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A review by bookrecsplease
The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala
3.0
I really liked the foundational ideas of this book and the cat-and-mouse aspect, but then got less and less engaged as the story went on. The characters have the growth you expect from them from literally the VERY beginning of the book and don’t go anywhere deeper. And the two random internal fear la the FMC had partway through the book?? So weirdly contrived and utterly unfounded.
For me, it overexplained the big things and underexplained the little things.
For instance, we hear over and over that the viper’s core attribute is that she’s the most skilled assassin/fighter/etc. and broad statements like how an entire city still talks about the time she went there “in a job” (overexplained), but we NEVER are shown any smaller details of what her missions were, what made people quake at the mention of her name, or any way of showing that supposed prowess. Honestly, I was usually underwhelmed by her abilities. And then there was (I’ll be vague to avoid spoilers) the eagle scene, where she said she was wrapped in wings but then being flown upwards? How could that happen if the eagle’s wings were being used for flight?? Then she fell and then was caught, but, like, how? Did its talons grab her clothes? I think they would have fallen right off and had huge holes from the talons afterwards. Did it grab her arm? Again, major puncture wounds. There’s just so much political/historical stuff that’s repeated a ton, but then scenes like that that just don’t make sense and I want to understand but it truly seems like the author didn’t have a concrete plan of how things would actually happen.
For me, it overexplained the big things and underexplained the little things.
For instance, we hear over and over that the viper’s core attribute is that she’s the most skilled assassin/fighter/etc. and broad statements like how an entire city still talks about the time she went there “in a job” (overexplained), but we NEVER are shown any smaller details of what her missions were, what made people quake at the mention of her name, or any way of showing that supposed prowess. Honestly, I was usually underwhelmed by her abilities. And then there was (I’ll be vague to avoid spoilers) the eagle scene, where she said she was wrapped in wings but then being flown upwards? How could that happen if the eagle’s wings were being used for flight?? Then she fell and then was caught, but, like, how? Did its talons grab her clothes? I think they would have fallen right off and had huge holes from the talons afterwards. Did it grab her arm? Again, major puncture wounds. There’s just so much political/historical stuff that’s repeated a ton, but then scenes like that that just don’t make sense and I want to understand but it truly seems like the author didn’t have a concrete plan of how things would actually happen.