My Review:

The story is as stunning as the cover.

Folklore and fingers and tigers…oh my!

I was totally mesmerized by this beautifully written Malaysian folklore/fantasy tale. If I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it. The characters, the alluring mystery and the heart-pounding moments involving the tiger. A newspaper article warns that a tiger was on the loose. Was it a man-eater or a distraction? Did superstition play a role? 

Touches of Malayan folklore/ love sickness/ tiger hunts / smoke screens/ lucky numbers and stolen body parts had me all wrapped up in the unfolding of the mystery.  It is perfectly paced and I wanted to read every word without skimming anything.

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“.

The dreaming aspect was fascinating as I’ve always been interested in the meaning of certain dreams and if they are some kind of message.

A dreamy page turner for me. Highly recommend if you enjoy stories with a folklore flavor and cultural intrigue.

This was library check out and now available.

Book Description:

The Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A sweeping historical novel about a dancehall girl and an orphan boy whose fates entangle over an old Chinese superstition about men who turn into tigers.

When 11-year-old Ren’s master dies, he makes one last request of his Chinese houseboy: that Ren find his severed finger, lost years ago in an accident, and reunite it with his body. Ren has 49 days, or else his master’s soul will roam the earth, unable to rest in peace.

Ji Lin always wanted to be a doctor, but as a girl in 1930s Malaysia, apprentice dressmaker is a more suitable occupation. Secretly, though, Ji Lin also moonlights as a dancehall girl to help pay off her beloved mother’s Mahjong debts. One night, Ji Lin’s dance partner leaves her with a gruesome souvenir: a severed finger. Convinced the finger is bad luck, Ji Lin enlists the help of her erstwhile stepbrother to return it to its rightful owner.

As the 49 days tick down, and a prowling tiger wreaks havoc on the town, Ji Lin and Ren’s lives intertwine in ways they could never have imagined. Propulsive and lushly written, The Night Tiger explores colonialism and independence, ancient superstition and modern ambition, sibling rivalry and first love. Braided through with Chinese folklore and a tantalizing mystery, this novel is a page-turner of the highest order.