The Fox's Tower and Other Tales: A Collection of Magical Short Stories

I didn't know I was a fan of flash fiction until I read this book. Turns out I am a fan if it's done right. These tiny little stories were absolutely lovely. I read a few in a row but then realized I enjoyed them much more one at a time. I would read one before bed each night. It also turned me into a Yoon Ha Lee fan that has exploded my TBR in a wonderful way! I also think I will return to this often for little bite sized pieces of happiness.

I confess, I didn't get much further than Yoon Ha Lee's name when I decided to purchase this, so I didn't realize these stories would be quite SO short. There were so many lovely ideas and glimmers and moments here, but mostly this made me thirsty for longer works from Lee.

Despite the small size of this book, I found this most rewarding when I only dipped in to read a handful of stories at a time.

Confession: I was expecting a children’s book! And I didn’t get it. So I am still confused about whether to put the blame for this disappointing experience: on the book or on myself!

This is a collection of 25 short stories (all are of flash fiction length) with one thing in common: all have magic/myth as a central theme. There are a few ideas that recur, such as LGBT romances or common animals such as foxes or birds in a magical setting, or mythical figures such as dragons and witches. Most of the stories end very abruptly. Some stories take care of world-building while others end even before you realise what’s happening. The cover and the title made me feel that it would suit children but the nature of the stories is such that show more young children won’t even understand the content. I enjoy open-ended stories but the end should make sense. I didn’t find that happening in many of the stories here.

On the positive side, the writing is very poetic and at times, metaphorical. So those who enjoy a book for good writing alone will certainly relish this collection much more.

I found very few of the stories worth rating 5 stars. Most are just average or disappointing. My favourite stories from this collection were The Fox's Tower, The Dragon Festival, The Cursed Piano, Sand and Sea, Two Bakeries, and The Mermaid's Teeth. So only 6 stories out of 25. Not really a good sign.

But as I said, this might just be me because I was expecting something very different from the book. Do give it a try if you enjoy fantasy-based flash fiction and aren’t looking for conclusive/logical endings in each tale.

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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Lee has penned in this tiny tome a collection of fantastical, evocative and extremely short stories. All tales are at maximum 3 or 4 pages long, so it's a great little book for picking up while waiting for your bread to toast or for the bus. With so little context and substance to work with I'm not sure I understood the meaning or message of every tale, but the writing is indeed lovely. I originally ordered this for my pre-teen daughter, who has previously enjoyed other works by Lee. I didn't notice that the target audience was adults until it arrived, and I decided to read it myself. It could still be read and enjoyed by older children and teens, but with minimal story-building and abrupt and frequent transitions, the appeal factors show more may not be as strong. show less

Honestly, I'm not big on flash fiction - I'm only just learning to love short stories, and I still complain that I want every novella to be a novel. But Yoon Ha Lee won me over with sheer beauty of prose and wealth of imagery, ideas coming thick and fast in a torrent of wild imagination.

Absolutely delectable for those days when you really do only have 5 minutes to read, and need something that can whisk you off to another world in that time.

Full review.

A blend of magic, science, and science fiction coated in sweet poetry. Ha Lee is able to bring about the nostalgia of old folk tales being read in an imagined futuristic realm. Loved it!

The Fox’s Tower & Other Tales is a collection of beautifully elegant flash fiction stories. Each of these stories can be read in less than five minutes, and the majority have the feel of a fairy tale, even if they are not straight forward retellings.

While the formats are very different, the quality of the stories reminds me of Valente’s In the Night Garden for the gorgeous prose and the female characters who reside outside of their normal fairy tale positions. There were also a number of stories with queer characters, which even include some with nonbinary characters.

If you want to get a feel for the sort of stories offered in this collection, the vast majority of these forty tales are available for free on the author’s website. I show more would particularly recommend “The Virtues of Magpies,” about a community with some trickster magpies who prove helpful in the end, and “The Youngest Fox,” the story of an nontraditional shape shifting fox who prefers science to seduction.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. show less