Book Review: The Night Tiger

The Night Tiger is Pure Magic

Do you love a book that pulls you in with the perfect mix of magic and suspense? Then The Night Tiger is the page-turner you need.

This novel written by Yangsze Choo was a much-needed breath of fresh air book to read. After struggling through a few difficult-to-read stories, this one was such a pleasure.

The story is an escape into an era long gone, filled with superstition, a bit of trouble, and forbidden love. And if we had to sum it briefly, we would say it is simply magical.

You’ll Find The Night Tiger Difficult To Put Down

The characters in this novel are so captivating you’ll have trouble closing the book.

Ji Lin is a young woman struggling to break free of the submissive expectations of a female in 1930s colonial Malaysia.

Ren is a young houseboy whose devotion to his previous master propels him into a mission to find his dead master’s lost finger. Also, there’s Shin, Ji Lin’s step-brother, who she can’t figure out if she loves or hates. Yi is Ren’s deceased twin brother. Furthermore, there is one additional person whose identity becomes known as the story progresses. These characters make up the five Confucian virtues that move this magical and mysterious tale forward in a spellbinding way.

And although the year is still new, we are putting this book as one of the best books of 2021!

The Night Tiger Publisher Synopsis:

Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin plunges into a dark adventure: a mirror world of secrets and superstitions.

Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren finds the man’s finger, lost years ago in an accident, and buries it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever.

As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths racks the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren’s increasingly dangerous paths crisscross through lush plantations, hospital storage rooms, and ghostly dreamscapes.

Yangsze Choo’s The Night Tiger pulls us into a world of servants and masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry, and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzling, propulsive novel is the intimate coming-of-age of a child and a young woman, each searching for their place in a society that would prefer they stay invisible.

Author Bio:

Yangsze Choo is a New York Times bestselling novelist and a fourth-generation Malaysian of Chinese descent. Due to a childhood spent in various countries, she can eavesdrop (badly) in several languages. After graduating from Harvard University, she worked in different corporate jobs and had a briefcase while writing fiction on a coffee table at home in her spare time.

Her first novel, THE GHOST BRIDE (2013), was a Goodreads Choice finalist, CILIP Carnegie nominee, Oprah’s best book of the week, and now a Netflix Original series which was released Jan 23, 2020. Her second novel, THE NIGHT TIGER (2019), was Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club Pick, Amazon’s Spotlight Pick, and a Book of the Month Club selection, as well as one of the best books of the year for Amazon, The Washington Review of Books, Bookpage, Chicago Public Library, Los Angeles Public Library, Parade, Real Simple, and Self Magazine.

Yangsze loves to eat and read and often does both at the same time. Neither of her books would have been possible without large quantities of dark chocolate. Literary agent Jenny Bent represents Yangsze.

The Night Tiger FAQ

The cover image of this feature is by Kingshuk Pal on Unsplash

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