The Night Tiger: A Novel

Yangsze Choo is a gifted storyteller. Her characters are well developed and interesting, the story lines also well developed and interesting. Toss in mystery, intrigue, the supernatural, romance. Clever writing at its best. As good as The Fox Wife.

Overall: Set in the 1930s in Malaysia, the Night Tiger is a sweeping historical novel about a dance-hall girl and an orphan boy whose fates entangle over a missing finger and an old Chinese superstition about men who turn into tigers. 7/10 The Good: The story is told from two points of view, a girl named Ji Lin and a boy named Ren. Ji Lin is a quick-witted, ambitious girl with dreams of going into medicine but stuck as an apprentice dressmake and working as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother’s mahjong debts. Ren is an 11 year old Chinese house boy who is also an orphan. He has made a promise to his former master to return his missing finger to his grave within 49 days or else his master’s soul with wander forever. The novel follows these two characters and we find that their stories are entwined in multiple, mysterious ways. I really liked both of the main characters as well as many of the other supporting characters. A lot of people mention “magical realism” that I did not exactly understand what that was, but this book is exactly that! It reminded me almost of a Grimm fairy tale, but better. I loved that the entire story was steeped in Chinese and Malaysian mythology and superstition. Malaysia was and still is a society of many different culture and beliefs and you see this to a degree in the book with multiple characters superstitions all playing a role. Two of the major myths the story is based on are weretigers and the Confucian virtues, neither of which I knew much about. A weretiger is "a beast who, when he chooses, puts on a human skin and comes from the jungle into the village to prey on humans." We are introduced to this through a series of mysterious and unexplained deaths. The author does a great job keeping you on the edge of your seat and I found myself guessing pretty much until the end. This book has something for everyone and once I was about 100 pages in I could not put it down. It is woven together intricately and expertly and I was kept guessing up pretty close to the end. The Bad: It did take me awhile to get into this, probably about 100 pages. I also did not particularly enjoy the romance and found it unnecessary. Quotes: “In Cantonese, two was a good number because it made a pair. Three was also good because it was a homophone for sang, or life. Four, of course, was bad because it sounded like death. Five was good again because it made a complete set, not just of the Confucian Virtues, but also for the elements of wood, fire, water, metal, and earth.” "When people talked about being lucky, perhaps they simply wanted to feel powerful, as though they could manipulate fate." “The Ji in my name wasn’t commonly used for girls. It was the character for zhi, or knowledge, one of the five Confucian Virtues. The others were benevolence, righteousness, order, and integrity”

How to describe this book? Part hero’s journey, part mystery, part suspense, a good part romance, and a tiny part werewolf- well, were-SOMETHING - story - all set in 1930’s Malaya among colonial mansions, cane fields and forests, hospitals and cabinets of curiosities. Multiple characters with individual and compelling storylines, brought together by something stronger than fate. Love, loyalty, family, and the lush backdrop of Malaya. This all sounds so serious, but there’s humor here, and poetry - it’s a beautiful balance. If I had to choose a genre, I guess this is magical realism, but the time and setting are so fascinating, and the core characters, Ren and Ji Lin - a preteen child and a young woman - are so beautifully drawn that you relate to them immediately across cultures and nearly a century of time. I read more than a hundred books a year and this one surprised me so much from the very start with the quality of story and writing that I put it aside to read at leisure and savor it. It is in my top five fiction recommendations of the last three years.

An ok story with good characters that are brought to life well. Unfortunately, the mystical elements of the story and cultural superstitions are of no interest to me, hence the average rating. I did appreciate the plot being driven more like a mystery which restrained the story from veering into an outright fantasy, a genre which I loathe. If only the author had written this as a straight drama without all the silly hocus pocus, I might have enjoyed it more since I did like the characters.

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS* I echo the positive comments of other reviewers: the book is extremely readable, uses an interesting mix of Chinese/Malay/Peranakan culture and mysticism to drive the story, and is hard to put down. In short, you should read it. It lost a star for me for two reasons: (1) Whenever a new Malay or Chinese term is introduced, the author defines and explains it in the narrative. I understand that she did this to appeal to an audience with little to no exposure to Malaysian/Chinese/Peranakan culture. However, the result was a text where the narrators seem to be telling the story to a foreigner. To me, this had the effect of distracting the reader from the story and exocitizing the surrondings rather than making them feel familiar and run-of-the-mill like they are to the characters. That effect was amplified for me personally as (1) I grew up in Singapore and didn't need the vast majority of the explanations and (2) I've read several novels by Malaysian authors set in Malaysia that addressed the same issue by either providing a glossary for those unfamiliar with the terms or simply leaving the readers to educate themselves. I found myself feeling far more included and immersed in the worlds created in those novels. I hope that author picks one of those strategies for her next book. (2) Even discounting the above explanations, the book is riddled with places where the plot is overly explained in a way that I found tiring and repetitive. A good example of this can be found on page 209 when--despite the five Confucian values having already been explained at least twice in the text--the author has a character explain them yet again, shortly after a reveal that a character's Chinese name is one of them.

Purchased this book after enjoying her other wonderful book, The Fox Wife. As with the other book, the story is very compelling and well written. I loved the magical elements and the originality of the plot. I can’t recommend both books highly enough. I just love this author. I should also say that I listened to this book on tape. The reader had a marvelous voice and actually enhanced the story for me. I will go back and purchase a hardback copy of this book, it is one I will remember and cherish for a long time to come.

This book was a lovely, unexpected surprise. Recommended by a friend, I picked it up and then couldn’t put it down. I loved the mystical parts, the criminal aspects, and the references to the ways many of us can be entwined, even though they may be difficult to explain, or understand.

Story get a 4 star for me. Overall I enjoyed reading this book especially after getting into the heart of the book. I liked how the story focused on Asian lore/myth with the night tiger and Dr. McFarlane along with adding the Confucian virtues as characters you meet throughout the book. Ji Lin and Ren are the two main characters and are my favorite characters. Ji, Shin, Ren, Yi, and Li and their stories are intertwined throughout nicely. It is a book of weretigers with moral grey characters like Li and Yi. And I liked how the story/characters were revealed to you through backstory and mystery. I felt like the story kept me guessing for a good deal as to who was good/bad. Overall I think the book was nicely written and kept me wanting to figure out the mystery and get to know the characters more.

Like a number of readers I was invited by Quercus Books to take part in a buddy read of ‘The Night Tiger’ by Yangsze Choo. For the last month we have collectively read 10 chapters a week and then discussed these on social media using #NightTigerTogether. I had originally received an eARC from Quercus Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. However, I quickly found myself loving the novel and so bought a hardback copy and its matching audiobook, narrated by the author. ‘The Night Tiger’ is a rich work of historical fiction combined with magical realism, which draws on the mythology and folklore of Malaysia. The novel alternates between two narrative streams both set in colonial Malaya in the 1930s. In the first, Ren, an eleven-year-old Chinese boy, is sent as a bequest by his deceased master to serve as a house-boy to a British doctor. Ren has been tasked with finding his old master’s severed finger and reuniting it with his body within 49 days. If he fails to do this in time his master’s soul will be condemned to wander the earth forever. In the second, Ji-Lin works as an apprentice dressmaker and also moonlights as a dance hall girl in order to pay off her mother’s gambling debts. When one of her dance partners accidentally leaves her a gruesome souvenir (no prizes for guessing what this is) it leads her on her own journey. In the background are a number of mysterious deaths among rumours of a were-tiger. The spiritual aspect of this novel spoke very powerfully to me, including the use of dreams as a way of interacting with the unseen. It also addressed the society that Ren and Ji-Lin were part of. The pressure was especially acute for Ji-Lin , who was expected to marry and not pursue an education. Add to this the secrecy necessary to hide her dance hall work from her family. I grew very fond of the characters and was invested in their respective fates. The novel does also contain a degree of intrigue and romance. I felt that the two narratives were beautifully woven together with lyrical descriptions that brought the setting vividly to life. I loved it and certainly plan to recommend widely. My thanks to Quercus Books for the opportunity to take part in this fascinating online event.

Well worth reading, this is a captivating little tale.

Let's see what we have here ... a coming-of-age story (of sorts) with a heroine bound by convention, but secretly trying to carve her own path. Then we have traumatized twins coming to grips with death. Ex-pats with all sorts of baggage that needs some sorting through. Love and carnal desire that borders on the illegal, at least morally. And a whole bucket of red herrings for good measure. All mixed with a plot where you can never be sure what is supernatural, what is superstition, what is psychology, what is a fever dream. And a final reveal that, in hindsight, is so glaringly obvious that you kick yourself for not spotting it before. Even better than "The Ghost Bride", with a nice little nod to that book. To sum it up: A real gem of Asian fantasy, thoroughly grounded in local mythology, without adding crowd-pleasing, but generic "high fantasy" elements. And a far cry from the mediocre Asian-flavoured heroine-in-love-and-peril cross the English language market seems to be flooded with.

I absolutely enjoyed reading this gem of a book. The plot was interesting and well thought. I loved the language and how the storys of all the characters were intertwined. It took me a long time to read but it was never boring and I can highly recommend this read when you are into historic fiction with a touch of mistery.

Ho trovato questo romanzo molto avvincente e ben scritto. La narrazione cattura fin dalle prime pagine e conduce in un mondo sospeso tra realtà e mistero. I protagonisti principali, Ji Lin e Ren, entrano facilmente nel cuore. Anche gli altri personaggi sono ben delineati e vividi; nonostante siano numerosi, la storia scorre con chiarezza e non si perde mai il filo delle vicende. Sarebbe bello se ci fosse un seguito…