The Fox Wife, Yangsze Choo

 Book Title: The Fox Wife

Author: Yangsze Choo

Date Started: February 8th  2026

Date Completed: February 15th 2026

Genres: Magical Realism, Contemporary

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I thoroughly enjoyed this book once I got into it. Both accompanying narrators, a detective and a woman who is also a fox, are compelling in their own ways, spinning closer and closer to one another as the serendipitous threads of fate pull the stitching of the story taut. The mystery and overlapping lives were so satisfying the whole way through, small details gathering meaning long before their meaning is unearthed.

I loved Choo's ability to balance her tones of sincerity, comedy and lightheartedness with gut-wrenching tragedy; anger with joy, wistfulness with ferocity. These characters are fascinatingly flawed, spiteful, curious, overconfident, daring; their mythos all the more enthralling as these whispered creatures become real and, despite the stories, mostly causing mayhem unintentionally. The one stumble was when our protagonist found her goal achieved, but we just sort of rushed on - understandably, knowing the full pilot, but it did feel unfinished and easily let go by Snow.

I want ten prequels about Snow, Kuro and Shiro's adventures - or, having read the closing notes, for Choo to indeed fill an entire novel with footnotes of anecdotes, mythology and side stories in the tradition of Chinese marginalia. I want more time with these characters, more roadtrips across ancient and historical Asia, more mysteries uncovered, chaos wreaked and ridiculous hijinks.

Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon, Mizuki Tsujimura

 Book Title: Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon

 Author: Mizuki Tsujimura

Series: Lost Soul #1

Date Started: January 28th  2026

Date Completed: February 8th 2026

Genres: Magical Realism, Contemporary

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

What a unique idea for magical realism; an elusive contact who, if you manage to track them down or happen to be passed their details by a family member, can give you one night under a full moon to meet someone dead. You don't have to know them, you don't have to pay anything, but you and they only get one chance to see it through. My favourite part is that it was brought to life in such a believable way, with no greater purpose, no magic system supporting it. It doesn't try to be epic or universal, but just something a handful of people try to do for others.

I was really hoping this novel would move from each short story into an exploration of the common element: the teenage go-between who fulfils the living's request. And I'm so happy it did. I do wish it had framed both the start as well as the end to make the final revelation land a bit more. If I'd been thinking about it throughout the book, it would've been such a pay-off at the end.

I'm often not a fan of the episodic nature of these types of novels, but each character's story was special and different enough to avoid feeling repetitive or disjointed, and ultimately everything came together at the end to create a satisfying completion to a central character's arc. It's hard to distinguish a lot of these books that fall in the thoughtful magical realism category, but Mizuki Tsujimura has impressed twice for me so far.