908 Manchuria, a courtesan found frozen to death in a doorway leads to rumors of fox spirits. They lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao is a detective hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. At the same time, a family with a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure illness but not the curse that has eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. When Snow enters their household as a new servant, the family’s luck seems to change. She has many secrets, but above all she's looking for the one that murdered her child. She follows the trail from China to Japan, Bao following her in turn.

In the traditional stories, foxes are tricksters intent on harming humans for fun, and we see one of those tales as the opening of this novel. We meet Snow, on the hunt for her daughter's killer, and a series of events send her to the medicine hall of the cursed Huang family. Over the course of the novel, we learn the story of the family and the grandmother that she's hired on to help, as well as Bao's story and the struggles he had along the way to becoming an investigator. He can discern truth from lies and eventually discovers how he developed that ability. His story dovetails not just because of the investigation, but because of his past.

I lived the book, with its interwoven history and folklore. Foxes are still feared, but ultimately are people. They grieve and love and long for connections, which is where the issues with humans come from. They're supernatural creatures, and susceptible humans react badly to that power. Snow is the fox wife of the title, unwittingly setting into motion some of the complications we see in the book. Others are not, but she's caught up in their wake just the same. We have a great conclusion to the tale, and it feels like one of the many myths circulating about foxes. I adore this book and how its story was told.

This book started out a bit slowly but I loved the atmosphere and characters, and the way the story gradually pulls you in. In Manchuria, 1908, Snow is a woman/fox who is hunting her child’s killer. She takes a position as an assistant to an elderly woman who runs the local medicine shop. The family is under a curse where no eldest son lives beyond 24, and the woman’s grandson is 23 and a new child is on the way. At the same time, Bao is a detective who can tell when someone is lying (a gift from when his nanny prayed to the fox gods). He’s investigating the death of a woman found outside in the snow, when he begins to hear stories of another mysterious woman, a fox spirit.

The story is primarily told from two points of view, Snow’s and Bao’s, and I appreciated that the two characters were written so differently, there was never any question of who was narrating. Bao is a tough old guy who has never gotten over the loss of his childhood love. He’s saddled with a gift/curse that leaves him fascinated by fox spirits. He’s never understood why he has this mysterious ability. And as with many gifts, he’s also lost something – his shadow.

Snow is a grieving mother, and we’ll find out that she’s lost more than just her child. As a fox she’s had many unique experiences and she’s much stronger and wiser than the young woman she appears to be. I like the way Choo frequently references the characteristics of foxes in describing her and the other fox characters. They are wily tricksters, and they are powerful but also vulnerable. They can entice and confuse, make people forget themselves. As Choo points out, there is danger in this, because seduction can’t be controlled.

Choo explains that she has spun her story around old Chinese mythology about fox spirits. While there is a lot of fantasy, there is also a lot of realism. It’s a great detective story, told through interviews and a step by step tracking of events. I remember enjoying Choo’s The Night Tiger for the same reason. While it took some effort to keep track of the different characters and chronologies (for example, the events in Bao’s childhood, and the activities of the three young men that Snow is traveling with). This book reminded me in some ways of Violet Kupersmith’s haunting Build Your House Around My Body (see this post for more recommendations of books that blend history and fantasy).

There’s not a lot of history in the book; we hear references to the ruling Qing dynasty and there’s some discussion of revolutionaries, but the history is very much in the background. There are a number of cities mentioned, that I had no familiarity with, but it wasn’t too difficult to follow the movements of the characters.

I loved the way Choo blends Chinese fantasy, mystery, history, and language throughout the novel. I had some issues with the pacing, particularly towards the beginning and the end, but I really appreciated the complexity of the characters (like the way Snow wrestles with her need for vengeance) and their relationships, and I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen to all of them. This is a slow-paced, complicated story with beautiful imagery.

Note: I received an advance review copy from NetGalley and publisher Henry Holt & Co. This book was published February 13, 2024.

The Fox Wife is definitely a slow burn. It takes a bit to get going but once it does boy is it magical. It is a historical fiction set in China. Full of mystery and magic it was a wonderful tale. I enjoyed it much more than i thought I would.

I requested an ARC of The Fox Wife after reading an excerpt in NetGalley's BuzzBooks sampler. I was instantly captivated by Choo's beautiful prose, as well as the world she created.

Both of these elements continued to be two of my favorite aspects of The Fox Wife, an ambitious novel with a tremendously large cast of characters, alternating POV chapters, and multiple timelines, all of which culminated in a dramatic conclusion.

I'll admit, this novel was a challenge to read. The every-other-chapter shifts between Snow's first-person narration and Bao's third-person perspective were a little jarring. Additionally, there were so many characters and details to keep track of. I felt that I needed to be taking notes as I went along. With that said, I loved Choo's style of writing, and I was intrigued by the story the whole way through. Without giving anything away, I will also add that I loved the resolution and was quite happy with the direction the author chose to take the story in the end.

What I loved:
- Choo's incredible storytelling abilities and beautiful writing
- the fox folklore, and the way it was seamlessly woven into the story
- the ending

Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced copy!