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melissa_bookworm's review
4.0
This was definitely compulsive reading - a murder, a possible cult, and the daughter of the chief of police has an insight into it. As soon as I finished it I asked my co-workers to read it to because I was desperate to talk to someone about it!
BIG SPOILER:
I wasn't sure about the ending. After seeing the turmoil that Lily went through with the hunts etc, Lo still chooses to join. Is it just because she is as eager for notoriety as she is accused of my her last boss? And by having the connections of the cult she is able to be a writer? It generates thought which is as good sign!
Spoiler
The unreliable narrator style isn't my favourite, but it definitely kept me guessing. You can't tell whether Lo is seeing/telling us an accurate 'truth'.BIG SPOILER:
I wasn't sure about the ending. After seeing the turmoil that Lily went through with the hunts etc, Lo still chooses to join. Is it just because she is as eager for notoriety as she is accused of my her last boss? And by having the connections of the cult she is able to be a writer? It generates thought which is as good sign!
kadori's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Short chapters, in the end of every chapter there is a plot twist, the MC is just a puppet, it wasnt a fun read.
hannah_reads_2020's review
3.0
(3.5 rounded down)
A gritty Australian thriller. Caution mild spoilers ahead. This could have been amazing but fell flat in a few spots. I agree with other reviewers that a fictional town would have worked just as well. It really demonised Kiama. I think the author brilliantly portrayed the feeling of a small conservative town and how suffocating and xenophobic they can be. The unreliable narrator is something I loved, along with the main characters asexuality, its not something you see much of outside of LGBTQIA+ specific literature. I find a lot of thrillers these days are going for that one last twist in the last 5% of the book and I felt this fell flat and was totally at odds with the character we had seen develop throughout the book.
A gritty Australian thriller. Caution mild spoilers ahead. This could have been amazing but fell flat in a few spots. I agree with other reviewers that a fictional town would have worked just as well. It really demonised Kiama. I think the author brilliantly portrayed the feeling of a small conservative town and how suffocating and xenophobic they can be. The unreliable narrator is something I loved, along with the main characters asexuality, its not something you see much of outside of LGBTQIA+ specific literature. I find a lot of thrillers these days are going for that one last twist in the last 5% of the book and I felt this fell flat and was totally at odds with the character we had seen develop throughout the book.
jasannalise's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.0
i was rockin with this book til the author started using her unreliable narrator as a crutch. and that epilogue??? what was it all for and why oh why would you use mental health advocacy as a method of control
netflix_and_lil's review
3.0
This was absolutely a case of the questions overshadowing the answers. Catch Us The Foxes, in a similar way to Twin Peaks to which it compares to, set itself up with way too much expectation to satisfyingly pay it off.
I loved the small town conspiracy of it all, and the eeriness of the setting combined with the paranoia of ‘trust no one’. The unreliable narrator trope was employed for maximum ‘how the fuck are they going to wrap this up’age. I thought some scenes outstayed their welcome while a few interesting plot beats were forgotten as soon as they arrived, but I enjoyed the characters in all their shiftiness. There were moments I felt legitimately betrayed, and the setting leapt off the page. I love a good murder mystery, and while this one faded into the background with all the conspiracy shit going on, the victim felt like an active participant in the uncovering, which was nice. Their death also had an emotion to it that is rare for a body discovered in the first chapter. It all felt so unjust.
However, I worried from the outset it wouldn’t stick the landing, and I was proven right. The framing device gave the protagonist a certain amount of plot armour and set up the audience to expect one thing, only to try and pull a ‘gotcha’ that didn’t really make sense with the internal story logical. It did keep me wondering, but also not really because at a certain point it was just too obvious how things were going to end. The twists got a little too back-and-forth in the end, and while I appreciated being kept on my toes, it felt like the author settled for the easiest, blandest ‘truth’ in the end. Which if you’ve read this book might sound like an insane statement but I really think there were more creative ways they could have spun it. And I was very pissed off about the nonchalant single paragraph dedicated to definitively ‘solving’ the murder. It felt a bit mean-spirited.
Also apparently this town is based on a real place in NSW in which case... any publicity is good publicity I guess?
I loved the small town conspiracy of it all, and the eeriness of the setting combined with the paranoia of ‘trust no one’. The unreliable narrator trope was employed for maximum ‘how the fuck are they going to wrap this up’age. I thought some scenes outstayed their welcome while a few interesting plot beats were forgotten as soon as they arrived, but I enjoyed the characters in all their shiftiness. There were moments I felt legitimately betrayed, and the setting leapt off the page. I love a good murder mystery, and while this one faded into the background with all the conspiracy shit going on, the victim felt like an active participant in the uncovering, which was nice. Their death also had an emotion to it that is rare for a body discovered in the first chapter. It all felt so unjust.
However, I worried from the outset it wouldn’t stick the landing, and I was proven right. The framing device gave the protagonist a certain amount of plot armour and set up the audience to expect one thing, only to try and pull a ‘gotcha’ that didn’t really make sense with the internal story logical. It did keep me wondering, but also not really because at a certain point it was just too obvious how things were going to end. The twists got a little too back-and-forth in the end, and while I appreciated being kept on my toes, it felt like the author settled for the easiest, blandest ‘truth’ in the end. Which if you’ve read this book might sound like an insane statement but I really think there were more creative ways they could have spun it. And I was very pissed off about the nonchalant single paragraph dedicated to definitively ‘solving’ the murder. It felt a bit mean-spirited.
Also apparently this town is based on a real place in NSW in which case... any publicity is good publicity I guess?
animelanie's review
4.0
Gripping read! Really enjoyable - few issues with some of the character choices, but really well written otherwise.
ems_boookshelf's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
oliven's review
3.0
think the writing was really good and captivating but ultimately the story just wasn't sure what it wanted to be
kcfromaustcrime's review
4.0
Before starting out, this review is going to contain possible SPOILERS. I'm finding it almost impossible to talk about CATCH US THE FOXES without them.
Flagged as Twin Peaks meets The Dry, this is also described as a deliciously dark and twisted tale that unravels a small town.
Voiced in the main by the central character - Marlowe 'Lo' Robertson, the novel starts out with her being introduced to a Sydney Opera House audience, about to speak about her best selling true crime book 'The Showgirl's Secret', the account of the tragic death of her friend in their small NSW town, around seven years before.
Lo was a 22 year old journalist intern at the local paper when she found Lily's body in the stables at the showground, on the night of the local show. The place is teeming with locals, and carnival workers, and Lily was the winner of that year's Showgirl contest. Lo was there to photograph her and write a special story for the newspaper, or so she thought. But Lily ran, obviously scared by something to do with the Ghost Train, captured for a fleeting moment by Lo's camera, not long before she was found dead. Strangely, in a sinister way, as opposed to a keeping vital evidence quiet way, Lo's father, the local police chief, is particularly concerned to make sure that Lo doesn't mention some symbols carved into Lily's back. But that's nothing compared to the shock she gets when, after being given Lily's journals, it appears that there were reasons some of the towns most prominent citizens, including her own father, might have wanted Lily dead.
Long story short, we're talking a very bizarre and nasty cult operating in this small town. Despite the fact that one of the local carnival workers is charged with Lily's murder, there's something threatening and very disturbing about the cult behaviour and Lo's determined to get to the bottom. Or is she?
Lo's voice is everything in this novel. It's well drawn too - starting out with her being funny, slightly odd, brave, and seemingly sure of her path. She was raised by her dad after the death of her mother, and there are lots of references back to that death, and the story around it. As with everything here though, nothing is really as it seems, and there's heaps of ambiguity, odd behaviour and slowly eroded trust, something that seems to matter more because of the smallness of the town. There's also a past history of bullying behaviour and homophobia and everything that you'd sadly expect from that timeframe and that sort of location. But there's also something edgy about Lo herself. There are suggestions she's suffering from PTSD, she muses she's some sort of psychopath, inwardly contemplates suicide at one point, she's never been quite right after the death of her mother. There are lots of hints that her narration may not be trustworthy, that she's not as "nice" or as "perfect" as she appears, it's subtle, clever at points, the author handles these aspects reasonably well.
There's also a very clever manipulation of place going on here as well - the use of a small town, externally pretty, a holiday location, that's controlling, dark, possibly corrupt. It's a town where insiders have plenty of things that they would prefer were kept private, covered-up.
Whilst many of the twists and turns in CATCH US THE FOXES really worked, some of them were considerably less convincing. There were so many stereotypes and cliches that it felt like checklist material. The creepy psychologist; the flamboyant gay man; the pushy journalist; the decidedly Stepford wives feel about many of the women, including Lily's own mother; the over-reaching reasons for the symbols engraved on Lily's back; aspects of the cult and their very weird rituals. It all sort of got a bit... over the top ...
Culminating in an ending to the novel that threw everything you could possibly have thought was coming out an unopened window, and you can see how it will create a bit of "will work for some readers / will drive others utterly bats" controversy. I'm really struggling with this ending - a while after finishing the novel, the more I think about it, the more conflicted I'm getting. I've got no problem at all with the idea that twists and turns can happen right up until the last minute when unreliable becomes downright nasty and everything comes down to something very base and venal but... I'm still not sure if it just didn't ring true, feasible, possible, or even vaguely likely; or did it feel less psychopath, more after-thought? Having said that, we're talking a plot that's all about a weird cult in a country town, dreadful things happening to young girls and people behaving badly, ridiculously, horribly everywhere you turn, so under those circumstances, why not a thumping great weird turn of events at the end.
CATCH US THE FOXES is one of those novels that I can't help thinking is going to have a very big, wide your mileage variation factor about it, and one I can't help thinking is going to make it onto bookclub lists in the not too distant future.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/catch-us-foxes-nicola-west
Flagged as Twin Peaks meets The Dry, this is also described as a deliciously dark and twisted tale that unravels a small town.
Voiced in the main by the central character - Marlowe 'Lo' Robertson, the novel starts out with her being introduced to a Sydney Opera House audience, about to speak about her best selling true crime book 'The Showgirl's Secret', the account of the tragic death of her friend in their small NSW town, around seven years before.
Lo was a 22 year old journalist intern at the local paper when she found Lily's body in the stables at the showground, on the night of the local show. The place is teeming with locals, and carnival workers, and Lily was the winner of that year's Showgirl contest. Lo was there to photograph her and write a special story for the newspaper, or so she thought. But Lily ran, obviously scared by something to do with the Ghost Train, captured for a fleeting moment by Lo's camera, not long before she was found dead. Strangely, in a sinister way, as opposed to a keeping vital evidence quiet way, Lo's father, the local police chief, is particularly concerned to make sure that Lo doesn't mention some symbols carved into Lily's back. But that's nothing compared to the shock she gets when, after being given Lily's journals, it appears that there were reasons some of the towns most prominent citizens, including her own father, might have wanted Lily dead.
Long story short, we're talking a very bizarre and nasty cult operating in this small town. Despite the fact that one of the local carnival workers is charged with Lily's murder, there's something threatening and very disturbing about the cult behaviour and Lo's determined to get to the bottom. Or is she?
Lo's voice is everything in this novel. It's well drawn too - starting out with her being funny, slightly odd, brave, and seemingly sure of her path. She was raised by her dad after the death of her mother, and there are lots of references back to that death, and the story around it. As with everything here though, nothing is really as it seems, and there's heaps of ambiguity, odd behaviour and slowly eroded trust, something that seems to matter more because of the smallness of the town. There's also a past history of bullying behaviour and homophobia and everything that you'd sadly expect from that timeframe and that sort of location. But there's also something edgy about Lo herself. There are suggestions she's suffering from PTSD, she muses she's some sort of psychopath, inwardly contemplates suicide at one point, she's never been quite right after the death of her mother. There are lots of hints that her narration may not be trustworthy, that she's not as "nice" or as "perfect" as she appears, it's subtle, clever at points, the author handles these aspects reasonably well.
There's also a very clever manipulation of place going on here as well - the use of a small town, externally pretty, a holiday location, that's controlling, dark, possibly corrupt. It's a town where insiders have plenty of things that they would prefer were kept private, covered-up.
Whilst many of the twists and turns in CATCH US THE FOXES really worked, some of them were considerably less convincing. There were so many stereotypes and cliches that it felt like checklist material. The creepy psychologist; the flamboyant gay man; the pushy journalist; the decidedly Stepford wives feel about many of the women, including Lily's own mother; the over-reaching reasons for the symbols engraved on Lily's back; aspects of the cult and their very weird rituals. It all sort of got a bit... over the top ...
Culminating in an ending to the novel that threw everything you could possibly have thought was coming out an unopened window, and you can see how it will create a bit of "will work for some readers / will drive others utterly bats" controversy. I'm really struggling with this ending - a while after finishing the novel, the more I think about it, the more conflicted I'm getting. I've got no problem at all with the idea that twists and turns can happen right up until the last minute when unreliable becomes downright nasty and everything comes down to something very base and venal but... I'm still not sure if it just didn't ring true, feasible, possible, or even vaguely likely; or did it feel less psychopath, more after-thought? Having said that, we're talking a plot that's all about a weird cult in a country town, dreadful things happening to young girls and people behaving badly, ridiculously, horribly everywhere you turn, so under those circumstances, why not a thumping great weird turn of events at the end.
CATCH US THE FOXES is one of those novels that I can't help thinking is going to have a very big, wide your mileage variation factor about it, and one I can't help thinking is going to make it onto bookclub lists in the not too distant future.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/catch-us-foxes-nicola-west
pilebythebed's review
2.0
Nicola West’s debut, Catch Us the Foxes set in a regional coastal town south of Sydney, is a strange, potentially potent brew of ideas. Never sure what it wants to be it presents a true crime memoir within a novel for reasons that only become obvious late in the piece. The memoir itself is ostensibly the investigation of a murder but dips very quickly what might be an Australian gothic horror story or could be just the multiplied factor of mental illness and trauma. This melange might be interesting but sometimes just comes across as a young writer with a grudge to work out against a small town upbringing.
When Catch Us the Foxes opens, Marlowe ‘Lo’ Robertson is taking the stage at the Sydney Opera House in front of a crowd of adoring fans promoting something called The Lily Foundation. Marlowe has become famous for a book about the death of her friend Lily Williams 7 years before called The Showgirl’s Secret and it seems, as a result, she has become locked into playing the role that she had back in 2008, when Lily was killed. Most of the rest of Catch Us the Foxes is the text of The Showgirl’s Secret, a book about how Lily was killed at the annual agricultural show and then how Marlowe, the daughter of the local policeman, investigated. Marlowe spurred on by Lily’s journals, given to her by outsider Jarrah, which point to the existence of a bizarre local cult run by the local elite which apparently dress children as foxes and hunt them through the local rainforest. As her investigation progresses, Lo becomes more and more convinced of the existence of the cult even as her own mental health begins to deteriorate. It is only when the narrative finally loops back around its framing story that all of its secrets are revealed.
Catch Us the Foxes is, in the end, a kind of light gothic horror dressed up as crime fiction. When Marlowe finds Lily she has symbols carved into her back, and most of the narrative, including a lengthy passage in the rainforest, is Marlowe’s investigation of Lily’s allegations around the cult. This investigation is also fuelled by Marlowe’s own strange visions and possibly repressed memories. So that the solution to the crime, when it comes, is more than a little underwhelming. More critically, given the full suite of revelations about Lily’s mental state among other things, it is unclear why this book within the book was written in the first place.
The one thing Catch Us the Foxes does well is capture a stultifying and small town attitude with a particularly strong streak of homophobia. The only escapee from that life, Jarrah, was essentially exiled due to his difference so much so that Marlowe’s best friend hides his sexuality from the world. When an “outsider” is suspected of Lily’s murder the whole town turns out with stones and Molotov cocktails. The only problem being that Kiama, the town that is not only named but painstakingly described in the text is not an isolated rural community. Only two hours from Sydney it is almost part of the greater metropolitan region of New South Wales. Given the way The Showgirl’s Secret treats the townspeople and their attitudes it feels like not only Marlowe but possibly West herself has an axe to grind with the town.
In the end, though, for all of its setting and atmospherics, the premise of Catch Us the Foxes makes little if any sense. Both from the point of view of Marlowe as a damaged amateur detective, to her motives for writing the book for which she has become famous, to the series of twists that are designed to make the reader rethink the narrative but are more likely to make them feel cheated.
When Catch Us the Foxes opens, Marlowe ‘Lo’ Robertson is taking the stage at the Sydney Opera House in front of a crowd of adoring fans promoting something called The Lily Foundation. Marlowe has become famous for a book about the death of her friend Lily Williams 7 years before called The Showgirl’s Secret and it seems, as a result, she has become locked into playing the role that she had back in 2008, when Lily was killed. Most of the rest of Catch Us the Foxes is the text of The Showgirl’s Secret, a book about how Lily was killed at the annual agricultural show and then how Marlowe, the daughter of the local policeman, investigated. Marlowe spurred on by Lily’s journals, given to her by outsider Jarrah, which point to the existence of a bizarre local cult run by the local elite which apparently dress children as foxes and hunt them through the local rainforest. As her investigation progresses, Lo becomes more and more convinced of the existence of the cult even as her own mental health begins to deteriorate. It is only when the narrative finally loops back around its framing story that all of its secrets are revealed.
Catch Us the Foxes is, in the end, a kind of light gothic horror dressed up as crime fiction. When Marlowe finds Lily she has symbols carved into her back, and most of the narrative, including a lengthy passage in the rainforest, is Marlowe’s investigation of Lily’s allegations around the cult. This investigation is also fuelled by Marlowe’s own strange visions and possibly repressed memories. So that the solution to the crime, when it comes, is more than a little underwhelming. More critically, given the full suite of revelations about Lily’s mental state among other things, it is unclear why this book within the book was written in the first place.
The one thing Catch Us the Foxes does well is capture a stultifying and small town attitude with a particularly strong streak of homophobia. The only escapee from that life, Jarrah, was essentially exiled due to his difference so much so that Marlowe’s best friend hides his sexuality from the world. When an “outsider” is suspected of Lily’s murder the whole town turns out with stones and Molotov cocktails. The only problem being that Kiama, the town that is not only named but painstakingly described in the text is not an isolated rural community. Only two hours from Sydney it is almost part of the greater metropolitan region of New South Wales. Given the way The Showgirl’s Secret treats the townspeople and their attitudes it feels like not only Marlowe but possibly West herself has an axe to grind with the town.
In the end, though, for all of its setting and atmospherics, the premise of Catch Us the Foxes makes little if any sense. Both from the point of view of Marlowe as a damaged amateur detective, to her motives for writing the book for which she has become famous, to the series of twists that are designed to make the reader rethink the narrative but are more likely to make them feel cheated.