The Night Tiger

3.5 stars

I really, really enjoyed this book; it was full of interesting folklore and complicated relationships and death and the specter of tigers that might just as easily eat your dog off its leash as rip a human woman in half. There are mystery aspects and twists that took the story in a different direction than I expected, and I appreciated the heroine's feministy ideas (which I felt like worked reasonably well with the time period it was supposed to be set in). There are so many characters that you don't know if you can trust.

I wasn't crazy about ... well, any of the romance storylines. I REALLLLLY didn't like the premise that, as long as you're in love with someone, it's totally within your right to get rid of any potential partners for that person SUPER SPOILER (either by convincing them to get lost or OUT AND OUT MURDERING THEM). A perspective that was cool with more than one character! Um which did make for some good drama, though, but still, like multiple characters think this is okay?! I felt like the story was a bit slow in the middle, but otherwise I've got no complaints. The ending got real fast and real good, and it rushed up on me and by the time I got there I wasn't ready to stop yet!

I also appreciated the author's end notes about the Chinese and Confucian superstitions. I found it all really interesting even though I didn't totally buy into the idea that for the five virtues there needed to be five people in tandem or whatever.

CW: spousal abuse, miscarriages