Review of Foxcraft: The Taken by Inbali Iserles

                                                                             Review of:

                                                                      

                                                                               By Rico      

                                                                              Summary

    Foxcraft: The Taken is a fictional book by Inbali Iserles. The main character is Isla, is a young fox who is very inexperienced when it comes to the world outside her den. She has heard about the vast size of the world she lives in but has never ventured far away from her home. Until one day, when her family is out on a hunting mission. Her family consists of: Pirie (her brother), Ma and Fa (her mother and father), and Greatma (Pirie and Isla's grandmother, who is very wise and has sharp hunting instincts). On that hunting trip, Isla gets distracted by some berries on a bush. She spends a while trying to gather these berries, and when she looks around, she realizes that her family is gone. She's been left behind. Luckily, Isla knows the way back to her den, so she heads that way. But when she arrives at the den, her family is missing. Instead of meeting them, she meets a one-eyed grey vixen, who is accompanied by a skulk of several other mean-looking foxes. She is forced to flee far away, shaken by the fact that her family is now missing. Isla is now lost in the wild, dangerous, and chaotic outside world. 

    Despite her fear, Isla is determined to find her family. Throughout the next several chapters, she searches for her family, overcoming many obstacles and dangers along the way. She ends up meeting another fox named Siffrin, who can somehow do magic. He claims to be able to help Isla find her family, so she follows him. She ends up learning that the magic he performed is called Foxcraft. As the two foxes continue to explore and get to know each other, Siffrin teaches Isla some Foxcraft and tells her all about the complexity of the fox world. He also reveals to her some troubling information about that skulk of foxes she saw back at her den, which I can not reveal for the sake of spoilers. Isla learns that Siffrin was sent by the rulers of the fox world, called the elders, who are searching for Pirie (Isla asks why, but Siffrin doesn't know). However, nobody knows where Pirie is, so Isla and Siffrin are tasked with searching all over the fox lands to find him. Will they be able to? Read the book to find out. 

                                             

                                                                               Review 

  This book is very well-written, with above-average attention to detail regarding the descriptions of characters, settings, and events of the story. I also really liked how the author portrays the world the way that a fox would see it, calling humans "the furless," cars "manglers," and various other creative terms to help the reader get into the perspective of a fox. The main weakness of this book, although not that big, is probably the plot. The book is essentially 250 pages of a fox walking around searching for things, which gets a bit repetitive. This book was the kind of book you don't really look forward to reading, but once you do, it's pretty good, so it took me a while to finish. But it could be worse. The author does a good enough job of adding intriguing details and twists to the plot, like the system of magic, an interestingly-structured fox society, and good descriptions of what is going on through the eyes of a fox. Considering all of this, I would rate this book a solid 4/5 stars.