In her debut novel, Call Forth a Fox, Markelle Grabo remakes the classic "Snow White, Rose Red" fairy tale into an imaginative fantasy affair, filled with faeries, animal transformations, and family secrets. "Auburn-haired" Ro and "wheat-blonde" Eirwyn are sisters who were raised on their father's stories of the faeries inhabiting the western wood. Now that their father has died, though, their mother plans to move the family from the edge of the wood to the much larger town of Poppy. Ro is resistant to and afraid of the upcoming change and spends time in the western wood to comfort herself--there she is able to put off the inevitable and remind herself of time spent with her father. One of these times, Ro puts herself between a bear and the fox it is hunting, unwittingly stepping into the affairs of the fairies and accidentally ensnaring Eirwyn alongside her. As Ro and Eirwyn work to disentangle a set of faerie curses, they learn more about their father and his own connections to the faerie world.
Grabo's evocative fairy tale is a wonderful exploration of what it means to discover oneself, to learn one's true desires, and to embrace both fully. Twists on fairy-tale tropes update the genre while highlighting different ways to find both love and community; instead of having her protagonists search for princes or engage in sisterly rivalry, Grabo focuses on the strength that comes with working together. Call Forth a Fox is a beautifully layered construction of identity that opens the fairy-tale space to people who may not have seen themselves represented before. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer