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A review by rat_fairy
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo
5.0
there are generally two types of books i will give 5 stars:
1: a book where its just a fun ride from beginning to end
2: a book that makes my brain whir around with thoughts about it
this is the latter.
it’s a story about the cleric Chih nearly being eaten by tigers, a story about a tiger-woman and a scholar falling in love, and a story about how stories are told (and change over time), somehow all at once.
something this book really made me think about was (and this may sound a little wild, but hear me out) the erasure of queer people from history over time. yes this book takes place in a queer-normative world, but it says a lot about our world too. Chih’s version of the story was good, yes, but had no trace of romance between the scholar and the tiger. it was what had been told to them, but it was a story mangled over time. scraps of it pieced together. whereas the tigers knew the true story (ik technically it could’ve been just a different version and neither were true, but i believe the tigers were correct), where the scholar and tiger fall in love and marry.
and at the ending,when the tiger women are chased off after attempting to attack Chih and their friend, it just made me think: how will the story of Chih meeting the tigers be twisted as the years go by in this world and more clerics tell more stories? will it be told that they attacked Chih immediately, or that the tigers listened to their story? yes, the tigers were dangerous, but will they be portrayed as evil in future stories?
anyway thats my love letter to the book about gay tigers🏳️🌈‼️🐯👩❤️💋👩
1: a book where its just a fun ride from beginning to end
2: a book that makes my brain whir around with thoughts about it
this is the latter.
it’s a story about the cleric Chih nearly being eaten by tigers, a story about a tiger-woman and a scholar falling in love, and a story about how stories are told (and change over time), somehow all at once.
something this book really made me think about was (and this may sound a little wild, but hear me out) the erasure of queer people from history over time. yes this book takes place in a queer-normative world, but it says a lot about our world too. Chih’s version of the story was good, yes, but had no trace of romance between the scholar and the tiger. it was what had been told to them, but it was a story mangled over time. scraps of it pieced together. whereas the tigers knew the true story (ik technically it could’ve been just a different version and neither were true, but i believe the tigers were correct), where the scholar and tiger fall in love and marry.
and at the ending,
anyway thats my love letter to the book about gay tigers🏳️🌈‼️🐯👩❤️💋👩