We live in the 21st century and are inundated with many stories – some good, some regrettable. This is my story about the year of… the fox (Year of the Fox, Megan Griffiths, 2023). This story centers on Ivy, a girl from Aspen, USA, in the 1990s. Aspen seems like a perfect place… to grow up – amazing landscapes and healthy air, but not for Ivy. The truth is, everyone fits in Aspen except her. What’s wrong with her? Maybe nothing at all.

As everyone in Aspen joins in to keep the party going…. we see dances, coniacs and chicken salads on white bread. Ivy, however, is not fully involved in the party. Again – what’s wrong with her? Maybe nothing at all. So let’s get to know this girl better. She’s a biracial teenage girl, but it’s not the story about the 60s in the US. And then you have – a convoluted plot and right now – her problems seem very earthly. What’s wrong with chicken salads on white bread and country music? She’s actually a mixture of lost and above it all. But don’t we all have a pity party?

We all know we are not just black or white characters. It was in the 60s when we saw so many spots and splashes of color not just on our clothes………. Hippie was just a subculture, but the 90s showed us that the rainbow of colors can be a dominant culture. In fact, it was not a buffet, but you had no choice but to accept a buffet. It’s the same in Aspen.

The dwelling in which Ivy lives is large, but the problems it hides are no smaller. Ivy does not fit into this house either. Her best friend seems to be getting used to the image of Aspen’s upper class. Ivy tries to follow her friend Leila, but she can not. She knows that. Ivy has bigger challenges to overcome than her failures, like failing as a future ice skating ballerina because her body is better suited for a drill team. She tries to emulate her father, but he’s just a rich man who has separated from his wife.

So the party goes on…, we see more and more dancing and coniacs. The problem is that it’s not just the clip of Britney that you can stop. The bigger problem is the fact that Ivy is so sure she was not born to accept the buffet at the parties. Her friend Leila is smarter because she knows she has to accept it or she can just wait tables. Ivy will not do the latter because her father is rich. But in truth, Ivy herself is a pity version of Britney, only from a new millennium when she was used by her own father. Ivy is also being used mentally. She knows she needs to escape the party. Unfortunately, she’s the one who can afford it and the only one who understands her tragedy.

Year of the Fox by Megan Griffiths, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJDv4rWco7A