I don't read enough fox xenofiction, so let's change that, spoilers ahead.
Vulpes is a young red fox who is raised by his parents and as he grows up becomes a master of evading traps and hunters, becoming somewhat of a legend within the local hunting community. Vulpes matures and eventually has a mate and kits, but the hunters still see him as a prize to be won, leaving Vulpes having to outwit and escape hunters and their hounds time and again. Will he prevail or will he perisn?
This is probably a xenofiction I would've loved as a younger kid, but reading it now I just...I don't know, it doesn't do it for me. It's not anthropomorphic xenofiction; the characters do not talk or have thoughts and it's written in a style more similar to Jack London's or James Oliver Curwood's works. Still, I don't feel that this one is as much a classic as their works are.
For one, I didn't feel particularly close to our protagonist Vulpes. What's his entire personality? Manages to evade hunters. That's all we focus on, we don't get much more from him. Compare that to characters like London's Buck or White Fang, who have entire character arcs making them feel realistic and rounded despite the fact that they never talk. Vulpes mostly just exists. We see him to through events in life, but there's no real personality or character to speak of outside of him being clever if you ask me. I'd have loved to explore his bond to other characters more, such as his parents (who are out of the picture fairly early), the hunting dog he befriends or his mate Fulva. And we do get some interactions but it's just not super in depth, leaving Vulpes to feel like a pretty boring protagonist.
There's also just...a lot of hunting in this. Whether it is Vulpes hunting animals, the hunters talking about hunting or hunting Vulpes, and of course the actual hunts on the titular fox himself. I don't know, it got pretty old after a while. I wasn't particularly rooting for Vulpes here because I didn't find him an interesting character, and the hunting (and conversations about hunting) just felt a bit repetitive after a while. The book keeps trying to make the reader feel impressed with Vulpes' abilities to evade the hunters, but that wasn't how I felt at all because the book felt repetitive. I was just wishing we got to see much more of his life outside of the hunts.
And then there's of course the ending, which is supposed to hit the hardest of all. During one final hunt, Vulpes now being elderly, he is finally shot by one of the hunters who has been pursuing him on and off for years. And instead of me feeling sad during this I just felt nothing because the ending was far too predictable. I already had a big feeling that the fox was going to die somewhere in the book, and the ending would've been the ideal time for that. And that's exactly how it happened. And because I wasn't already that invested in Vulpes' character and story, it didn't hit emotionally for me at all. Sure, sucks that the fox is dead, but since he's our protagonist the reader is supposed to feel emotionally affected by this, which I didn't feel the Georges accomplished here.
If the book had been a little less repetitive (less focus on hunting the fox and more of a focus on Vulpes as a character and his life outside of being hunted) I'd probably have been affected more, but even then I still feel that this ending was just...too predictable. I've read other books where the protagonist ends up dying within the last few chapters and it just ended up breaking me for several days due to the emotional impact it left. That's most certainly not the case here.
If you like fox xenofiction, it's fine. I don't think it's an outright bad book or anything. It just didn't speak to me that much and didn't leave any emotional impact.
Rating: 3/5
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