The Too-Clever Fox

This is a classic trickster story, of a scruffy runt of a fox who manages to talk his way out of dangerous situations, but who may have met more than he can handle when a deadly hunter comes to town. I enjoyed this story quite a bit - it's a great, dark twist on the talking animal style folk tale. However, I suspect that reading it immediately after "The Witch of Duva" meant that it probably didn't have as much impact as it might have, since I was half-expecting the dark turns the story takes.

The Too-Clever Fox is a gruesome story with a fablelike quality that fools the readers into thinking that they know what is going on and what is going to happen. It is a masterfully and vividly written, and perfectly enjoyable little tale.

Leigh Bardugo is one of those storytellers who can conjure up an entire sophisticated world in a couple of pages - it is a fascinating capability few authors manage to achieve.

This story has the feeling of an old morality tale, straight out of Aesop's fables. It is set in Bardugo's fantasy world built for her Grisha novels, but I haven't read any of these and you don't need to know them to enjoy this story. It's the tale of Koja, the scrawny fox whose cleverness and quick tongue have always kept him safe from harm. He's talked his way out of traps and become famous among the other animals of the forest, but this master trickster has one fatal flaw. For the trickster can be tricked, and cleverness is only useful as long as we don't allow it to blind us. Setting the scene amid snow, dark forests and Russian-tinted names, Bardugo warns us not to judge by appearances.

For this review, and other short stories from show more Tor.com, please visit my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2017/04/20/more-short-stories-from-tor-com show less

This is a short story/small novella set in the Grisha world. Almost half of this novella is a preview of the third book in the Grisha series (which I read quite a while ago). I have really been enjoying the 0.5 books in this series. This novella was a decent read and was basically a folk tale from that world. The big twist in the story was very predictable which was the biggest disappointment to this tale.

In the woods there lives a very clever, but very ugly, fox. He is known for escaping a number of dire situations. When large animals start disappearing from the forest the other animals come to him for help; can he solve the mystery of the disappearing animals? When he finds out that a notorious hunter has moved into the area he tries show more to befriend the hunter’s sister in an effort to get rid of the hunter for good.

This was a well written folktale and I enjoyed it. I loved the irony of the tale and enjoyed the description throughout.

The only thing I didn’t really like was how predictable the major twist in the folktale was. I saw it coming from a mile away and was somewhat disappointed that I was right. This was also very very short; half of the ebook was a preview of book 3 in the Grisha series.

The above being said this was a very well done folktale with some magic in it. I enjoyed the fairy-tale like feel of the story.

Overall this was a well done folktale set in the Grisha world. I actually liked Bardugo’s Witch of Duva short story a lot better, but this one was okay. I would recommend to those who are reading the Grisha series and enjoy ironic fairytales and/or folktales. show less

See my review of this book, and many more, at Tales from the Great East Road.

There is such a problem as being too clever. Koja, the runt of a litter of foxes, has learnt to survive on his wits alone, as his cleverness has saved him several times already. It has helped him escape traps and gained him friendship with some of the more dangerous animals in the woods. When a hunter so skilful they enter and leave the forest with no trace begins killing his friends, Koja believes his cleverness can save everyone – but in doing so he learns the difference between confidence and arrogance.

The second of Leigh Bardugo’s fairytale short stories, The Too-Clever Fox is another success: well-written, quaint, and very entertaining. After reading show more Siege and Storm, the comparison between the fox Koja and the privateer Strumhond is very clear, as they both rely on their wits and charm to weasel their way out of problems and win friends. Koja’s exploits are enjoyable to read, and despite the briefness of the story you find yourself engrossed with the plot and the friendships he forms.

In terms of the message this story gives, it is more heavy-handed than the first fairytale, The Witch of Duva. It features similar morals: you can’t always trust appearances, and women are more that their fairytale stereotypes. However, the hunter, the villain of the piece, felt a little too two dimensional. It’s not shown what goes on in their mind, and they never fully explain why they killed the animals other than “because I can”. They just brag about how they cleverly tricked all the animals, which links in to the story’s moral but isn’t much of an explanation.

Another great addition both the series and the world, we can only hope that a full collection of these fairytales will be in the near future.

4 stars. show less

Very clever tale. Having read S&S already, I see how it links. Clever, Leigh.

Just lovely. I didn't expect to have my emotions stirred that way, but stirred they were. It's an enthralling little story. Bardugo is greatly talented. Though I already knew that, because I love her books.

You can read this independently from the Grisha books. There are no character crossovers.

Find this free short story HERE.