The Night Tiger: The Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

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Mythical creatures: The spirit tiger is belief that a soul could reincarnate as a tiger. At one point, many in the village believe the murders are a result of a spirt together and Ren himself, wonders if the tiger is his deceased former master. What did you think about this? The Night tiger uses history, Chinese superstition, folklore and mysticism. This book is an intricately woven tale of two characters as they grow and evolve on a collision course to learn the truth. Choo utilizes many themes: the class system of servant and master, sibling rivalry, domestic abuse, the afterlife, superstition, romance, coming of age, and even were-tigers.

Now let’s talk about the doctor William Acton. He’s a man clouded in mystery and later we find out he has a lust for the local girls. But at the time he shows kindness to Ren. What were you impressions of him? When people start to get murdered in the area, did you think he was the killer? Why or why not? Richly complex…Gorgeous…Transport[s] us into a colonial world we more often see from the view of the occupier, in this transcendent tale about twins who share no blood, mythology and superstition, sibling rivalry, loyalty, forbidden love and identity.” — San Francisco Chronicle I did not expect to be so entranced by this book. The variety of characters and the exotic setting, 1930's Malaya, was a positive aspect for me. One plot point relies on knowing the Chinese versions of English names, and I immediately guessed the answer, because that’s how I would transliterate Lydia. When William’s Chinese name came up, it turned out to be 威力安，not 威廉 as I expected, so I thought that Lydia was just another coincidence or a misdirection. So it was a double twist when the whole thing was revealed. Such a great series of twists.Choo has written a sumptuous garden maze of a novel that immerses readers in a complex, vanished world. Unfortunately, it was all ruined by the 'it's always been you' romance set up between Jin Lin and her step-brother. She grew up with her step-brother, and they are constantly framed as twins, twin souls. It was already an uncomfortable concept (if you have to say "it's not technically incest," it's pretty dubious) and then you add in Shin's jealousy, his possessiveness, his emotional manipulation, and his approach to seducing her, which involves kissing her even as she tries to say it's inappropriate, aka the classic persistence-until-she-stops-saying-no approach. It didn’t even develop naturally: while I saw the early signs of Shin’s interest, Ji Lin is mostly uncomfortable with his proximity and possessiveness until suddenly she’s in love with him. Although perhaps that was my fervent hope that step-sibling love would not actually be a sincere part of the narrative. I kept waiting, hoping, for a twist.

Thank you to Yangsze Choo and Flat Iron books who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. The beginning starts slowly, for the same reasons that shifting narrators is usually slow. As soon as I caught on to who’s who and what’s happening in one storyline, we switched to another. I usually don’t much like shifting narrators, for exactly that reason, but after a few shifts, I really enjoyed seeing the same story unfold from different angles. It helped that there was a mystical connection between characters and storylines, so I kept seeing the same themes and events. Much of the book centers around superstitions: mythical creatures, conversations with the dead and the Five Virtues of Confucius. Let’s discuss each of these areas: Sadly, this insight comes two-thirds through the story, at a point where Ji Lin’s almost willful purblindness has begun to sound deliberately disingenuous.

The days are flying by, and a tiger is endangering the town. Around this time, Ji Lin and Ren’s paths cross, and I can say nothing more about that. Sherwood, Harriet (18 April 2022). "The God of Small Things to Shuggie Bain: the Queen's jubilee book list". The Guardian . Retrieved 30 April 2022. A 3.5 for me, but rounding down for a missed opportunity. There is much to like here – very atmospheric with some memorable characters and moments, but a less than cohesive whole.

Mesmerizing, mythical, and mysterious, The Night Tiger is a beautifully written novel set in Malay in 1931. It tells the story of Ren, an 11 year old orphan who was a houseboy to a doctor. As he is dying, the doctor pleads with Ren to find the finger he'd had amputated many years ago, and bury it with him. According to Chinese tradition, if Ren is unable to fulfill his master's last wish within 49 days of his death, the doctor will be doomed to wander the earth, his spirit unable to move on to the next realm. Let’s first talk about the setting of 1930s Malaysia. What are some elements that stood out to you? On top of that, there's a lot of repetition, which unfortunately doesn't feel like a narrative device, but like a tool to keep the bar low for readers with short attentions spans: How often do we have to hear about the five virtues and what they signify, how often do we have to hear about Ren's age, how often do we have to hear explanations regarding the weretiger? (Yes, I can repete myself as well, but do you feel like my review is literature?) Oftentimes the book mentions that Ren feels a “tingle, like the twitch of cat whiskers, as though Yi is still with him.” What did you think about this? Do you believe he could feel Yi and a sense of danger that was to come? Intriguing characters that really came alive and some that I was fearful for. One character seems to have "an affinity for deaths and accidents". He also thought events were like " dark fairy tales where wishes, however evil and stupid, are granted".It’s this latter quest that leads them to a greater understanding of themselves and their relation to the other, thus-far-unknown members of their nascent Confucian quintet.