A Brood of Foxes

I stumbled across this little book by accident.  After seeing it listed on a friend’s website and digging the cover – black background, red lettering, gray and black steampunk sketch of a fox wearing a morning coat and holding a zeppelin-esque balloon - I decided to give it a go.    

When it arrived, I was surprised to see it is only 87 pages long, but I ended up quite impressed with what Kristin Livdahl did in those few pages.  While the tone and the prose have Kelly Link written all over them (though perhaps less esoteric), it is no bad thing.  I personally love the fact that we’ve got all this new literary fantasy, or slip stream, or magical realism – whatever you want to call it – coming out of late.  Viva la trend, as long as it continues to be done this well. 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

I am always reluctant to buy a book surrounded by a lot of hype.  For whatever reason, my reading tastes rarely gel with those of the general public.  Not that I am a snob.  I read everything, and I do mean everything, and if it’s good, I have no problem admitting it, no matter its source.  It just seems that if there’s a great new book bandwagon rolling through and everyone is jumping on it, it usually turns out not to be my thing.  

So why I was even bothering to browse those stupid “Best of Summer” book lists, I don’t know.  I thought that by avoiding the ones with the words “Beach Read” in the title, I might accidentally stumble across some good new books.  It could happen, right?