This one has been on my to-read list for a while now. So let's take a gander. Spoilers ahead.
When a war starts to break out in his country, a boy named Peter is forced to let go of his pet fox Pax, whom he has raised from kithood for the past five years. Peter is certain that Pax won't survive on his own because being a pet is all he's ever known; so he runs away from his grandfather's place in order to find his fox. Will the duo be re-united?
I wanted to truly like this one going in, but I have a few qualms. Still, I'll list the things I liked first: I like Peter's relationship with Vola, a woman who lives as a hermit in the woods and has PTSD. They develop a very wholesome connection throughout the book. I also like the brief Pax chapters we get, and the illustrations are very beautiful even if they're simple.
Now for what I don't like as much. One point I've got to talk about is the ending. It feels to abrupt. The ending is basically that Peter realizes Pax is a wild animal now and let's him go, however it's such an abrupt realization and he's so bitter about it that it just comes across as jarring to the reader. I can understand Peter's frustration as a character; he traveled all this way through war-torn land with a broken foot just to find his fox, only to not return home with him, but the way it's conveyed just feels so abrupt. It's literally within a single page of my book that Peter comes to the realization that he needs to let Pax go and the story ends. Not even a full page, three fourth's of a page in my edition. So pacing-wise this is really sudden and abrupt. They could've made this into a longer and tearful goodbye, but it just feels so sudden and the story is over before the reader can even comprehend what just happened.
I do also have to wonder why Peter let Pax go in the first place, when he himself admits it's not safe? Pax is learning to be wild, sure, but he's still no expert. Not to mention the bears, coyotes and a bloody war going on. And Peter is just okay with letting his fox walk away into that. Just feels a bit unrealistic especially with how we're supposed to feel this intense connection between the two of them.
Also, the bond between Peter and Pax. I honestly wish they were together more often in this book, because we don't really get a good grip on their relationship before Pax is released. From that point on we get a basic idea of that they miss each other, but I really would've liked some chapters to properly show the duo's relationship. Because they spend 95% of this novel apart. Really all we get of the duo together are the very first and last chapters. They try to embellish their bond by having the boy and the fox have some kind of mental connection (like they can feel certain sensations that's telling one how the other is feeling) but I think it would've been far stronger if we'd gotten to see the connection. Even maybe a prologue of Peter finding and rearing Pax could've added a whole lot.
Finally, I don't like how simple some of the book's messaging is. Points this book keeps reiterating is "war is bad" and "people are bad and cause destruction". Which is just, very simple messaging and there's not a lot of depth given to it. The war going on in the book itself isn't even described in-depth. Of course I agree that war is bad and humans do cause a lot of destruction, but it's very lacking in nuance if we don't acknowledge why some wars are fought (not that it justifies them) and that humans don't just destroy things but also take measures to save and re-wild things. It's just kind of a black-and-white mentality and I just don't think the book handles the messaging with enough depth, especially with these points being repeated time and again (the word "war-sick" is mentioned so often).
So yeah, a book I liked elements of, but also disliked parts of. I also personally wish that Pax's chapters were a little longer. The book has a fox on the cover and his name is in the title, but this story is really more about Peter and his journey to find his fox rather than Pax himself. It's not a bad book, but I have a few qualms with it as noted above.
Rating: 3/5
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