Reviews with content warning for Death - Little Foxes Took Up Matches

This was an interesting coming-of-age novel with an utterly complex and beautifully written young protagonist, Mitya, who I’ll hesitantly say is genderqueer/genderfluid. The setting is 1990s Moscow, yet it seems as though Kazbek crafted a more surreal space for Mitya to wander through, perhaps because we are looking through the (rather limited) eyes of a young boy making sense of the world. Furthermore, he frequently engages with equally strange and complex characters, making for a somewhat odd read.

While the book sounds charming (and, in its own way, has some charm), it’s also quite bleak, with horrible and traumatic things happening to Mitya, such as being raped by his cousin and dealing with significant queerphobia from people around him. Somewhat tangentially related to queerphobia, though, I thought Kazbek’s exploration of gender and sexuality was an interesting one in this novel. There was a kind of acceptance of just wanting to be who you are without caring much for labels, but that comes with a lot of grief that Mitya is forced to deal with. Despite these troubles, his resilience reflects a self-love for his queerness that I found heartwarming at times.

There actually is some fantastical elements in this book, which is this interwoven fairy tale that’s supposed to connect to the main story somehow. However, I didn’t feel that it worked that well and found these sections a bit jarring. All-in-all, though, this was a unique approach to a queer coming-of-age novel. I should note that this book is definitely meant for a more mature audience, considering some of the content.

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