aotora 's review for:

A Game of Fox & Squirrels by Jenn Reese

5.0

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I loved this one. This one is about two sisters that get removed from their parents after the father breaks the older one's arm. They are removed to their aunt and her wife- and they each deal with it differenttly. Caitling, the one whose arm was broken wants to stay with her aunts and in her new home and she wants to forget what happens, Sam believes that it's her fault that they were removed because she told on her father when she was never supposed to tell about what he was doing. She believes that she is to blame and that he didn't really mean it and it was an accident so she wants to go back home to her parents. She gets a card game called Fox&Squirrels for her birthday and she meets a fox who can grant her the one wish - she can go back home to her parents - she just needs to complete a quest for him. She cannot back out once she starts and each task she gets is harder - she has to steal from her new family in order to appease him. I love that the fox is the mirror of the abuser - or in this case dad. He is constantly getting angry and attacking the squirrels, he is charming and nice until he gets nasty once Sam no longer wants to complete the tasks. All in all an interesting book about child abuse and how kids can cope with it mixed with a bit of magic.