Review of The Fox

[June Morangi]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Fox" by M. N. J. Butler.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Fox by M.N.J. Butler is about the fall of The Great Sparta. The narrator speaks through the character of Leotychide the son of one of the Spartan kings. His mother and his father had never been on good terms because their marriage had been arranged and forced. So growing up Leotychide did not hear much of his father from his mother. Majorly because he died before Leo was born.

Somewhere in the book a story is told of a boy who had stolen a fox. The boy had a lot of desire for him not to be found out. So to hide his theft he put the fox under his coat but close to his skin. In return, the fox kept on biting and biting into his skin until he died. This story inspired the title of the book. This story was likened to the story of Sparta.

What stood out for me was the lesson that I got from the book. Something great or a great nation can fall apart because of something that seems so tiny like greed. No matter how much disciplined and well-trained armies Sparta had, they were brought down by the greed of their leaders. This was one of the many lessons that I learned from this book. This is one of the things that I liked in this book.

I had a challenge reading the book because it was a very long read. In addition to that, the characters were very confusing because a lot of them had similar names. On top of that some did not even last a whole page. Keeping track of what was happening or who did what was very hectic. This really lowered my liking of the book.  I did not spot any notable typing errors or editorial mistakes in the book. I believe it to be well edited.

Furthermore, I rate this book as 2 out of 4 because I did not like it very much. The storyline was great however, to some extent I did not feel like some characters added positively to the storyline or even had any effect at all. Some were just there for the sake of building up pages. I also feel that the book was unreasonably long considering the fact that this story has been told by other authors in other books that were not this long. That being said, I recommend this book to a person who is looking for a reading to pass time because it is a long, interesting read.  A person looking for a thrilling read can also enjoy it.

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The Fox
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