A review by sidofherran
Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

this had a promising start, but the development of the themes and premises fell short for me, probably bc of the short novella format. i really liked the vietnamese matriarchal queendom court politics setting, and the main character's tense relationship with her
emotionally abusive controlling mother.

the idea of an
all-women love triangle was also enticing, yet both relationships were not well-developed. i hope that eldris was not meant to be a genuine love interest, as she seemed to not truly love thanh and instead merely feel entitled to her, while thanh seemed to mostly like eldris as eldris was the first person who acted like she had worth and made her feel desired, especially in the context of thanh's mother treating thanh like thanh is worthless. i found myself shocked that thanh agreed to marry a girl she was merely fwbs with for 6 months 8 years ago - that did not look like healthy love to me, and eldris gave me sus vibes.
i was enjoying the beginning of thanh's romance with giang, how they refer to each other with the intimate names "big sis" "lil sis", but it turned out to not be developed enough and their attraction/feelings for each other was sudden. if this book novella longer, it might be an interesting relationship.

the resolution of the political plots also did not make enough sense to me and did not feel satisfatory, which again is another aspect of the novella that suffered due to how short it is.
all in all, i think this had potential and great premise - vietnamese fantasy setting, political/court intrigue, anti colonialism/imperialism theme, exploring the effects of
having an abusive, controlling mother, a lesbian love triangle, a fire elemental that takes the shape of a tiger
- but these were not developed and fell short of the initial premise's promise. if these themes were explored in a full length novel, it would have been more enjoyable. 
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