(NOT) Added to my e-bookshelf … “The House of Fox”

(NOT) Added to my e-bookshelf … “The House of Fox”

Posted on June 27th, 2016 by Jeff McDonald

As I sit down to review S.J. Smith’s “The House of Fox,” I have in mind a line one hears in televised cooking competitions, where the judge has sampled a contestant’s offering and says something to the effect of ‘I admire your conception, but your execution left a lot to be desired.’

That’s exactly how I feel after finishing “The House of Fox.”

Not a bad premise, to begin with – four friends lost in an otherwordly realm, their exploration of that realm and discovery of its true nature, and each finding their own means of acceptance or escape. Plenty of opportunity for developing the premise through humor and action (including prurient) … but all is lost in Smith’s devotion to excessively (and unnecessarily) detailed descriptions of said prurient action.

By the time I reached the final page and the story’s conclusion, my response was ‘meh.’ I had long since stopped caring about the story or its characters.

And I DID reach the end, by the way. If it were up to me, I’d have stopped after a chapter or two. But under the terms of my accepting this book, I was obliged to read-and-review it.

I have done that … and I am done with the book … and probably done with anything else by S.J. Smith that may come my way in the future.

NOTE: I received a free copy of this work through LibraryThing in exchange for a review.

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Jeff McDonald

There's a saying around here, something like, "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could!" That's me. I'm a 'dang Yankee from back-east' who settled in the Lone Star State after some extended stays in the eastern U.S., and New Mexico. I worked as an archaeologist for a few years before dusting off my second major in English, and embarking on a 25-year career in journalism. Since then, I've embraced the dark side of the force, and now work in PR for a community college in Midland, Texas.