Fox Snare by Yoon Ha Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
Fox Snare is the third book in the Thousand Worlds series, Yoon Ha Lee’s Middle Grade Space Opera. This series has been published as part of the Rick Riordan imprint.
If you are unaware, the mission of this imprint is to provide a stage for diverse voices to tell stories based upon the myths, legends and folklore of their cultures. I’ve read quite a few books from this imprint and they’ve all been fantastic.
I recommend checking them out, if you haven’t already.
This series began with Dragon Pearl, which was my favorite Middle Grade book of 2019. In that story, we meet 13-year old Min, a fox spirit.
We follow her on a rollicking space adventure to clear her brother, Yun’s, name. The world-building was incredible, the writing was fluid and engaging and the sci-fi elements were top notch.
The second book, Tiger Honor, followed Sebin, a tiger spirit, who goes on their own journey to clear a hero’s name.
I really enjoyed it as well, although I didn’t connect with it quite like I did with Dragon Pearl. That one would be really hard to beat. Nevertheless, it’s still a high quality Middle Grade story, full of action and heart.
In this third book, we get alternating perspectives between Min and Sebin, and I did like how that aspect made it feel like the series has come full circle; that everything connected for this finale in a big way.
Yoon Ha Lee’s writing, as always, was spectacular. His ability to create beautifully-constructed settings, all while adding in well-fleshed out characters and high-stakes action is truly impressive. I think any Middle Grade Reader who picks up this story will absolutely be a Sci-Fi fan for life.
I did find the perspective shifts a little hard to track initially. This could have been because I was listening to the audiobook and it was a single narrator.
While their narration was fantastic, bringing the story to life, it wasn’t quite as easy to differentiate between Min’s character and Sebin’s. I sort of wish they would have used dual narrators to add that level of distinction and clarity.
With this being said, I still feel like this is a super solid conclusion to this trilogy. I definitely feel like I felt these characters grow, mature and really come into their own over the course of this series.
I actually would love to see Yoon Ha Lee carry this world, and maybe even these characters, over into a YA, or even Adult, series. I seriously do not want this to be the last I see of the Thousand Worlds, Min, or Sebin.
Thank you to the publisher, Disney Audio and Rick Riordan Presents Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This is a great series, start-to-finish.
It’s definitely one I would recommend to anyone who loves a fast-paced, big-hearted space adventure!!