** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE ** 

 Copy received through Netgalley 

 ~ 

 The Fox Maidens, by Robin Ha 

★★★★★ 

 314 Pages 

 Content Warning: mentions of off-page, non-explicit rape and murder, generational trauma, violence 

 The Fox Maidens is an intriguing graphic novel based on the legacy of the gumiho and an honest, if heartbreaking look at the generational trauma of women. 

 The Fox Maidens is a feminist retelling of Korean folklore, but it's also a story about how past mistakes or choices that our parents make leave unexpected duties and burdens for their children. It's a dedication to the sacrifices mothers make for their children and the burdens that woman harbour and pass on through the generations. 

 The story is ostensibly about Kai Song; the only daughter of a general who is known as the gumiho slayer, the commander of the Royal Legion. However, while Kai is the central character, it feels to me that the story is really about the legacy that her mother, Meorhu, has left to Kai. 

 Meorhu is the first wife to General Song, and at first their marriage seems surprising; she's a frail woman who hides herself away and allows his second wife to take precedence. Meorhu has a daughter, younger than the two sons the first wife has provided General Song. But things begin to make sense when we're about a third of the way through the book and Meorhu tells Kai the true story of how she and General Song met, fell in love, and became married. But the biggest revelation comes when Meorhu explains how Kai came into the world. 

 Meorhu is the character at the centre of everything that follows. It's her choices, her legacy, her origin story that lays the path for Kai's future. It's Meorhu's resilience, strength and fear that drives the entire plot of the story, and in a way, forces Kai onto a path that leads to death, destruction and eventually love. 

 I don't want to say too much more about the plot because there are a lot of twists and secrets, and saying much more might end up spoiling the story. 

 This is not a romance. 

 This is not an adventure. 

 This is not a fantasy. 

 This is a realistic portrayal of what it means to be a woman in the Joseon period in Korean. 

 This is the story of what it means to be a woman who is suppressed by others because of her gender. 

 This is the story about a young girl whose hope, future and dreams are smothered by generational trauma, and the burdens of her family, laid down long before she was born. 

 The Fox Maidens is heartbreaking, emotive, brutally honest, touching and full of anticipation. Through real, well written characters that could be our mothers, fathers or siblings, even in this modern age, Robin Ha explores what it means to be family, to be a woman, to be a mother and a daughter, and what it means to carry a duty inherited from someone else. 

 In the end, The Fox Maidens asks us what we would do in Kai's place. Would we have done anything differently? Would we have coped or been crushed under the pressure of her legacy? Would we have made the same choices or been trapped by the inevitability of her story? 

 When faced with the choice of living a lonely but immortal life, or giving someone you love immortality to save their life, even if that means sacrificing your own life, what choice would you make?