Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

An absolutely beautifully written, magical book that intertwines Malaysian and Chinese myth and legend with murder and superstition against the backdrop of 1930's Malaysia.
There are a lot of reviews of this book that recount the storyline, so I won't do that here - it's a really popular book for good reason and you can easily find out what it's about. I personally loved the way the characters developed and how complex they were.
In particular, the young boy Ren and the young woman Ji-Lin whose narrative takes up most of the book. They were easy to like.
I also thought it was interesting how the author painted William and, at times, Shin, as faulted human beings, making them a little less easy to like but no less compelling.
There are twists and turns in this book - you think it's going one way and then it suddenly shifts in a delightful way. This is a rare treat - highly recommended and 5 stars.

Despite this being set in the same universe as The Ghost Bride, The Night Tiger is a very different story with a different tone from The Ghost Bride. While they  both have haunting mystery aspects, The Ghost Bride is a lot more romantic and magical, meanwhile The Night Tiger doesn't shy away from being more brutal and suspenseful. While I have to admit that despite my love for The Night Tiger, it will never be on the same level as The Ghost Bride to me just because The Ghost Bride genuinely feels like home, The Night Tiger is incredibly magical in its own way and also every bit worth the read.

At its core, The Night Tiger is a multifaceted mystery story. The mystery doesn't centre around one particular character, and is instead a series of events that bring people from different backgrounds together—some against their will. In a way, it sometimes feels like all the characters, even the main ones, are merely supporting actors with Ipoh as a setting being the main player. I loved that about this book, that it forces us as the readers to look beyond the characters and into the actual story itself.

And if you've read my other book reviews, you'd probably know that typically it would be the characters that would pull me into the book. The more I can pick apart the character's thoughts, motivations, personalities and just general complexities, usually the more invested I get in a book.

But The Night Tiger is different.

It's different because Choo is such a masterful atmospheric writer. I've seen reviews of The Ghost Bride gushing about the setting of the book. I've seen people say that the Plains of the Dead and 1880s Malaya were the stars of the story for The Ghost Bride. And I completely understand that. The way Choo describes her settings, going into intricate details that makes you feel like you're there is something very special, and I almost want to say that it's her specialty. This definitely carries over to The Night Tiger, and it's really not difficult to place yourself in the point of view of another passerby or observant in Ipoh as this mystery about the were-tiger mauling people plays out.

That being said, I did enjoy the characters, too. I'll be honest though, the only character I was genuinely rooting for was eleven year old Ren, a Chinese houseboy trying to fulfil his old master's dying wish. But I don't think we were supposed to be fully rooting and supporting all the characters anyways, as Choo makes a point throughout the story that there is something wrong with all of them no matter how put together they may seem. The nods towards this are sometimes subtle, —and sometimes not, considering that one of them is the step siblings romance between Ji Lin and her stepbrother Shin—but it's enough to make the readers feel like there's something vaguely disturbing about the characters of the story.

As an example, there are several chapters in The Night Tiger from the point of view of a white doctor, but there's nothing about him that makes me sympathise for him. Choo had somehow managed to make him a point of view character without shying away from his monstrosities. Through him, she touches on the effects of colonialism in Malaya, and emphasises how white people sees other races as either inferior to them, or as merely objects. Like I said earlier, it's almost like these characters are all vessels to tell a bigger tale.

The Night Tiger is a brilliant mystery story about a were-tiger, but it is also a story about how humans can be and in fact are monsters. It's a story that slams it in your face that humans can be as monstrous as these were-tigers are, whether they are unhinged white colonisers or domestic abusers that all deserve nothing but to rot. It is a story about how they take their places in society and root themselves there, pretending that there is nothing wrong with it. But it is also a story about an eleven year old boy coping with grief, and about a dancehall girl who was taught to believe that her only worth was in marriage. Despite the title, I think The Night Tiger is actually a story about humans—not always as individuals but also as a part of society.

The Night Tiger was a surprise. I had been drawn to it mainly by the colourful cover and the fact that it was set in Malaya (now part of Malaysia), a country I know very little about, but I didn’t really expect to like it very much. I hadn’t read Yangsze Choo’s first novel, The Ghost Bride, because the subject didn’t appeal to me, and it sounded as though this book, like that one, would have a very strong magical realism element – and I’m not much of a fan of magical realism. Well, I was wrong about that; although there are times when the story does veer towards the fantastical, most of it is concerned with simply describing the folklore and superstitions of the Chinese people of Malaya and asking us to accept that some of these things may actually be real.

The story is set in the 1930s and is told from two different perspectives. First there’s Ren, an eleven year-old houseboy whose master, Dr MacFarlane, has recently died. While on his deathbed, the doctor asked Ren to carry out a very special task for him: to find his severed finger and bury it in his grave beside his dead body. This must be done within forty-nine days, otherwise Dr MacFarlane’s soul will be condemned to roam the earth forever. In need of new employment, Ren enters the service of another doctor, William Acton, then begins his quest to locate the missing finger.

Our other main character is Ji Lin, a dressmaker’s apprentice who has been secretly working in a dance hall in Ipoh to earn the money to pay off her mother’s gambling debts. While dancing with a salesman one night, she sees a little glass bottle fall from his pocket and, catching it before it hits the ground, she finds that it contains a shrivelled finger. This gruesome discovery leads Ji Lin to cross paths with Ren and when they each begin to have recurring dreams involving a train journey, it seems that their lives are becoming intertwined in other ways as well.

I enjoyed The Night Tiger much more than I thought I would. The setting is fascinating, of course; I have read two other books set in Malaya (The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng and The Separation by Dinah Jefferies) but they are very different types of books and don’t explore Chinese and Malaysian myths and legends the way this one does. The folklore surrounding the legend of the weretiger was particularly intriguing; there are hints that one could be responsible for the unexplained deaths that have been occurring around the town, and we can either believe that this is true or we can just believe that the characters in the story believe it is true, if that makes sense!

Both main viewpoint characters are easy to like; I felt closer to Ji Lin, because her story is told in the first person whereas Ren’s is told in the third, but I did love Ren too. He often seems very mature for his age – probably because he has been forced to grow up quickly due to his personal circumstances – but at other times he behaves more like the child he still is.

I’m still not sure whether I want to read The Ghost Bride, but I will look out for Yangsze Choo’s next book and see if it appeals.

This is an intriguing historical fiction piece that I would have enjoyed more without the slight magical touches, or indeed if those magical touches had been more magical, taking this into the realms of fantasy! As it stands, they just muddied the waters for me and made it difficult to understand whether everything described was really happening, or if it was coincidental.

However, there's a real vividness to the descriptions of 1930s Malaya, and I liked Ji Lin's character very much. I would have loved the whole novel to have been about her and her experiences! I didn't like Ren, the houseboy, at all, as I thought he was overly naive and he had little character growth. There were a lot of subplots to keep track of, and as I say, due to the magical realism element it was tricky to know whether everything was resolved, but for those looking for a read they can really get stuck into puzzling out, this would be perfect!

"The five of us should have made a kind of harmony. After all, weren't the Confucian Virtues supposed to describe the perfect man? A man who abandoned virtue lost his humanity and became no better than a beast. Dazed, I wondered whether that was happening to all of us."

Set in 1930s colonial Malaya, The Night Tiger is a book steeped in folklore, superstitions and myths. A young boy called Ren is trying to find his dead master's missing finger so that his master's body will be complete and his soul won't be trapped on earth. He has 49 days to do this and tension is building as there are reports of people being killed by a mysterious 'Night Tiger'. Ji Lin is working as a dancer when a mysterious salesman leaves her with a gift - the severed finger. Ji Lin and her stepbrother Shin set off to try and find out who the finger belongs to. As the paths of Ren and Ji Lin cross, it becomes clear that there are five people, named after the different Confucian Virtues, who are all connected in some way. But can they figure out who the others are and which one of them is wreaking havoc on the town?

I enjoyed this book. Really liked the setting, never read something like it before. Liked the characters and the magical bits. Felt sometimes like a folktale. However, did not get on with the stepsibling romance, just a no go for me. Otherwise really enjoyed it.

The Night Tiger is a wonderfully mesmerising read which is one of my favourite reads of the year so far. The author manages to perfectly blend some fabulous historical details about 1930s Malaya under British rule with some fantastic magical stories and mythology which combined makes for an incredibly enthralling read.

The story alternates between Ji Lin an apprentice dressmaker who moonlights as a dance hall girl to help pay her mother’s debts and Ren a little orphan, servant boy who is on a mission from his old master to return his severed finger to the rest of his body. As soon as we meet the characters and hear their backstory the reader is completely invested in the characters. I felt a lot of sympathy for them and the hard lives they have lead up to now. I wanted to keep reading the story to find out what happens to them.

The story is a very intriguing one and I loved learning more about Malayan culture and some of their mythology, which was fascinating to read about. It’s obviously from fairy early on that Ji Lin and Ren are meant to meet and I really enjoyed watching the two of them come together. Although there isn’t always a lot of action, the story is still very absorbing I think because of the magicial unusual elements that are included. I felt it hard to put the book down as I was so involved in the characters and I wanted to find out what would happen next.

The Night Tiger would make a great book club read as there is lots of things to discuss. It has actually just been chosen as a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick and I thoroughly recommend picking up a copy!

Huge thanks to Quercus for my copy of this book via Netgalley which I received in exchange for an honest review.

This book wasn’t anything like I expected it to be. There is a lot more to it than a mysterious tiger and, to be honest, this was probably the least compelling element of the story for me. The story is inspired largely by Malaysian mythology and folklore and ended up being such a fun adventure. The characters are interesting enough to carry the story along and all come with their own personal demons whom they confront throughout the novel. I also have to admit, I’m a sucker for a book with a strong female protagonist.

There are five key characters throughout the novel, each of whom represent one of the five Confucian virtues. They are mysteriously said to be part of a ‘set’, and are somehow, inexplicably linked. I loved being inside their heads, as they navigate their way through the overarching mystery of the novel.

Ji Lin (Zhi) is easily my favourite character in this story. This is because, regardless of being raised in a family that refuse to acknowledge her potential, she is resourceful, intelligent and uncompromising in her pursuit of justice. That being said, there are a number of likeable characters and some interesting dynamics that develop. Ren is an eleven year old with a strong work ethic and unwavering loyalty. He is driven by his desire to help and protect others, to the point of disregarding his own safety at times. Shin (Xin), Ji Lin’s stepbrother, is quite distant for a lot of the novel, but definitely develops his own presence as the story goes on. Xin is the virtue of faithfulness and integrity, which is ironic considering his sporadic romantic history.

The plot is built around a mystery involving a series of suspicious deaths and an amputated finger in a small glass vial. For the first half of the story, I have to admit that the slow pace didn’t really grab me, but I was eventually pulled in as I started growing attached to the characters. As a reader, you want them to succeed in their mission, and somehow put together the separate puzzle pieces they had separately gathered.

The writer clearly knows her stuff and did a great deal of research to inform this novel. It was fascinating to learn about the culture, myths and superstitions of 1930’s Malaysia – I was even inspired to research some of them further. The story is set in a fictionalised version of Perak, with most of the action taking place in the towns of Batu Gajah and Ipoh. It was fun to learn about these places and get a sense of what life may have been like in such a setting.

Bottom line, I loved it, though it wasn’t without it’s flaws. I almost stopped reading a few times before the pace picked up a bit, but was ultimately glad I stuck with it. I wasn’t a massive fan of how Ji Lin’s story seemed to consistently circle around her love life and romantic interests. It just didn’t seem necessary for her to be an interesting character, though considering the cultural context it also makes sense that marriage is a hot topic of the time for young girls. But it was a fun story! I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes open for Choo’s next novel. Oh! And a couple of days ago it was announced that The Night Tiger was Reese Witherspoon’s pick of the month for her book club. I’d say she’s chosen well.

Thank you Netgalley and Quercus for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

10 Things I Loved About The Night Tiger

The setting. The book vividly conjures up the culture of Malaya in the 1930s through descriptions of food, clothing and customs and a social structure divided between the colonial and indigenous populations.

Characters you love to hate. For me (and I suspect other readers) this chiefly means Lydia (memorably described as having hair like a sponge cake) who starts out as plain annoying and clingy but develops into something quite different.

Characters you love to love. I defy any reader not to fall in love with houseboy, Ren, with his honest, trusting character and his devotion to his previous master and to carrying out his deathbed promise. However, caring about Ren entails a constant state of worry as he gets into one scrape after another, endangering both himself and possibly others.

Characters you’re just not sure about. For me, this was chiefly William, the ‘dissolute British doctor’ mentioned in the blurb. He’s a gifted surgeon but also a man with secrets in his past that he fears being revealed and some dubious morals. On the credit side, he takes Ren under his wing and recognises the boy’s talent so perhaps he can’t be all bad? He certainly seems to have luck (or fate) on his side at times.

The theme of twins. As well as actual twins, there are frequent references to similarities between characters, including in appearance. This will turn out to be pivotal to one particular plot strand.

The five Confucian virtues. This was something completely new to me but I loved the way the author incorporated the concept into the story, including through the use of the names of characters. I love when a book teaches me something new.

The imagery. I promise you that, having read the book, you will never think about a railway station in quite the same way again.

The Easter egg. For those unfamiliar with the meaning (outside of the chocolate-y treat) it refers to an intentional inside joke, in this case a reference to the title of the author’s previous book.

The gorgeous cover. As well as being beautiful, it has a dreamlike quality that captures the spirit of the book with the abundant, encroaching jungle hiding tigers and who knows what else. I think it also encapsulates the beautiful, lush writing, especially in the recurring dream sequences, and the elements of mysticism and magic that run alongside the main story.

The buddy read organised by Quercus. It was great to read the book, section by section, alongside other readers sharing thoughts on what we’d read so far and ideas on what we thought might happen next (usually wrong). The involvement of the author – offering insights on the book, her writing process and alternative plot ideas she’d considered, plus answering questions from readers – was an additional delight. Check out the hashtag #NightTigerTogether on Twitter to get a flavour of the discussion, although be aware there will be spoilers.

Ren, a servant with a skill for healing, promises his dying master that he will reunite his body with this lost severed finger to allow his soul to rest in peace.

Ji Lin works in a dance hall to pay off her mother's mahjong debts although she dreams of being a medical student like her stepbrother Shin.

Dr. William Acton left England under a cloud and takes Ren in on the request of his dead medical colleague.

In The Night Tiger, Yangsze Choo skilfully draws together this disparate cast of characters into the central mystery of a missing severed finger. Set in 1930's Malaysia, the novel combines elements of historical fiction, crime, romance and magical realism without feeling disjointed or confusing. It was compelling reading and I rushed ahead of the #NightTigerTogether buddy read schedule because I wanted to know what happened! There was a detail and a richness to the writing that brought colonial Malaysia to life and I enjoyed the interweaving of Chinese and Malay folklore and traditional beliefs. I also apprecaited the slightly open ending, particularly in the context of Ji Lin's burgeoning relationship.
This novel will appeal to a wide range of readers, but it was the cultural and historical context that hooked me in.

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.

The Night Tiger

I think this is probably going to be one of my favourite books of the year. A beautifully written magic realist historical novel set in Malay during the 1930s. The story centres around Ren, a young boy who is given a mission by his British master (who has died) to return his missing finger to his grave, preventing the master from walking the earth in search of it, and Ji Lin, a young woman who works as a dance partner but wishes to become a nurse. Along with Ji Lin's stepbrother Shin, they are mysteriously connected by the Confucian virtues.

A great part of the story is taken up with Chinese traditions and mythology, which is fascinating. The main motif of the story is that there is a were-tiger killing and mauling people, this is part of the magic realist aspect as well as imagery the author uses to describe the reoccurring dreams where Ren and Ji Lin communicate.

The time period and the place are perfectly chosen as you get the amazing imagery of the tiger and the sense that things are changing as the expats live and work in Malay. Another important character is William, who works as a doctor and is Ren's new master. The characters are also very well written and it's the kind of book that you could easily re-read to pick up more of the hints in the story. As readers have found on Quercus's brilliant #NightTigerTogether Twitter book club, it makes for some brilliant discussions and would make a perfect book club read.

R E V I E W - The Night Tiger
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .
I really loved this book! .
Full of three dimensional characters, set in a beautiful location, and with blurred lines between the real and the mystical, The Night Tiger really blew me away!
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The descriptive prose was convincing enough, that if I close my eyes I can imagine the lush green jungle, the clinking ice cubes, dusty paths, and the smell of redang curry in the air. 🌿
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The air of menace was palpable in the dream sequences, and after the first couple of chapters I couldn’t put it down, and ignored the buddy read schedule to find out what happened!
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Ren was my favourite character. He was like a little brother, and I felt very invested in his fate. 🐯 .
I loved the intertwining narratives, and connections between the characters, and just how skilfully the author ties the story together. I also loved the ending. We’re given a satisfactory conclusion, although there’s plenty of room for left to imagine what happens next!
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I felt sad when I finished reading this book, and have already purchased The Ghost Bride by the same author.
I’ve fallen in love with Malaysian literature, and can’t wait to immerse myself in another tale set in such a beautiful setting. ☺️
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Thank you Quercus and for the gifted advanced readers copy, and for including me in the buddy read. My reading experience was incredibly memorable, for all of the above reasons, and also the friends I’ve made along the way.
I’ve absolutely loved this book, the experience, and I will be recommending The Night Tiger to anyone looking for a book filled with adventure and intrigue. Thank you 🙏☺️

This is a YA book, so the target readers are Young Adults, and I think this needs to be borne in mind when reading and reviewing it.

Its 1930s Malaya a dying British doctor tasks his houseboy, Ren, with finding his missing finger. Local folklore states that if the body is not buried intact then the soul will roam the earth forever.

Elsewhere in Malaya Ji-Lin is dancing in a dance hall to help pay off her Mothers gambling debts, when a dance partner leaves her a grisly gift, and then turns up days later dead. Ren and Ji-Lins story become interconnected as Ji-Lin tries to return her gift to the original owner, and Ren tries to trace the missing finger within 49 days, so his masters soul can rest in peace.

The dual narrative works very well, but there is a love story between two of the characters that I did feel unlikely and gave it a bit of a Twilight feel to it. The Night Tiger gives the novel a good feel, a weretiger is going around the plantations killing people. And the novel being set in 1930s Malaya has a real unusual historical aspect. I found myself googling placing as I had never heard of them – Ipoh train station being one of them.

I did enjoy this book but as I said it’s a YA book so the simplicity and coincidence of the plot may not appeal to some.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy in return for an ARC.

The mystery of the missing finger... 5 stars

In 1930s Malaya, young Ren was the houseboy of Dr McPherson until the doctor’s death. Before he died, the doctor gave Ren two instructions – firstly, that he should go into the employment of another doctor, William Abbott, and secondly, that he should find Dr McPherson’s severed finger and bury it alongside him in his grave. Ren has 49 days to complete this second task; if he fails, Dr McPherson’s soul will remain wandering the earth for ever. Meantime, Ji Lin is working as a dance-hall hostess, and when one of her customers becomes overly amorous he drops something – a preserved and blackened finger in a vial. And suddenly strange things begin to happen around Ji Lin – unexplained deaths and vivid dreams that seem to impinge on her waking life...

This isn’t my usual type of book at all, so I’m struggling a bit as to how to categorise it. While there is on one level a relatively straightforward crime and mystery element to it, it’s shrouded in the folklore of the Chinese inhabitants of colonial Malaya (now Malaysia), especially as regards the mythology surrounding death rituals and the legend of the weretiger. It’s not exactly fantasy, nor would I describe it as that horrible oxymoron, magical realism. It’s more like straight historical fiction where the reader is asked to accept the beliefs and what we would call superstitions of the prevailing culture as being real.

Normally, my too delicately attuned credibility meter would have been beeping hysterically and pointing to overload, but it’s done so well that I had no problem with buying into the folklore aspects. Partly, this is because the quality of the writing carries it; partly, because Choo explains clearly the cultural basis for the more fanciful elements as she goes along; and partly, because there’s a great story in here that works, to a large degree, with or without the mystical element. The folklore stuff adds an element of mild horror that gives an air of eerieness and fatalism to the overall story.

It’s told from two perspectives – Ji Lin as a first-person narrative and Ren’s story told to us in the third person. In the beginning the finger is the only apparent link, but gradually the two storylines will cross and merge. Ren is only eleven and is a total believer in the superstitions involved in the story, so that for him returning the finger to Dr McPherson’s grave is a matter of more than life or death. Ji Lin is older, educated and more modern in her outlook (perhaps a little anachronistically so at times, in fact), but even she is so steeped in her culture that she’s open to the prevailing beliefs.

I liked them both very much as characters and thought Choo used their different ages and backgrounds very effectively to show this colonial society from more than one angle. I also really enjoyed seeing a colonial society from the perspective of the “colonised”, as it were – so much British literature reflects the perspective of the colonisers, and shows the indigenous culture as foreign and strange. Here, the Chinese Malay culture is the normal one, with the colonial Brits as the oddities who dismiss as ignorant superstition whatever they don’t understand. Happily, Choo handles the colonial aspect without over-emphasising it. There’s a current tendency to portray all colonies as seething hotbeds of resentment with the indigenous people just waiting for an opportunity to overthrow their cruel imperial masters, but I felt Choo’s portrayal of two communities living separately but in one space, rubbing along reasonably well together but not fully understanding each other, was considerably more credible.

Both strands of the story, the real and the mystical, are quite dark, but the overall tone is lightened by Ji Lin’s voice. She might rail against the secondary place of women in her society and her lack of opportunities, but she’s also strong and independent, and determined to make her own decisions about her life. She adds some humour to the story and also some romance, though in line with the rest of the book her romance has darker shades to it too.

I feel I’ve been especially vague and obscure about the plot of the book, even by my usual standards. But that’s because I enjoyed seeing the story develop for myself with no preconceptions, so I’m trying not to take that pleasure away from anyone else by telling too much. I enjoyed every word of this – the characterisation, the descriptions of the society, the perspective on colonialism, the elements of humour and romance, the folklore, the eerieness and the darkness, and I’ll be looking out for more from this talented author. Highly recommended.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Quercus.

I already read Yangsze Choo’s first novel, The Ghost Bride, so when I saw that a new book by the author is coming out I had to jump at the opportunity to read it. Unfortunately for The Night Tiger, I read it with the first one in my head and it was unavoidable to make comparisons. In my opinion, this second novel came out short. It was still an enjoyable read, easy to get through.
As the blurb states, the setting is 1930 Malaya. Ren, a 11 years old orphan is on a 49 days quest to find the missing finger of his newly deceased master so his soul can rest in peace. Ji Ji Lin, is officially an apprentice dressmaker and secretly also a dancehall girl in order to help pay off her mother's Mahjong debts. One night, one of her dance partners leaves her a severed finger by mistake. With the help of her step brother, just returned from Singapore for the Holidays, she tries to find the owner of the finger. As you can imagine, the path of the two characters will intersect.
What I liked about the first novel and also here, is the presence of Chinese-Malaya mythology such as weretigers, the underworld, the 5 Confucian virtues and all kinds of superstitions. However, in this one “evil spirits” were less creepy and some of the magical narratives were abandoned without a satisfactory conclusion. For example, there was supposed to be some sort of an important meaning about the meeting of the characters with the names of Confucian virtues but in the end it went nowhere. Also, at some point, Yi warned Ji Lin that the finger shouldn’t be returned to its owner but then the idea was abandoned. Moreover, the story moved from the mythology oriented story into a who-dunnit which was a bit confusing. I think the novel tried to be too many things. The same happened with the characters, there were too many main ones and they felt flat because they were not sufficiently developed, compared to her first novel.
Another thing that I loved about the first novel, was the beautiful description of old Malaya and its culture. Also, I remember even now how I salivated from the delicious food the author wrote about in the first book. I did not have the same sense of place when reading The Night Tiger and my taste buds felt nothing.
As I said, nonetheless, I enjoyed reading the story, the romance part was nice enough although a bit creepy and I plan to read more from the author. I just hope her editors will make a better job on those loose ends.

I had an ‘ah, shit I’m not going to like this book’ moment and, after seeing so many raving reviews for it, I absolutely wasn’t ready for my first book betrayal of the year. Turns out that, in true Jen fashion, I jumped the gun with The Night Tiger and it just took a little longer than planned for its claws to sink into me.

Lemmie list a few things that kept me reading:
👉 Historical fiction – this is right up my street. It’s set in the 1930s so we’re not talking about the super old stuff that I usually like, but I refuse to give up on a wee historical number without a fight.

👉 It’s set in Malaya – I’ve not read much about other countries (I know, I know I’m the worst etc.) and that caught my attention from the get-go.

👉 It’s rammed full of superstition and Chinese folklore – other cultures are fucking fascinating.

If you’ve made it this far, then I’m guessing you’re probably interested in a little bit of plot:

Ren is an 11-year old with an advanced noggin on his shoulders who works as a houseboy for a British doctor. Before his Master died, he was tasked with one final request – to find his Master’s missing finger and return it to his nice dead, decaying body within 42 days. An unrealistic task especially when you don’t have a clue where it might be…

And then you’ve got Ji Lin — a dressmaker’s apprentice who moonlights as a dance hall girl to pay off her mother’s mahjong debts whilst trying to appease her step-father’s wrath. One creepy dance later and Ji Lin is left holding a weird vial which sets everything in motion and ensures her fate is entwined with Ren’s.

After a few rumours of waretigers and what feels like a constant slew of convenient deaths, you begin to get a wee glimpse of Chinese superstition and, before long, you’ll be questioning everything.

My gripes? It’s a long (for me) read so I need to be grabbed right from the start. The beginning felt too long, whilst the climax seemed to be resolved very quickly. At some points, I went back to re-read sections to make sure I hadn’t missed key parts of the story.

In a nutshell, The Night Tiger will whisk you away to another world, make everything a little more magical AND confirms that your love life could spring into action when you least expect it.

Eleven-year-old Chinese orphan, Ren, worked as a houseboy for a British doctor before his master's death; his last request is that Ren find his severed finger and reunite it with his corpse so that his soul doesn't end up roaming the earth for all eternity. But Ren only has forty-two days to carry out his master's final wish, before the doctor's soul departs forever. Meanwhile, Ji-Lin, working at a dance hall in Ipoh to pay off her mother's mah-jong debts and to try and save some money for her own education, receives a preserved finger in a vial from one of her clients, who then abruptly passes away in his turn. As Ren searches for the finger, he acquires a new British master, Dr William Acton, and rumours begin of a sinister weretiger that is killing local women. How are Ren's, Ji-Lin's and William's stories intertwined? Set in 1930s Malaya (now Malaysia), The Night Tiger is deliberately symbolic, drawing repeatedly on the five Confucian virtues and on the pairs of twins that reoccur in the central characters' dreams to suggest that its cast is linked by a fate that has followed them since they were born.

Choo tries hard to maintain the atmosphere of her story, but it's a long book (480 pages), and it feels long; the plot has little direction, with the quest for the finger resolved early and the tiger attacks barely impinging on the story. While both Ren and Ji-Lin are engaging characters, I found myself waiting for the short bits from William, as it was only in those sections that anything much seemed to happen. I also found the romantic element of Ji-Lin's plot too YA-ish, and a bit patriarchal, for my liking. Furthermore, I'm a little impatient with the way that folklore is used in plots like this - despite the promise of the weretiger myths, The Night Tiger ends up focusing almost entirely on magic sets of numbers, and even those are largely used in repetitive dream sequences. (In fact, I'm not sure why it's called The Night Tiger at all). Despite the promise of the setting, the novel also failed to give me much of a sense of colonial Malaya. Started well, but lost momentum.

This isn’t the sort of book I’d normally choose to read but the Malaysian setting and the Chinese folklore attracted me to it, An orphaned house servant, Ren, has to find his deceased master’s severed finger within 49 days of his death so that his soul can rest in peace. Meanwhile, Ji Lin finds herself in possession of a severed finger which leads to a whodunnit story steeped in Chinese folklore. We drift in and out of a world in between life and death - limbo but with each person choosing whether or not to make the final journey to the afterworld. It’s a very enjoyable story which at times I found difficult to put down.