ARC Review: White Fox by Sara Faring

Title: White Fox
Author: Sara Faring
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Source: eGalley from Imprint via NetGalley
Publisher: Imprint
Publication Date: September 22nd 2020

Summary: 

A tale of two sisters against a backdrop of Night Film meets Black Mirror, this atmospheric novel will keep you guessing until the very end. After their world-famous mother disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Manon and Thais left their remote Mediterranean home—sent away by their pharma tech tycoon father. Opposites in every way, the sisters drifted apart in their grief. Yet their mother's unfinished story still haunts them both, and they can't put to rest the possibility that she is still alive. Lured home a decade later, Manon and Thais discover their mother's legendary last work, long thought lost: White Fox, a screenplay filled with enigmatic metaphors. The clues in this dark fairytale draw them deep into society's surreal underbelly, into the twisted secrets hidden by their glittering family, to reveal the truth about their mother—and themselves.

Content Warnings: Talks of suicide, talks of murder, suggested murder, on page panic attacks, underage drinking.

When I read The Tenth Girl last May and I immediately fell in love with Sara's story telling. The Tenth Girl kept me on the edge of my seat with dark imagery, intriguing mystery and a science fiction twist that I didn't see coming. When Sara announced the news of White Fox I was thrilled, I couldn't wait to see what twists she has for her readers this time around. I did enjoy White Fox, but I didn't love it as much as I hoped it would. 

What I didn't like:

• White Fox felt really slow, it wasn't until about 55% that the pace picked up and things actually began to happen. There were a couple of instances where I did debate on putting this book to the side. 

• When the plot did pick up things became rushed and the events that happened, happened quickly and felt like they were forced into the story line. They didn't feel like they flowed nicely. 

• I had a hard time differentiating the difference between Manon and Thais's point of views. Their voices were nearly identical. They both want to know what happened to their mother and the mystery surrounding it, but I feel as if they had no plan, acted impulsively on things and jumped to conclusions before gathering the facts. 

• Where I loved being able to read the White Fox script, the cryptic notes at the end broke the illusion of the screen play. You are wrapped up in this vivid imagery that was created and suddenly thrown into cryptic notes. It was also no implied who these notes were for, I assumed it was to the girls mother but... 

• There are characters introduced, but very little is explained about them. A few also don't even play an essential role in the plot. The scenes that included them felt more like filler then anything else. 

• Hero Pharmaceuticals and Clouded Cage played such a huge role in White Fox but they aren't really dived into. It is established early on that Hero Pharmaceuticals made its name by developing Ladyx, a miracle drug. But other then that, there is no further explanation of what Hero Pharmaceuticals is doing, their past or what they are working on until the end of White Fox and even then its super minimal. Clouded Cage is Teddy (Manon and Thais's uncle) company where he invented the Pocket Girlfriend, Pocket Friend and a few other technologies that are mentioned through out the novel. White Fox just touches the surface of these technologies, especially for the role it plays within the novel. 

What I did like:

• Regardless of the issues above Sara does have a very lyrical way to her writing and it is full of imagery. 

• *slight spoiler, please skip if you want to be surprised*The Tenth Girl Easter eggs! I literally almost fell off my chair at a certain part when Teddy is talking to the girls, it makes me wonder about time lines and settings now. Like, technically it could work. 

• The White Fox screen play. It is dark and mystical and plays homage to so much of the mother's life and the things she has been through and the things she wishes she could escape. 

• The last 10% of the book when things began to be revealed. I expected some of the stuff that came to light, I had figured it out about half way through. Manon says in the first chapter that they do find their mother, but what she didn't specify was if their mother was alive or dead. The first chapter makes you assume one thing throughout the whole story, but then in the climax it was quite the opposite. I'll leave it at this: It's a bitter sweet feeling. 

• A story hasn't evoked deep emotions within me in a very long time, the fact the White Fox did that says enough. Despite the issues I had above, nothing can take away the fact that this novel is so much deeper then just this mystery. 

• I loved watching Manon and Thais's relationship throughout the entirety of the story and where they ended up by the end of it. The story opens to the sisters living in two separate worlds with very little communication. 

Overall White Fox had its good and bad things about it. As much as I loved certain parts of it I wished other parts were different. Everyone is going to take something different away from this novel and I think that's what I love about it the most. If you enjoy mystery, thrillers and books with a technological sci-fi edge I do encourage you to give this book a try. 

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