The Fox's Tower and Other Tales

The Fox's Tower and Other Tales is a delightful collection of flash fiction featuring a range of different, stories, many with LGBT content, and all including magic and adventure. As with any collection of this ilk, some pieces are more memorable than others, but that does also mean there should be something here to appeal to everyone. For me, the stand-out stories were 'The Fox's Tower', 'The Cursed Piano', 'The Youngest Fox' and 'The Virtues of Magpies'. If you enjoy micro-fiction with a fantasy bent, this anthology is well worth your time. For me, it was a 4.5-star read that I would round up to a 5.

https://bonnevivantetr.wordpress.com/2021/08/11/book-review-the-foxs-tower-and-other-tales-by-yoon-ha-lee/

Hi everyone, this week I read “The Fox’s Tower and Other Tales” by famous fantasy author Yoon Ha Lee. Yoon Ha Lee is a Korean-American writer who’s known for his science fiction works. “The Fox’s Tower and Other Tales” is his latest book composed of fantastic short stories full of magical forests, foxes, birds, mermaids and travellers.
This book was very well written and other than the fantastic side of the interesting short stories, some of them were LGBTQ+ stories. They were filled with realistic LGBTQ+ characters and despite their lengths, they were capable of displaying great emotions. I’ll be honest with you though, at the beginning, I was kind of confused with the different use of gender pronouns especially that of “they/them” pronoun. However, I think that was completely my fault and lack of knowledge / habitude / practice. And this book gave me a great opportunity to get used to the use of pronouns and I was actually very well accustomed to them towards the end of the book.
When thinking about it now, I can’t even choose 1 favourite story since I had so many: “Two Bakeries”, “The Fox’s Towers”, “The Youngest Fox”, “The Stone-hearted Soldier”, “The Leafless Forest” were some of them. All of these were almost like dreams one could have in a deep sleep: magical. I also loved the cover design and the little illustrations in between chapters.
If you’re also looking for some great dreamy and magical stories to read this fall, “The Fox’s Tower and Other Tales” by Yoon Ha Lee will appear from Andrews McMeel Publishing in a hardcover edition this October. I would very much recommend this one, to any literature lover.

Rating: 4.5
Recommended for: fans of Aesop's Fables

The Fox's Tower and Other Tales is a collection of short stories that intersect LGBTQ themes with beautiful prose. The imagery, diction, and mythology Yoon Ha Lee presented were appealing to the imagination. The calligraphic illustrations were also alluring and contributed to the stories' beauty. Although I did not understand the underlying meaning for some of the stories, I appreciated Lee's words and the scenes that appeared in my mind thereof.

Ah, reading 'The Fox's Tower and Other Tales' was such a delightful experience! I definitely would go back and reread this when I'm in need of short, comforting stories.

First of all, let me say how beautiful Yoon Ha Lee's proses were. This anthology of micro-fiction was truly wonderfully written, and I'm often left in awe every time I finished a chapter! The stories were intriguing and gripping, and I'm so amazed that Lee could build such a tale in such short chapters. Sometimes I have to take a moment to sit and bask in the story before I can continue... They're stories that will stick with you, even long after you read them.

If you're looking for other-world stories that are magical and whimsical and delivers celestial feelings that make you feel like you're floating among the stars, this is definitely the book for you! It's incredibly easy to be swept into Lee's words. I want to give this book to my younger cousins and younger siblings, and my friends in their twenties to remind them of the magic and beauty they experienced when they were young!