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A review by librarylad
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo
4.0
4 stars. This is a lovely jewel of a novella; sharply written, authentic and evocative. It sits alongside The Empress of Salt and Fortune, set in the same far Eastern fantasy world, where ancestral ghosts are common as foxes, and foxes will invite you to dinner if you dare.
As before, this is a story within a story, as the itinerant Cleric Chih continues their quest to gather and record tales from across the land. This tale concerns a tiger who takes on human form to seduce a human scholar, and the conflicting accounts of what happened next.
As much as I enjoyed the book, it did leave me a little disappointed when compared to its predecessor. It shares the same playfulness, the bittersweet flavours, the inclusive, feminist storytelling with The Empress of Salt and Fortune, but where it can't compare is in the plot. The Empress was filled with surprise and gradual revelations, with epic stakes that built to a satisfying denoument, whereas The Tiger has none of this. It is a much more straightforward tale, but still with much to enjoy.
As before, this is a story within a story, as the itinerant Cleric Chih continues their quest to gather and record tales from across the land. This tale concerns a tiger who takes on human form to seduce a human scholar, and the conflicting accounts of what happened next.
As much as I enjoyed the book, it did leave me a little disappointed when compared to its predecessor. It shares the same playfulness, the bittersweet flavours, the inclusive, feminist storytelling with The Empress of Salt and Fortune, but where it can't compare is in the plot. The Empress was filled with surprise and gradual revelations, with epic stakes that built to a satisfying denoument, whereas The Tiger has none of this. It is a much more straightforward tale, but still with much to enjoy.