White Fox

August 1, 2020
Ten years ago, enigmatic film star Mireille Foix disappeared from Viloxin, her Mediterranean island home, leaving her pharma tycoon husband and two young daughters bereft. Eighteen-year-old Manon and 17-year-old Tha�s have lived with their aunt in New York City ever since, and their father's death the previous summer still stings. Tai is puckish and effervescent, with "beautiful gemstones of stories that she's sharpened to points" and musical laughter that hides deep insecurity. Noni, on the other hand, is a bookish and unabashedly melancholy young woman. When they get an invitation to return to Viloxin, the "Eden" of their childhood, as guests of honor at a retrospective of their mother's work, they can't pass it up. Soon after their arrival, Tai discovers White Fox, a legendary unfinished script penned by her mother. The screenplay, which is nestled in between Tai's and Manon's narratives as well as that of Boy, a darkly mysterious third narrator, may hold the key to Mireille's fate. Desperate for the truth, Tai and Noni are enticed into an eerie and darkly seductive puzzle box of enigmatic clues, revelations, and danger. Faring, an imaginative, tactile, and immensely quotable wordsmith, explores the complexities of sisterhood and grief with a deft hand, and her unusual island setting, with its futuristic touches, draws readers in with a sensuous warmth that belies the sharp teeth beneath its surface. Most main characters seem to be White. A lush and hypnotic modern fairy tale. (Mystery. 14-18)

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August 14, 2020

Gr 9 Up-Ten years after their world-famous mother disappeared, sisters Tha�s (Tai) and Manon (Noni) return to the scene of the crime. While the two have been slowly drifting apart for years, Tai seeking fame and approval while Noni wants only to hide away in storybooks, a death-bed request from their father to discover what truly happened to their mother brings the two together again. But along the way, they'll also discover startling truths about themselves and the twisted secrets their island home hides. Told in alternating points of view, this is a slow-build, atmospheric thriller � la Shirley Jackson. As characters, Noni and Tai are alternately infuriating and heartbreakingly loveable-protecting each other even as they keep secrets and lash out in anger. The book's third narrator, identified only as Boy, introduces an element of the truly terrifying early on, hooking readers in from the beginning. The majority of the story takes place on the fictional Mediterranean island of Viloxin, and island residents, including the sisters, present as white. VERDICT A spellbinding tale, though perhaps not one with mass teen appeal. Share this title with young bibliophiles looking for eerie, atmospheric reads like Kat Ellis's Harrow Lake or Claire Legrand's Sawkill Girls.-Kaitlin Frick, Darien Lib., CT

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August 24, 2020
Manon “Noni” and her younger sister Thaïs “Tai” Foix Hammick, daughters of a pharmaceutical magnate and an actor, have lived with their aunt Marion in New York City since their mother’s disappearance a decade earlier. The girls have drifted apart: Tai, a social media influencer, drops out of high school to pursue a modeling career, while studious writer Noni prefers to remain unseen. When Tai is invited to a retrospective of their mother’s career, the sisters return to the family home, Stökéwood, on the island country of Viloxin. Robotic caregiver Mina, created to help their now deceased father, gives the pair a letter from him, which reveals his belief that their mother is alive—and that she left clues about her whereabouts in a script called White Fox. Faring (The Tenth Girl) presents a gripping treasure hunt relayed through three perspectives: Noni, Tai, and enigmatic Boy. Interspersed throughout are pages from White Fox, which illuminate its author’s state of mind while simultaneously revealing family secrets. Though some aspects feel farfetched, Faring conjures an atmospheric, almost fairytale-like setting as the backdrop for two girls seeking long-delayed closure. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sarah Bedingfield, Levine Greenberg Rostan.

October 15, 2020
Grades 9-12 In Faring's atmospheric, arresting thriller, two sisters return to their childhood home on Viloxin, an insular yet idyllic Mediterranean isle, to solve the mystery of their mother's disappearance. Mireille Foix was a glamorous, enigmatic movie star when she disappeared 10 years ago with the only copy of her eagerly anticipated screenplay, White Fox. Afterwards, daughters Manon (Noni) and Th�is (Tai) were sent to live with their aunt in New York. The girls, now 18 and 17, aren't close: serious, anxious Noni is writing a book about Mireille, while glitzy, dynamic Tai is a social media influencer. Both agree to attend a retrospective of their mother's work on Viloxin, hoping for closure. Yet their discovery of a cryptic note and a secret copy of the White Fox script lead them into a tangled, dangerous web of family secrets. Faring's gorgeous prose deftly handles three distinct narratives, including pages from the confessional White Fox script, while the mix of evocative fairy-tale elements and emblematic near-future technology creates an eerie, dread-laden mood. An engrossing, genre-defying read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)