Thank you to Fierce Reads for the gifted e-galley.
This book just wasn’t for me. The story, the writing style, the ending. I could appreciate that it was well written but I just did not find myself enjoying it. The book tells the story of Manon and Thais who are looking into the mysterious disappearance of their world famous mother ten years ago. Their mother was working on the script at the time and the girls believe if they find that script it will lead them to their mother. I found myself lost and not following the story but wanted to continue just to find out what happened to the mother. The story is told in the alternating point of views of Manon and Thais. While we are told the girls are very different, their written voices came off very similar and it was it was hard to tell their chapters apart read as an ebook and did not find the few chapters with the screenplay scripts easy to follow in that format.

Where to begin? I love seeing how the author's writing style has grown since her first book The Tenth Girl. I also loved the little nods to that book in White Fox. This felt like a YA interpretation of The Night Film which I am so down for. This was atmospheric, spooky, dark, mysterious, and fast-paced. It is the perfect book for fall and my only regret is that I didn't wait until October to read it.

Very interesting book with a twist I didn't see coming. At times it felt like the plot could've or should've been more detailed to explain how certain things ended up occuring, but still a pretty enjoyable thriller. Also enjoyed the multiple viewpoints and the elements that cause you to question who is who and what's going on.

White Fox is about two sisters, who couldn't be more different, who are called back to the Mediterranean island they grew up on and where their mother disappeared. Noni and Tai find the rumored and highly sought final script that their mother was writing, and a journey begins to discover what really happened to their mother.

Like The Tenth Girl, White Fox is moody, haunted and very atmospheric. While it's still a mystery, the book is almost more about Noni and Tai and who they are as people rather than about the ghost story. Their personalities are still very influenced by their missing mother, so the mystery does still play a huge part. The book is also interesting in that parts of it are newspaper articles, interviews, and even the script, White Fox, in addition to the normal prose of the story. It's a fun format and very appropriate for the story.

The book doesn't really have a huge twist like The Tenth Girl did, but I was still a little surprised by the ending and how things went down. It's a satisfying mystery, with the perfect balance of spooky and emotion. It's almost a character study set in a ghost story, which I really loved. Kind of how The Haunting of Hill House series is about the family and characters just as much as the ghost story aspect. White Fox is a great read for autumn and I can't wait to see what Sara writes next!

After reading The Tenth Girl I was so excited to see what Sara Faring did next.

White Fox follows two sisters and their journey to try and uncover the mystery of their mother's disappearance. They read a script she was working on before she went away to look for clues as to what happened to her.

I really enjoyed this, it was definitely a unique story and fulfilled its goal to make me feel unsettled.

I thought White Fox had the same twists and eerie, atmospheric writing style as The Tenth Girl. The pacing felt slower, but it also helped in building the creepy factor.

I feel like Sara Faring’s books are more for a specific type of reader and I seem to be it.

This was a very well written book, sometimes a little slow for me and sometimes a little confusing. A story of hope, mystery, family secrets and acceptance. the two main characters were well written but seemed much older than the ages they were given in the story. while the format made sense, I didn't particularly like the clues coming in the form of a fable

[3.75/5] White Fox centers around two sisters who return to the lush Mediterranean-esque island and ancestral mansion where they grew up. Manon (Noni) is the oldest, a quiet aspiring writer. Thais (Tai), the youngest, is stunningly beautiful and social media-obsessed.

They’re called back to attend a gala honoring their mother, a world-famous movie star who disappeared a decade earlier. The girls are determined to figure out what really happened to her.

I really enjoyed the feeling I got while reading this story – it was an absorbing experience. It drips with ethereal atmosphere, between the ominous forest, the luxurious city center, and the dilapidated mansion. (Though sometimes I felt there was a little too much description, which could be distracting at times).

The ‘White Fox’ manuscript, written by the girls’ mother before she mysteriously vanished, was a fascinating parallel to the story (and the mystery at its core). I really liked how the island’s folklore was woven into the story, too.

I do think this could have been stronger if it was a bit shorter. It took a while to get to the meat of the story, and there were a lot of side characters/storylines to keep track of. But overall, I enjoyed it! So unique and imaginative, especially that setting.

**Thank you Macmillan/Fierce Reads for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to Fierce reads for an eARC of the book in exchange of an honest review.All opinions expressed are my own and are not compensated in any way

White Fox is a curtain raiser for my spooky reads season aka Autumn, it is certainly a book with unique premise and format that has bits of screen play which acts as bread crumbs for the mystery that is to be resolved. The dark twisted tale revolves around hidden family secrets and broken relationships, it has all the ingredients to make a creepy thriller like mansion in the woods, creepy robots and tech obsessed geeks.It is certainly eerie and chilling at times and I enjoyed the thrill of "I have no clue what is happening" feeling

However, the very thing had been drawn out way too much, I do understand that any atmospheric book needs the plot to be drawn out for the grand effect in the climax but it is a very risky line to tread because when you draw out the plot beyond certain extent, the reader will lose the interest and it will no longer be gripping.This is exactly what happened with me to the point I had to skim a lot of pages in the last 30% of the book, the treasure hunt stops are way too long and overtly descriptive

We follow POV's of both Tai and Manon, while I really enjoyed this aspect in the first 50% of the book,I felt the story started to be redundant because of the switching POV's as we have to keep up with mental dialogues of either siblings.There are other things in the story I couldn't relate to because they weren't convincing(lets start with- sending away two teenagers to a different country and letting them live in this huge mansion just by themselves??) and as well as the loose ends that were left unexplained but again that might be for the mysterious impact but I didn't enjoy it.

If you ever watched pretty little liars, this book has the very same vibe. I would have enjoyed it much better if it isn't unnecessarily lengthy

Sisters Solve a Mysterious Disappearance

When their famous actress mother disappeared, their pharmaceutical tycoon father sent the sisters away from the beautiful Mediterranean island they loved. Now ten years later Manon and Thaïs return to the island for a ten year retrospective on their mother’s life. They have never really believed she died and now the hope to find clues to her disappearance.

When she disappeared, their mother was working on a script, The White Fox. They hope the script may offer clues to what happened. The sisters are very different. Manon is anxious because she believes she is not really like her mother. Thaïs, a social media celebrity, is more outgoing, but inside she hides her grief and fear.

The book is filled with the mystery of the island, its’ people, and the girl’s family secrets. It’s a strange place filled with dark mystery, toxic family secrets, and a long past glamour. The book was well written, almost lyrical. The island scenes were beautifully drawn if sometime verging on horror.

The sisters’ characters were well delineated. The book moves from one sister to the other so we’re able to get the perspectives of both. My only problem with the book was that it was rather slow starting. It finally picked up after the middle. I thought the inclusion of sections from the lost play was interesting and added a lot to the story.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

This book has some craziness going on, which really wasn't expected with the first few chapters I had begun reading. Yes, the synopsis gave the reader some of what was coming, but nothing that comes close to the eerie moments that fill a good chunk of the pages that followed. And does it ever! For me though, it took awhile before I could get around to those pages, because much of that first half was something I don't usually find myself reading.

That would have to do with all the glitz and glamour talk that was involved in much of that first half. A lot of that comes from what Manon and Tai's mother did for a living before she disappeared, but it was definitely my least favorite parts as it didn't do much to keep my interest peaked. So why continue? What kept me reading to get to those chilling moments? That would have to be the talks of the "Eden" place known as Viloxin, and the mysterious and dark place known as the Delirium Forest.

And really, that place is all kinds of messed up. There's one section where the reader really gets flipped around as the world begins to get distorted. Talking miniature creatures (figurines, but don't you dare call them that), walls that breathe and sound back, and mysterious men and the unknown that follow the sisters' every move. That was definitely enough to continue my interest in this novel, to find out what it all meant, and what happened to their mother all that time ago.

I didn't completely fall in love with this book, but I did come to enjoy and appreciate the twisty turns of the second half. There is so much strangeness and curiosity that fills the mind, it's hard not to find a middle ground with the world that's been created. I can tell you, if you're a fan of the weird, the talks of spirits and supernatural forests, a roller coaster of emotions, and mysteries left to be discovered, you should absolutely give this read a go. Be prepared for a shocking ending!

***I received this copy from Fierce Reads, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.***

A chilling story worth staying up late for! I absolutely devoured this book. It kept me flipping pages and on the edge of my seat. Definitely different from anything I've read before. The characters, the plot, THE INTRIGUE. This book has so much going for it!

This book had so much potential, but it fell a little short for me. At times there was so much description to set the creepy tone of the book that I got bored and drawn out of the story. I felt like I got 50% into the story and there was still nothing happening.

I loved the scenes with Manon and Hérrakí because of the tension between their characters and how opposite they thought. I also really loved the White Fox script. It felt like a giant riddle, and I liked getting a glimpse into Mireille's mind and how she was feeling before her disappearance. One of the themes I liked best was Mireille's desire to not be possessed by anyone yet that was all the men in her life wanted to do with her. It affected the way she navigated the world and she passed some of those behaviors and stories on to her daughters.

Although Noni and Tai had a very strenuous relationship in this story, I like reading about sibling bonds especially when the siblings are complete opposites. Each sister still had a need to protect the other sister even when she didn't approve of the other's actions. It made their discoveries take that much longer as they were working separate so much trying to do things their own ways. I also liked seeing the glimpses into Manon's mind and how poetically she would describe herself and her loneliness.

The ending of the portion of the book redeemed the story for me as it was scary and suspenseful. I was entirely immersed and on edge. I didn't entirely understand everything that was revealed, but I thought there was a lot of cool elements at play, and I liked how most things were wrapped up by the end. I still have questions about Linos, Antella, and Saxim and how all of their relationships were affected by the end of this story.

Although this story didn't completely capture my attention, there were some good themes and plot points in it that I think others will find entirely enjoyable.

I am not one to go for atmosphere in a book, but this book sucked in so much. It makes me long for a place I have never been.
My favorite part of this book is watching the Shiney fairytale like view our sister have slow dim. I love finding where the stories came from, but also the truth behind it.

Once in a while, a book comes along that feels like it was written just for me. From the opening pages of White Fox, I knew this would be one of those books. This book had a lush, gorgeous setting, a glamorous missing mysterious movie star, two daughters trying to find her and their way back to each other, mystery and intrigue, all laced together by a long-lost film script. All of these things are music to my mystery-loving ears! This book was truly beautiful and unputdownable for me.

Manon and Thaïs are headed home to a small island after the death of their father to discover what may have happened to their mother a decade before. She was the most famous and talented actress of her era and even after her disappearance, the world is just as enamored with her. Her two daughters have missed their mother, and each remembers her in her own way. Thaïs has picked up the spotlight living as a social media influencer, while her sister keeps to herself and struggles with anxiety (which felt like a very realistic portrayal). The two girls go back home to Viloxin in order to search for White Fox, an elusive film script written by their mother that nobody has been able to find. These two girls do find it, and use it as a means to learn more about their mother and what happened to her.

The whole book is so gorgeously written, and the characters feel real and well-rounded. Using the movie script to piece together the clues was brilliant and, similar to Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, I felt like I got to know this incredible and absent woman. I loved this book. I think it captured me and didn't let me go, and I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

I loved the feel of this book. It was disorienting. It was part retro and part future. Weirdly, it reminded me of some video games. You wander this weirdly deserted town looking for someone to give you clues of where to go next. You run into this assortment of odd characters on this strange and exotic island. It seems half forgotten by time and run down while being half future tech. Combine all of that in a new fairytale. Then you have what I mean by "feel" of the book.

Sisters Tai and Noni lost their mother 10 years ago. She just vanished. Half of the famous couple; the actress and the scientist. Their lives changed dramatically, but for the tenth anniversary of her disappearance they return to the island they were born on to learn more about the mother they barely knew. And maybe...find her?

The sisters have little to go on until they begin finding parts of her long rumored movie script, which is really just a thinly veiled story of her own life. Once the sisters begin to decipher the story and uncover who the characters really represent, they start to unravel the truth of their mother's life.

This was such truly unique mixture of real and fantastic that it felt fresh and new in a way I think I was really looking for right now. Thank you to Sara Fanning, MacMillan, and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 stars, rounded down to 2 stars

I received an e-arc of White Fox from Fierce Reads through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Manon and Tai’s mother disappeared 10 years ago with a secret script that everyone wants to read. The reason for her disappearing is unknown. Manon And Tai work to figure out what really happened to their mother so many years ago.

This book was very strange. It was super slow at the beginning, which I don’t like because books that are Slow don’t keep my attention. It felt like for the first half of the book, it was going nowhere. Then in the second half, it sped up suddenly. I was confused for most of he second half because everything you learn in the first half is apparently not right. Another thing I really didn’t like was the transcripts of interviews with Boy’s perspective and the script interjected. The transcripts confused me even more and I couldn’t tell who Boy was. You find out by the end, but it didn’t make any sense to me as I read it. The script felt like it was interjected at weird places. I couldn’t always follow it with the story because sometimes the reason it was interjected was in the next chapter.

Sara Faring is a good writer. White Fox was just not the book for me. I’m not big into thrillers, so it might interest a person so does like thrillers.

This was a DNF title for me. I think there are some really interesting ideas in the book, but not a good execution. It felt like there were dueling writing styles here- lovely prose interspersed with jarring phrases and moments meant to remind the reader that the characters are teenagers.
The bigger problem was that I kept finding reasons to put the book down, so at this point I'm fine not finding out how it ends.

The White Fox was an interesting read! I enjoyed the mystery in this book quite a bit, I also enjoyed watching the relationships between the sisters grow.

Personally, the script and transcripts were not my favorite way to read, and I imagine this would work really well as an audiobook!

White Fox By Sara Faring Review
It is no secret that Sara Faring's debut, The Tenth Girl hit me like a bullet train last year. As soon as the ARCs for White Fox became available to review, I prayed to the book fairies and they answered. I was honored to read White Fox early, and to interview Sara Faring a second time. I will post that interview in the coming days. And then I think those book fairies must have waved a wand, sprinkled some fairy dust onto the pages of White Fox, and whispered words in my ear. In no time, I was under Sara Faring's spell, familiar from last year.
The Tenth Girl and White Fox share a trait of being bigger than the story they contain. Faring's writing is a living, breathing entity, totally separate from the story. I would liken this additional emotional gravitas (not the stories themselves) to A Room Without Wolves by Nova Ren. However, familiarity does not equate to similar stories. White Fox, on the whole, is a story distinct and opposite of The Tenth Girl.
Where The Tenth Girl's slowly creeping urgency created an icy depth in your soul, a fight or flight need to run and avoid the rapid deterioration of all that is in front of you, from death, the past, coldness, and dark; White Fox breathes into life. Faring's arc over White Fox centers in strength, facing emotions, life, and feeling the earth. Leaning into the entirety of your five senses and letting in everything. Braving both the horrific and divine as it swirls around you. Faring's dreamscape in White Fox places you directly in the eye of a storm that breaks your heart, breathes life into shadows and lets your soul soar.

Noni And Tai
White Fox centers on two sisters that are opposites and yet reflections- opposites of each other and reflections of their mother's different sides. Tai is the vivacious, wild child, the beauty, and burgeoning model/ actress. The world sees their mom in Tai and is always trying to get a piece of Tai, a piece to hold on to their famous, mysterious mom. Noni is the quiet, introvert that doesn't keep much company and stays out of the spotlight. Noni doesn't think much about their mom or what might have happened to her, long ago.
Faring gives you two points of view not through just their unique voice but through their actions, their emotional states, and how they process their family trauma, let alone the past coming back to haunt them. When their father dies and leaves them a vague letter about their mother's mysterious death (was it suicide as previously thought? Murder? Kidnapping? Disappearance?), it becomes more and more clear just how different these sisters are not just in personality, but how they view the past.

Noni sees a much more realistic look upon their childhood. She recognizes the unhappy times and what has happened since her mother disappeared. Tai cannot exist in any reality where they didn't have an idyllic home. While Tai can accept that she had two busy, absorbed parents. She can't accept that she and Noni weren't their everything and always provided for, even at the busiest of times. It is so engrained in Tai's identity that to burst the bubble, would be to break Tai. Noni, on the other hand, accepted long ago that their mother left them, committed suicide, that their lives were never idyllic or what Tai remembers them to be.
Throughout White Fox, Noni consistently demonstrates traits of anxiety and OCD that are well-thought-out and interspersed in the story. She repeats words and phrases. She picks at things and describes her acute panic as fizzy pennies- binding it all together and drawing in all your senses.
I'm picking at my hangnail- a bad habit, like the lip biting. But it reminds me I'm in control. Besides writing, it's the little things like this that keep the fizzy pennies of anxiety at bay.
Every story has three sides. Yours, mine, and the truth. To figure out that truth, they will go home to Limatra.
After ten years- ten long years spent wandering the purgatory of uncertain loss- it will take only one week to solve our mystery. One week of madness, brilliance, deception, trust, weakness, strength, abandonment, love, and sacrifice in the belly of our birth town, Limatra, and the fringing forest of delirium to its west...
But just as every story comes to an end, it must also start at the beginning..."

White Fox


I'm doing good and I need to say so much and can say so little. I have and will keep everything to the bigger themes, emotional forces and Sara Faring's genius, which there is plenty. When Faring is throwing books like The Tenth Girl and White Fox into the world, it is a huge help because... AYE SPOILERS.
White Fox is the screenplay portion of the novel. It is full-bodied ambiance with an ethereal quality that strikes a harsh chord against the realities that Tai and Noni are navigating. Considering it is White Fox that holds the clues to their mother's mental state, her last work before she disappeared. It is a referendum on who their mother was, their last glimpse on how she viewed her life, the people in it, and just possibly an explanation for her death, or clues to her whereabouts if she disappeared.
How it reads and what it contains isn't anything I can or even would try to explain, spoilers or not. Astoundingly, Faring uses this second format and gently pulls at strings I am still unraveling in my mind. Everyone lives life and has people that come and go during that time. How do they view your part in their life? Is it the same as how you view it? Would you write your part in their life, the same as they would write your part?

If you wrote your life's screenplay, who would be the villains, the angels, the shady and messy people? Do they know who they are, now? Have you told them honestly, what they mean and who they are in your life? Would they recognize themselves in your screenplay, if they had a different name? Would you recognize yourself, in someone else's?
Self-worth and our ability to find it within ourselves, robbing ourselves of every inch of attention, abandoning the world to see if we still felt our own sense of self. Without men, without the world telling us who and what we are, what we are worth, could women do it on their own? If no one missed her, would she no longer feel anything good, at all?
Did feeling good as new have only to do with being in the possession of a man? Or was it my isolation from society- my ignorance of its inconvenient truths? I had to test this.
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Light And Dark
Can someone's light be enough to help you find your way out of the dark? Facing the dark is a scary place to be, especially when it includes facing the buried secrets, hidden fears and the darkest parts inside of ourselves let alone that which surrounds us.
When you are chasing for answers that are in places that are named Delirium Forest you have to be steady in where you stand. You don't know what you will find, or scarier, what you might catch. It might not be what you were looking for, and even if it was? What you were looking for might not be a happy ending. They are constantly in motion and not always fighting. More often than not, they work together, creating all the various greys that muddle us up. Everyone does the best they can with what they have at any given time.
In order not to spoil (actually harder than it was with The Tenth Girl last year), I'm going to paraphrase one of my favorite lines from the book- Light and dark are almost the same ethos- to be safe in the light, you have to respect the dark.
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White Fox Wrap-Up/Summary
1. One thing I think that comes through in the review is something that is at the core of White Fox- consistency in content and pacing. Unlike The Tenth Girl, there isn't one big giant twist. Through the different formats, there are a lot of consistent twists and turns throughout the story. Yes, there is a beginning/middle/end and yes there is a climax, but to say there is one huge reveal, would be untrue. There are clues, reveals, re-dos, and more digging, then more reveals... it is a consistent burning mystery that compels you throughout.
2. Despite the numerous themes, all are handled with depth and thoroughness. Each feels personal to Sara Faring, in as much, that they all have a unique fingerprint on them that leads me to believe they are personal to her experience, concerns for the future, and those she loves.
3. There is a lot more to White Fox then there is in this review. There are so many ways to easily spoil it that I could only go into so much. My hope is to have caused the spark that leads you to read White Fox. PLEASE keep that in mind. My reviews tend to be very detailed and still non-spoilery. However, with White Fox, I had to be very careful and I also think to do right by Sara Faring's unique talents, it was the best approach to take.
4. When I reviewed The Tenth Girl last year, I had the honor of interviewing Sara Faring. I have linked the review of The Tenth Girl and interview above. In the coming days, I will post a second interview with Sara Faring that I'm so excited to share. Please look out for it and come back to check it out!

The sister’s aunt has finally allowed them to return home after the death of their father. One of them believes their mother is still alive, and one of them has told herself stories to accept her disappearance ten years ago. Both of them have questions that need answering on their return, but they might not find the answers they seek when more questions arise. And this might not be the same place they left all those years ago.

“... because when people leave a house, it stops being a home.”

I liked how the story was told from each of the sister’s perspective. They were different young women, but they went through much of the same things, even if they didn’t want to see it. Faring has created the perfect atmosphere in White Fox. The ambiance is splendid, and it draws you in. It’s both chilling and endearing, and your feelings fluctuate between horror and empathy.

“Beauty isn’t that which is beautiful, it is that which pleases us.”

I loved how we’re given pieces of this play, which created questions that led the girls to the answers they needed. It allowed their mother’s story to unfold. The girls’ personalities, the anxiety, the years of sadness, it makes for an emotional read. White Fox is both heavy and hopeful, and as the book drew towards the finish, I slowed my pace. I wanted to allow the words to settle over me and around me, and I didn’t want it to end. Such a beautifully told story, fantastic! Thank you, Fierce Reads, and Imprint for sending this along.