The Tiger Flu by Canadian author Larissa Lai. is a dystopian/sci-fi novel. This is not my typical novel but I was curious about this one. I confess that I’m not really sure what this book is about and I’m not really sure everything that happened in the story.

It's probably obvious from the title, but there’s a flu. The world is a world of women and there are mother doubles and there are women called starfish who can regenerate body parts.

When the flu becomes a real threat, in order to save everyone they need to find someone who is a starfish. But at some point, there are men who take some of the women….

I was very intrigued by this world that I didn’t understand. So I’m going to say that this book is for anyone who likes dystopian and sci-fi books and anyone who enjoys being in a completely different world. The world building was done well.

The audio is narrator by Lisa Truong and Grace Lynn Kung. The narration was fine. The thing with having to narrators is that they need to be distinct enough and I'm not sure that was successful here.

I had to wait a bit to read this novel because pandemic novels were just too tough, but this speculative fiction novel from Larissa Lai is strange and peculiar in the best way possible. It's a dystopian wild punk ride of a book that'll keep readers thinking long after the last page.

Many thanks to the author, narrator, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

Woah! This was a crazy ride. The reader is thrown into a future dystopian world where a Tiger Flu pandemic is working its way thru society. Salt Water City is a male-dominated society that has cast out a community of parthenogenic women. (all of the women in this group are cloned from earlier women in their group). The protagonist Kirilow is a doctor's apprentice in this female community. She is sent on a mission to find a new "starfish", a human who can regenerate body parts. The other protagonist is Kora, a girl who just wants to save her family from the pandemic and winds up in a girls' home. All this and there are living cloaks made out of cats. Yup, this book has a lot of wild imaginings.

This was part dystopian novel, part cyber punk, and all sorts of cautionary tale. With recent events we can see where things might head if politics and misogyny collide. I love bizarre books so this one was right up my alley.

This book was so much - very imaginative, and dark, and mind-bogglingly bizarre. I am honestly having trouble writing a review because it just was so weird and wild to read, especially during a pandemic. I want to check out the author's other books - her imagination is fascinating. One of the audiobook narrators was weirdly cheery - it didn't quite feel right. I kind of wished I had read this in text form, but quite honestly might not have gotten through it in that form during a pandemic.

Thank you to ECW Press Audio and NetGalley for the ARC!

Larissa Lai is one of the key Canadian speculative fiction authors writing today, and I’m so glad to have finally discovered her work. A few months after reading The Tiger Flu, I may not remember all the finer plot points, but the book’s very specific sense of place has stayed with me. Lai’s brand of “weird,” queer, hallucinatory speculative fiction is right up my alley. I look forward to reading Salt Fish Girl next!

I got an ARC of this audiobook.

I was drawn in by the idea of being able to regrow body parts. I did not read the rest of the description, which is my norm, so most of the basic plot was surprising to me. I highly suggest doing that a few times to really get the full emotional punch of a book.

There is a LOT that happens. There are at least three groups of people that are all scrambling to live in vastly different ways. It was intense. The first chapter from Kirilow’s POV was so GOOD. Two chapters in and I was calling it a five stars, I don’t think I have ever called a book rating that fast and that accurately. The way the narrator read for Kirilow was the best I have ever heard in a audiobook. I looked forward to Kirilow’s chapters so much. Her plots were so interesting and it was so alive with the narration.

Kora’s chapters were still fascinating, but they could not compare with Kirilow’s. Kora felt more like an entry into the world and how things worked, which I understand is important and I was still invested in, but it wasn’t as intense as Kirilow’s.

The gore was wonderful. It never felt superfluous or just for shock sake. A lot of the gore was told in a way that made it routine and normalized in a way that made my heart beat faster. The whole starfish plot really is what sold me on this book. The cutting out of hearts and the scooping out of eyes of the person you love, it was just so delicious. I really don’t have any complaints about this book outside of that I need more because I did not want it to end yet. I need to be in the world longer.

This is not a book for the faint of imagination. When Lai asks you to let go—listen to her. Both narrators, Lisa Truong and Grace Lynn Kung, embody their characters and play off each other in a way that seems both natural and dichotomous.
Recommended: A loose grip on reality allows one to fully enter this written world of Grist sisters, Salties, and Starfish. The setting is Vancouver, in the future, when memories and messages are stored on removable scales. a flu has killed most men.
In the audiobook, the narrators switch back and forth signalling shifts in perspective. I appreciate this extra reminder; in books like Reproduction, I found the back and forth narration a little hard to follow. Lai trusts her readers and leave clues like tiny breadcrumbs to be picked up later on in the story.
The women in this story are inspiring and charismatic. They are unafraid and intentional. The world Lai creates exists beyond her pages... it permeates through an eerily familiar pandemic to shake up complacency in the form of tragedy.

The Tiger Flu takes you to a post apocalyptic world where the world is taken over by monsters and a man-killing plague.

Larissa Lai transports you to a world like no other. It was peculiar and bizarre in a good way! What I really enjoyed was the sense of uncertain adventure where you didn't know how the main protagonists would make it out of their predicament. I also highly appreciated the Chinese influences that were interwoven in the story. Much like Kora, I definitely relate to her strong familial bonds.

The audiobook is equally as fantastic! Lisa Truong and Grace Lynn Kung so an amazing job at acting and conveying the feelings the characters feel in the story. I would definitely pick up this audiobook again for their fantastic narration.

This story, perhaps, is not the best if you are looking for an escape during these pandemic times, however, the world building and strong characters (individually, as well as their dynamics with everyone) make The Tiger Flu a fantastic book.

Larissa Lai's The Tiger Flu presents a chaotic, disordered post-apocalyptic world with much to recommend it.

The plot moves along nicely, and though I did find some moderate suspension of disbelief necessary to fully enjoy it, it was worth it. The characters are interesting, and the dynamic between the different factions is intriguing.

Very good narration added to the enjoyment of this audiobook. Definitely would recommend to anyone who likes dystopic post-apocalyptic fiction.

I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book is not my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish it only to give it a poor review.