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A review by honnari_hannya
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo
4.0
Lovely little novella! I liked this far more than the first in this series, which was THE EMPRESS OF SALT AND FORTUNE. The pacing was better, the dialogue more natural, and the storytelling reminded me a bit of something you might tell by the fire or as a bedtime story—might listen to this when it comes out as an audiobook.
This continues the story of Chih, a cleric from the Singing Hills, which is a monastic order that collects histories from all over the world. Chih finds themselves being escorted through a mountain path when their group is attacked by three tiger sisters. To forestall becoming the tigers' next meal, Chih tells an old story about a tiger and her scholar lover—sort of a Scheherazade situation.
Vo achieves more effectively what I think she intended in the first book, which is to complicate the reader's idea of how stories are constructed, altered, and recorded—how they are never complete reflections of the "truth" because those telling it have their own expectations about what a story really "means."
Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!
This continues the story of Chih, a cleric from the Singing Hills, which is a monastic order that collects histories from all over the world. Chih finds themselves being escorted through a mountain path when their group is attacked by three tiger sisters. To forestall becoming the tigers' next meal, Chih tells an old story about a tiger and her scholar lover—sort of a Scheherazade situation.
Vo achieves more effectively what I think she intended in the first book, which is to complicate the reader's idea of how stories are constructed, altered, and recorded—how they are never complete reflections of the "truth" because those telling it have their own expectations about what a story really "means."
Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!