NonHuman Lead – Page 5 – Marked for Plot

The Navigating Fox

Foxes have been a thread through my reading for around a year now. Fox characters, humans named Fox, and shapeshifting foxes. All over the place. So, when I saw some intriguing reviews for The Navigating Fox, it felt like fate that I pick it up. What I found inside was an intriguing, but perhaps underdeveloped novella with a fresh feeling that I haven’t seen in fantasy before.

The Premise:
In a world where some animals have sapience through alchemical processes, Quintus is the only fox to have the privilege. He is a navigator, back from a particularly disastrous expedition and facing calls for consequences by the sister of one of his companions who died on that journey. Backed into a corner by these circumstances and a priest with information he desperately needs, he promises to lead another expedition to the gates of hell itself.

Read If Looking For: Arrogant priests, fable vibes, talking animals

Avoid if Looking For: stories that answer questions they pose, action

The Bone Swans of Amandale

Fairy Tale stories have been all the rage for the past few years. In fact, now that 2025 has hit, I’m starting to grow weary of the deluge of fairy tale and mythology retellings. There are plenty of great ones out there of course, but I’ve just seen so many that they get lost in the shuffle. The Bone Swans of Amandale isn’t a retelling, though it does reference a few fairy tales, but instead is a story that evokes the dark fairy tale style in a way I haven’t seen any other book do.

The Premise:
This dark fairy tale adjacent story is told by Maurice, a rat-folk who can shift between rat and human. He’s got an unrequited love for a swan-folk lass named Dora Rose who can’t stand him, and whose sister (and whole extended family really) has been killed by the mayor of the nearby town, a descendent of ogres and giants who uses magic to keep the town spellbound. To help his childhood crush, he ropes in the Pied Piper and a few kids who’d gotten on the mayor’s bad side, and lets hell loose in the process.

Read If Looking For: charismatic and immoral lead characters, dark aesthetics, unique narrative voice, exquisite prose

Avoid if Looking For: straightforward thematic messages, ‘good’ characters

As a note, you can read Bone Swans from the collection Bone Swans: Stories, or you can read it for free here.

The Fox Wife

Historical Fantasy isn’t my go-to subgenre, but The Fox Wife grabbed my attention from the cover art and a plot summary that had me intrigued. Foxes have been a running theme of my reading for around a year, with them popping up in expected and unexpected places, so it felt apt from a motif standpoint as well.

Elevator Pitch:
The Fox Wife shifts between two lead characters in 1908 East-Asia (mostly various parts China). Snow is a Fox, one of the shapeshifting tricksters who has lived centuries and goes by many names. Bao is an investigator with a supernatural gift for discerning truth from lies. Snow seeks revenge for her dead child and finds herself attached as a servant to a family living under a curse. Bao has been hired to investigate a the identity of a dead courtesan. Their journeys bring them into contact with their pasts and with other foxes who have agendas of their own.

Read If Looking For: atmospheric books, Chinese and Japanese historical settings, few fantastic elements, charismatic characters, feminist themes

Avoid if Looking For: tightly-written mysteries, political intrigue, or action scenes