I’m sorry I didn’t have time to read Aunt Tigress by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin when it came out in March, because it’s great and deserves more eyes on it! But now is definitely better than never for reading and reviewing this eye-opening, fun, heartbreaking, amazing novel. It’s full of heart, romance, and friendship, despite the miserable angst of several characters; it’s full of magic, despite gritty realism that includes financial strain and attempted roofies; and it contains some amazing revelations, along with some things that I was sure all along must be true, and were. It’s urban fantasy inspired by both Chinese and First Nations mythology, and I wouldn’t have known it was a debut novel if I hadn’t looked it up!
Tam Lin used to love her father’s sister, Aunt Tigress, but her parents cut her out of all their lives after she used her niece and abandoned her. After her father’s death, Tam Lin reached out again, only to face another betrayal. When Aunt Tigress is murdered, her sister-in-law wants nothing to do with the estate, but Tam Lin accepts the responsibility, because she feels guilty over how she let herself be used to hurt others.
Tam Lin gets attacked by a mysterious magical entity, but luckily, she’s not alone, despite how much friction she has with her mother and stepbrother. Her demon lawyer sends her human assistant, Jack, to help out, and her classmate Janet, with whom Tam Lin just had her first date, takes her seriously when she talks about the supernatural. There’s also an odd, cold, pale girl who keeps showing up. All of them have their own agendas, and situations get very complicated. On top of all this, or underlying it all, the weather is starting to get seriously weird, starting out with a perpetually red sky, and getting worse from there. And when Tam Lin figures out that all this has to do with her aunt, she realizes that she has to do something about it, partly by claiming her own power. She doesn’t think she deserves a happy ending, but maybe she can save the world, with a little help from her friends and allies.
I love a good redemption storyline, when it’s earned. Tam Lin had believed her aunt was a bit of a scammer, but was too young to understand the depth of the harm she was really doing by playing along and participating as a girl. She’s afraid of encouraging her own tiger nature, especially if she lets herself give in to her desire for Janet. She has a difficult relationship with her mother, but realizes as the book progresses how deeply her mother loves her, and how much she’s sacrificed. Tam’s determination to take control of her life and redress some of the harms she’s partly responsible for is very heartening.
Janet is also a really interesting character. She seems at first like a bit of a manic pixie dreamgirl, just trying to encourage Tam Lin to take a walk on the wild side, but it turns out that she has her own complicated backstory and goals. I really appreciate how their relationship develops as the secrets eventually are revealed, how they acknowledge their own faults and culpabilities and give each other space, but also how Janet pushes Tam Lin when needed, and forces her to acknowledge her own strength and capability.
Theirs is not the only romance in this book. Some mythic-feeling chapters interspersed among the urban fantasy of the main plot explore beautiful, sometimes tragic relationships in the past between some mythic entities and some fantastic ones.
I consumed this partly as an audiobook, and partly as an ebook, depending on what my library had available at the time. I enjoyed the audiobook, but I wouldn’t say that it’s so great that anyone needs to get it that way, unless they just prefer that format.
What I do recommend is reading this book somehow or other. The characters are engaging, and the plot is marvelous, and despite the mythic elements, or maybe because of how they’re blended, it all feels very fresh and new.
Content warnings: Body horror, medical horror, death, violence, attempted sexual exploitation, murders, gaslighting, child endangerment, people using each other.
Comps: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, by Kylie Lee Baker; various stories from the Silk & Sinew anthology edited by Kristi Park Kulski; Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger.
