Nesi is pretty much desperate after auditioning to become an Acolyte for ninety six of the ninety-nine gods, she needs to pick one of the three remaining; The Lion a god of war, Snake a god of assassination, or the Fox a trickster god. While her best friend (really only friend) cautions patience Nesi does what she always does throws caution to the wind and petitions The Fox who surprises her by allowing her to audition. What she doesn't realize though is that his audition is unlike any of the ones she has done prior to this, he sends her back in time to the Zemini Occupation and tells her that she must find some way to incite her people to rebel and this could very well kill her. As she sees the horrors the people who worship the cast out Wolf god have inflicted on her people Nesi knows that this audition is one that she cannot afford to fail.
Omigoodness was this just a truly wonderful story! Completely original and truly uplifting I devoured this in just a couple of hours.
Nesi is a wonderful MC, and I will be honest at the beginning of the book I thought that this was going to be a story about her and Fox overthrowing this whole auditioning for the god's thing as she complains quite a bit of feeling like she's not free in this system she finds herself in. What I love is that she ends up finding a freedom within this system that exists and no that's not a reference to the status quo being right or anything like that far from it as it's not that she finds her freedom, but she finds that she has her own strengths that allow her to find happiness in her role. She also learns that she needs to give herself grace, that there is nothing wrong with not knowing who you are at a young age. For such a short book she truly has some magnificent growth as a character and many of us could learn a thing or two from her.
Fox is of course amazing, but when is a Trickster god not? They have a wisdom that only comes with watching people. To see how they react to things, how they do not, to understand why they make those decisions etc. Fox isn't so much a trickster as someone who has learned how to manipulate people, many times for their own good as they are able to see things about others that they cannot see of themselves. Which 100% explains why many of his siblings to not like him, having someone show you your failings or even what you may be missing out on simply because of your nature is a tough pill to swallow, even when not presented to you in the memorable manners Fox does.
What I really loved about this story is it is like a long fable, something you quite honestly don't see very often. We see fairy tales, myths, and folklore retold all of the time but rarely fables and I loved that so much. It was like sitting down and reading Aesop for the first time. I also really enjoyed how the story of Fox's life are these fables that are told periodically throughout the book. Honestly, I'd love to see just a whole book Fox fables from Cahill because they were all a ton of fun that yup had real life morals. I think the one about the Turtle though was my favorite!
Finally, the world building in this was extremely well done for such a short story. And again, you've got to thank these fables and, in some cases, just simple stories that are interjected throughout. The creation story that is told near the beginning was truly well done and really sets us up with everything we need to understand the world that we find ourselves literally dropped into.
I normally do not try to disparage other books, but I had just DNFd a significantly longer story discussing some of the same topics that are brought up in Audition for the Fox because it was simply too complicated and it took itself way to seriously. So, to pick this one at random afterward and it be as good as it was made my night!
As always thanks to NetGalley and Tachyon for the eArc!
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