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Aunt Tigress
From debut author Emily Yu-Xuan Qin comes a snarky urban fantasy novel inspired by Chinese and First Nation mythology and bursting with wit, compelling characters, and LGBTQIA+ representation
Readers of Seanan McGuire, Ilona Andrews, and Ben Aaronovitch will devour this gory story—and the sweet-as-Canadian-maple-syrup sapphic romance at its monstrous heart
Tam hasn’t eaten anyone in years.
She is now Mama’s soft-spoken, vegan daughter—everything dangerous about her is cut out.
But when Tam’s estranged Aunt Tigress is found murdered and skinned, Tam inherits an undead fox in a shoebox, and an ensemble of old enemies.
The demons, the ghosts, the gods running coffee shops by the river? Fine. The tentacled thing stalking Tam across the city? Absolutely not. And when Tam realizes the girl she’s falling in love with might be yet another loose end from her past? That’s just the brassy, beautiful cherry on top.
Because no matter how quietly she lives, Tam can’t hide from her voracious upbringing, nor the suffering she caused. As she navigates romance, redemption, and the end of the world, she can’t help but wonder…
Do monsters even deserve happy endings?
With worldbuilding inspired by Chinese folklore and the Siksiká Nation in Canada, LGBTQIA+ representation, and a sapphic romance, Aunt Tigress is at once familiar and breathtakingly innovative.
Readers of Seanan McGuire, Ilona Andrews, and Ben Aaronovitch will devour this gory story—and the sweet-as-Canadian-maple-syrup sapphic romance at its monstrous heart
Tam hasn’t eaten anyone in years.
She is now Mama’s soft-spoken, vegan daughter—everything dangerous about her is cut out.
But when Tam’s estranged Aunt Tigress is found murdered and skinned, Tam inherits an undead fox in a shoebox, and an ensemble of old enemies.
The demons, the ghosts, the gods running coffee shops by the river? Fine. The tentacled thing stalking Tam across the city? Absolutely not. And when Tam realizes the girl she’s falling in love with might be yet another loose end from her past? That’s just the brassy, beautiful cherry on top.
Because no matter how quietly she lives, Tam can’t hide from her voracious upbringing, nor the suffering she caused. As she navigates romance, redemption, and the end of the world, she can’t help but wonder…
Do monsters even deserve happy endings?
With worldbuilding inspired by Chinese folklore and the Siksiká Nation in Canada, LGBTQIA+ representation, and a sapphic romance, Aunt Tigress is at once familiar and breathtakingly innovative.
475 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 18, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews
December 18, 2024
I knew from the cover and title alone that this book would be for me and I was not disappointed. I love me a monstrous, messy, queer protagonist and while I don't read urban fantasy all that often, I was very much intrigued by the story. We follow Tam Lin, daughter of a Chinese immigrant family of (witchy) tigers, living in the Canadian city of Calgary that's brimming with ghosts, demons, shifters, mythological beings and a whole lot of other supernatural creatures. As a tiger herself Tam is part of the supernatural world, but she had kind of a falling out with it prior to the start of the book. She's just trying to live a normal live but is ultimately pulled back in after the violent death of her aunt Tigress. Together with her new human girlfriend Janet and her little menagerie of familiars Tam is now trying to figure out what happened to her aunt.
Honestly, I had no idea where the story would be going, but I was down for everything. And while the story moved slowly I followed along with great interest and was excited to see what supernatural being would show up next. Basically every side character was explored in a separate chapter and I simply loved the storytelling aspect of this. It was such a great way of giving unique backstories to the characters while it also showed how everyone was connected to each other as the book went on. I do have to say that I liked the first half of the book more than the second half, because the otherworldly journey was going on for far too long and got quite trippy. Also, I'm not really happy with the portrayal of Tam's and Janet's relationship, because they were talking about love after knowing each other for less than a month. In the beginning it a felt like Janet attached herself to Tam and it was so strange that she was accompanying her on the investigation without having any kind of supernatural background or knowledge. Frankly to say, I did not trust Janet, but that problem got resolved pretty early on.
(And unrelated to my enjoyment of this book, but I had the hardest time trying to figure out how old Tam's supposed to be. I was so confused by her brother Paul, because I thought they were half siblings and not step siblings. He is an adult too and that would have made Tam at the very least 28 years old. It would have made sense, because it was said that she spent some time in the wild, embracing her tiger self, but she reads way younger. Near the end of the book it was then stated that she's 20.)
All in all a very strong debut in my opinion. Not without little flaws, but I enjoyed it a lot and it made me excited for future works of Emily Yu-Xuan Qin.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and DAW Books for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
Honestly, I had no idea where the story would be going, but I was down for everything. And while the story moved slowly I followed along with great interest and was excited to see what supernatural being would show up next. Basically every side character was explored in a separate chapter and I simply loved the storytelling aspect of this. It was such a great way of giving unique backstories to the characters while it also showed how everyone was connected to each other as the book went on. I do have to say that I liked the first half of the book more than the second half, because the otherworldly journey was going on for far too long and got quite trippy. Also, I'm not really happy with the portrayal of Tam's and Janet's relationship, because they were talking about love after knowing each other for less than a month. In the beginning it a felt like Janet attached herself to Tam and it was so strange that she was accompanying her on the investigation without having any kind of supernatural background or knowledge. Frankly to say, I did not trust Janet, but that problem got resolved pretty early on.
(And unrelated to my enjoyment of this book, but I had the hardest time trying to figure out how old Tam's supposed to be. I was so confused by her brother Paul, because I thought they were half siblings and not step siblings. He is an adult too and that would have made Tam at the very least 28 years old. It would have made sense, because it was said that she spent some time in the wild, embracing her tiger self, but she reads way younger. Near the end of the book it was then stated that she's 20.)
All in all a very strong debut in my opinion. Not without little flaws, but I enjoyed it a lot and it made me excited for future works of Emily Yu-Xuan Qin.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and DAW Books for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
February 9, 2025
3.5 Stars
This was an entertaining urban fantasy novel. It managed to feel dark and cozy at the same time. I enjoyed the inclusion of non-human perspectives. The cultural perspectives were also quite interesting.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
This was an entertaining urban fantasy novel. It managed to feel dark and cozy at the same time. I enjoyed the inclusion of non-human perspectives. The cultural perspectives were also quite interesting.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
February 17, 2025
Aunt Tigress
by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin
Urban Fantasy
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: Mar 18, 2025
DAW
Ages: 17+
Demons, ghosts, and gods live among humans who cannot see them, but some know they are there. Tam's father was able to shapeshift into a tiger, but after his death, Tam finds 'family' in his sister, but when she is found murdered and skinned, Tam inherits her Aunt's possessions.
Cleaning out her aunt's trailer, Tam's memories come back to the reasons why she cut the threat tying her to her aunt, and those people she hurt under her aunt's teachings are pieces to solve her aunt's murder.
While the blurb sounded like this story would be a mystery with some horror aspects, it flopped.
The idea, plot, and storyline had promise, but the execution failed.
First, the MC was blah. Yeah, I get she suffered some trauma, but she didn't have much of a personality, and her love interest, that girl was overly friendly but also degrading plus bordering on aggressiveness. And in regards to the other characters, I didn't care much for any of them.
The world, I have no idea if all of the 'humans' know about the supernatural and; don't care or just ignore it because they can't see it. (Seeing is believing) Or if most of them have no clue. This world, like the characters, wasn't built up enough to explain this.
Then there were the overly flowery rambling descriptions of clothes and other things as if making up for the Telling of 'tales and folklore' that retained to the present situation, interrupting in mid-action, thus throwing the reader right out of the story. This also happened with the characters' backstories, giving me no reason to care for them.
I told myself at 6% to DNF, but because of where I was, it was read or do nothing, so I pushed through. Lesson learned to be prepared!
But I can say that, in my opinion, this book would have worked better as short stories; first telling the folklore/minor characters' stories in separate stories, then have the last story be Tam's story, bringing all of the others together. Doing it that way, I believe, would have allowed the author a better opportunity to treat each 'story' with the same 'love' and details they deserve, thus showing the story instead of telling it.
1 Star
by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin
Urban Fantasy
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: Mar 18, 2025
DAW
Ages: 17+
Demons, ghosts, and gods live among humans who cannot see them, but some know they are there. Tam's father was able to shapeshift into a tiger, but after his death, Tam finds 'family' in his sister, but when she is found murdered and skinned, Tam inherits her Aunt's possessions.
Cleaning out her aunt's trailer, Tam's memories come back to the reasons why she cut the threat tying her to her aunt, and those people she hurt under her aunt's teachings are pieces to solve her aunt's murder.
While the blurb sounded like this story would be a mystery with some horror aspects, it flopped.
The idea, plot, and storyline had promise, but the execution failed.
First, the MC was blah. Yeah, I get she suffered some trauma, but she didn't have much of a personality, and her love interest, that girl was overly friendly but also degrading plus bordering on aggressiveness. And in regards to the other characters, I didn't care much for any of them.
The world, I have no idea if all of the 'humans' know about the supernatural and; don't care or just ignore it because they can't see it. (Seeing is believing) Or if most of them have no clue. This world, like the characters, wasn't built up enough to explain this.
Then there were the overly flowery rambling descriptions of clothes and other things as if making up for the Telling of 'tales and folklore' that retained to the present situation, interrupting in mid-action, thus throwing the reader right out of the story. This also happened with the characters' backstories, giving me no reason to care for them.
I told myself at 6% to DNF, but because of where I was, it was read or do nothing, so I pushed through. Lesson learned to be prepared!
But I can say that, in my opinion, this book would have worked better as short stories; first telling the folklore/minor characters' stories in separate stories, then have the last story be Tam's story, bringing all of the others together. Doing it that way, I believe, would have allowed the author a better opportunity to treat each 'story' with the same 'love' and details they deserve, thus showing the story instead of telling it.
1 Star
November 21, 2024
Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review
DNFed at 23%. AUNT TIGRESS was one of my most highly anticipated Spring 2025 releases, due to it being sold as a combination of Chinese and Canadian First Nations mythology, urban fantasy, and Ilona Andrews-level snark. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like it managed to weave all its disparate strands together in an engaging and convincing enough way.
AUNT TIGRESS uses a "stories within a story" format for both its Chinese and indigenous fables that is reminiscent of indigenous writing. There are two problems with this, though. The first is that it slows the pacing down a lot: the present-day timeline barely moves forward as we spend a lot of time in the past, or out of the timeline, on backstories and expositional side stories. The second is the extent to which Qin had a sensitivity reader go through her depictions of indigenous Canadian stories and character depictions, which, I dunno.
So the pacing was incredibly slow, and all the while the book seemed to want to build up everything else except for what is most crucial to a good book: the development of the main character, the development of the world, and the development of the main conflict.
Tam Lin (a name that I presume was intentionally chosen to reflect the old fairy tale, which is unfortunate as that has always been one of my least favorite fairy tales) is I guess part tigress from her father's side (?), and seems determined to ignore the magical side of her, even though magical beasties always manage to find their way to her. She's a rather bland Mary Sue character, despite having a succubus pet/sidekick; nearly all of the secondary characters are more interesting than her.
Tam very quickly falls into a romantic/sexual something with her classmate, Janet, who is a bit too perfectly snarky (even to--gasp--Tam's Chinese mother!!) and competent and badass to be believable. I was expecting a romantic subplot that develops over the course of the book, not for us to begin in the middle of their situationship, which unfortunately affected my investment in the couple, especially as I couldn't really see or feel what either of them saw in the other. (Apparently later on in the book we learn more of Janet's backstory and why she's with Tam, which still doesn't impact my lack of investment in the two being together.)
There isn't Ilona Andrews level of world-building here, either. The jumps between timelines made things a bit hard to follow, but the best I can make of it is that the story is more or less set in a present-day Canadian city, and that Tam and her crew can see and interact with a magical underbelly. However, all of the magical elements read like they occur in a parallel universe, with very little affecting the "real" world.
I really like what AUNT TIGRESS is trying to do, but I'm afraid that none of the elements come together for me. It took me weeks to get through the first quarter of the book, and when I put it down for a while it was all too easy for me to never want to return to it again.
DNFed at 23%. AUNT TIGRESS was one of my most highly anticipated Spring 2025 releases, due to it being sold as a combination of Chinese and Canadian First Nations mythology, urban fantasy, and Ilona Andrews-level snark. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like it managed to weave all its disparate strands together in an engaging and convincing enough way.
AUNT TIGRESS uses a "stories within a story" format for both its Chinese and indigenous fables that is reminiscent of indigenous writing. There are two problems with this, though. The first is that it slows the pacing down a lot: the present-day timeline barely moves forward as we spend a lot of time in the past, or out of the timeline, on backstories and expositional side stories. The second is the extent to which Qin had a sensitivity reader go through her depictions of indigenous Canadian stories and character depictions, which, I dunno.
So the pacing was incredibly slow, and all the while the book seemed to want to build up everything else except for what is most crucial to a good book: the development of the main character, the development of the world, and the development of the main conflict.
Tam Lin (a name that I presume was intentionally chosen to reflect the old fairy tale, which is unfortunate as that has always been one of my least favorite fairy tales) is I guess part tigress from her father's side (?), and seems determined to ignore the magical side of her, even though magical beasties always manage to find their way to her. She's a rather bland Mary Sue character, despite having a succubus pet/sidekick; nearly all of the secondary characters are more interesting than her.
Tam very quickly falls into a romantic/sexual something with her classmate, Janet, who is a bit too perfectly snarky (even to--gasp--Tam's Chinese mother!!) and competent and badass to be believable. I was expecting a romantic subplot that develops over the course of the book, not for us to begin in the middle of their situationship, which unfortunately affected my investment in the couple, especially as I couldn't really see or feel what either of them saw in the other. (Apparently later on in the book we learn more of Janet's backstory and why she's with Tam, which still doesn't impact my lack of investment in the two being together.)
There isn't Ilona Andrews level of world-building here, either. The jumps between timelines made things a bit hard to follow, but the best I can make of it is that the story is more or less set in a present-day Canadian city, and that Tam and her crew can see and interact with a magical underbelly. However, all of the magical elements read like they occur in a parallel universe, with very little affecting the "real" world.
I really like what AUNT TIGRESS is trying to do, but I'm afraid that none of the elements come together for me. It took me weeks to get through the first quarter of the book, and when I put it down for a while it was all too easy for me to never want to return to it again.
March 22, 2025
Tam Lin is part tiger. Her mother, human, father and aunt, both tigers, immigrated to Calgary, Alberta, years earlier. Tam grew up knowing she was different, and violent, and after her father's tragic death, learned how to control her impulse to eat people. She also spent time, before this, apprenticed to her aunt Tigress, a violent grifter, and with her, hurt several people and supernatural beings, before deciding to stop and pull away. Tam also decided to pull away from everything supernatural, except supernatural beings keep showing up in her life.
Now older, she argues with her mother, dislikes her stepfather, but likes her stepbrother Paul. She misses her father terribly, also.
In university, she meets Janet in one of her classes. Janet is brash and forthright, and Tam finds her instantly attractive and the two get involved, despite Tam's concerns about hurting a human being.
Then, Tam learns that her Aunt Tigress has been killed, and Janet insists on helping Tam discover what happened. Jack, a medium, also helps, and Tam remembers her aunt, and all that she did with the forceful, older woman. Author Emily Yu-Xuan Qin relates these memories, and information about various supernatural beings living in Calgary as stories, which was a nice touch. But, there were so many stories, and so much information imparted that I found the story's pacing suffered.
These exposition chapters not only slowed down the plot, but after a while I found they overwhelmed the plot to the extent that I kind of lost where we were in the present, and what the point was, except to highlight how awful Aunt Tigress was.
Janet rubbed me the wrong way immediately. Her brashness and love of danger and decision to stick with Tam like glue rang warning bells for me, and though the reason is explained, I never really warmed to Janet. I also felt really uncomfortable with her fascination with the supernatural, and never felt comfortable with the dynamic of the relationship between her and Tam, and did not believe in them as a couple.
I wanted to love this book, and I did, for the first third or so, but found the plot, which was really simple (find out what happened to Aunt Tigress) kept meandering, and the more time I spent in this fantastic version of Calgary and with Tam and Janet, the less I cared about the outcome of Tam's search for answers.
I went back and forth between the book and audiobook, and though I liked Jen Zhao's voicework, especially as Aunt Tigress, I think I just got tired of the book by the halfway point, and had to force myself to finish.
This was really too bad, as I felt that this author's story was inventive, wonderfully weird and violent, with interesting supporting characters and terrific detail. And, it was great reading a story set in a Canadian city for a change, especially one with such a rich selection of supernatural beings and folklore.
Thank you to Netgalley, DAW, and Spotify Audiobooks for these ARCs in exchange for my review.
Now older, she argues with her mother, dislikes her stepfather, but likes her stepbrother Paul. She misses her father terribly, also.
In university, she meets Janet in one of her classes. Janet is brash and forthright, and Tam finds her instantly attractive and the two get involved, despite Tam's concerns about hurting a human being.
Then, Tam learns that her Aunt Tigress has been killed, and Janet insists on helping Tam discover what happened. Jack, a medium, also helps, and Tam remembers her aunt, and all that she did with the forceful, older woman. Author Emily Yu-Xuan Qin relates these memories, and information about various supernatural beings living in Calgary as stories, which was a nice touch. But, there were so many stories, and so much information imparted that I found the story's pacing suffered.
These exposition chapters not only slowed down the plot, but after a while I found they overwhelmed the plot to the extent that I kind of lost where we were in the present, and what the point was, except to highlight how awful Aunt Tigress was.
Janet rubbed me the wrong way immediately. Her brashness and love of danger and decision to stick with Tam like glue rang warning bells for me, and though the reason is explained, I never really warmed to Janet. I also felt really uncomfortable with her fascination with the supernatural, and never felt comfortable with the dynamic of the relationship between her and Tam, and did not believe in them as a couple.
I wanted to love this book, and I did, for the first third or so, but found the plot, which was really simple (find out what happened to Aunt Tigress) kept meandering, and the more time I spent in this fantastic version of Calgary and with Tam and Janet, the less I cared about the outcome of Tam's search for answers.
I went back and forth between the book and audiobook, and though I liked Jen Zhao's voicework, especially as Aunt Tigress, I think I just got tired of the book by the halfway point, and had to force myself to finish.
This was really too bad, as I felt that this author's story was inventive, wonderfully weird and violent, with interesting supporting characters and terrific detail. And, it was great reading a story set in a Canadian city for a change, especially one with such a rich selection of supernatural beings and folklore.
Thank you to Netgalley, DAW, and Spotify Audiobooks for these ARCs in exchange for my review.
March 12, 2025
If there is a best new release of 2025 I really hope it is this one because the story is unlike any other, it's peerless. If I had to compare it to another work, I'd say, tangentially, 'Harrow the Ninth' (iykyk) and 'Bestiary' (which also features another tiger auntie). The title is a reference to the Chinese myth of the 虎姑婆 but being set in Canada and peopled by immigrants from all over the world, the narrative incorporates a wide range of myths and religions, from Arabic to indigenous to Scottish.
Tamara Lin comes from a lineage of tigers. Her paternal grandmother was a famed tiger who ruled the mountains of Shandong a thousand years ago. Her father died when she was twelve, and for a short time, she was apprenticed under her aunt who ran a business dealing with the supernatural since there is no one else to teach her about her heritage. It was then when she saw first-hand what a cruel and bloodthirsty monster she was, but Tamara could not fully disavow her aunt until she made Tamara complicit in something unforgivable. One day, her aunt goes missing, putting her through hell and high water on an epic quest for answers.
I may be in the minority here but I was fooled by the book cover, which gave me the impression that it was going to be YA romantasy. It's not, not even close in terms of scope, structure, and ambition. Yes there are people in love and the main characters are 18-20 and the few sex scenes are not explicit, but it's clear from the experimental style and heavy themes that the target audience is adult. Based on the current cover, can you even guess that the main activities conducted in this book are exorcisms, witchcraft, necromancy, and murder? The cover needs to be much, much cooler.
Tamara Lin comes from a lineage of tigers. Her paternal grandmother was a famed tiger who ruled the mountains of Shandong a thousand years ago. Her father died when she was twelve, and for a short time, she was apprenticed under her aunt who ran a business dealing with the supernatural since there is no one else to teach her about her heritage. It was then when she saw first-hand what a cruel and bloodthirsty monster she was, but Tamara could not fully disavow her aunt until she made Tamara complicit in something unforgivable. One day, her aunt goes missing, putting her through hell and high water on an epic quest for answers.
I may be in the minority here but I was fooled by the book cover, which gave me the impression that it was going to be YA romantasy. It's not, not even close in terms of scope, structure, and ambition. Yes there are people in love and the main characters are 18-20 and the few sex scenes are not explicit, but it's clear from the experimental style and heavy themes that the target audience is adult. Based on the current cover, can you even guess that the main activities conducted in this book are exorcisms, witchcraft, necromancy, and murder? The cover needs to be much, much cooler.
November 12, 2024
I was thrilled to get access to this ARC as it was one of my preorders and had all my usual hit parade of interests. Urban fantasy set in Calgary, Canada with a Chinese immigrant family, combined with Chinese and First Nations mythology, plus a sapphic romance? Yes please. I even loved that Tam had an incubus as a pet. But ultimately I was disappointed. As an eldritch horror novel I'd give it four stars, but I had high hopes for the romance, and I found the romantic arc boring.
Tam Lin is descended from an ancient line of tigers and trickster gods. Her father is a tiger, her mother is human. They emigrate to Calgary when she is young. This book really shone in descriptions of Chinese folklore legends made real. Tam can see ghosts and from a young girl has mentored under the wing of her strange and monstrous Aunt Tigress, the ancient god manipulating the girl to fill her mysterious, evil agendas.
On one errand, Aunt Tigress is dispatched to help a woman who has been infested with witch seed on her pregnancy, but she doesn't heal the woman and instead makes a deal with the witch seed. Her daughter, who later turns out to be Tam's love interest Janet, seeks revenge against Aunt Tigress for what she did to her mother.
From that point, it felt like a third act betrayal at the 30% mark, and I really hate third act breakups that involve betrayals unless the love interest feels guilty and works hard at grand gestures and earning back the protagonist's trust. None of that happened here.
I never saw the chemistry or tension between Tam and Janet. Tam seemed desperate for a girlfriend who could accept her monstrous past, and Janet claims to like her as she is and calls her ghost girl but she's just using her to get revenge on Aunt Tigress. Even in the third act Tam admits she's not sure she's sexually attracted to Janet and thinks it's all her tiger lusting after human flesh. Janet was also a flat character who didn't feel like a whole person to me. She was just rude, brash and reckless, fetishized supernatural things, and that was her whole personality. The backstory with her mom wasn't enough character development to make me fall in love with them as a couple.
I found the POV shifts difficult as well. The story shifted from first person from Tam's POV to third person in the back stories of various supporting characters, instead of fleshing out Janet's character as primary love interest. It felt more like they were an established couple who didn't really like each other versus a romance.
It is with a heavy heart that I leave this review. The pacing issues and the romance made this a disappointing book for me. The writing style was so beautiful in the first half.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Tam Lin is descended from an ancient line of tigers and trickster gods. Her father is a tiger, her mother is human. They emigrate to Calgary when she is young. This book really shone in descriptions of Chinese folklore legends made real. Tam can see ghosts and from a young girl has mentored under the wing of her strange and monstrous Aunt Tigress, the ancient god manipulating the girl to fill her mysterious, evil agendas.
On one errand, Aunt Tigress is dispatched to help a woman who has been infested with witch seed on her pregnancy, but she doesn't heal the woman and instead makes a deal with the witch seed. Her daughter, who later turns out to be Tam's love interest Janet, seeks revenge against Aunt Tigress for what she did to her mother.
From that point, it felt like a third act betrayal at the 30% mark, and I really hate third act breakups that involve betrayals unless the love interest feels guilty and works hard at grand gestures and earning back the protagonist's trust. None of that happened here.
I never saw the chemistry or tension between Tam and Janet. Tam seemed desperate for a girlfriend who could accept her monstrous past, and Janet claims to like her as she is and calls her ghost girl but she's just using her to get revenge on Aunt Tigress. Even in the third act Tam admits she's not sure she's sexually attracted to Janet and thinks it's all her tiger lusting after human flesh. Janet was also a flat character who didn't feel like a whole person to me. She was just rude, brash and reckless, fetishized supernatural things, and that was her whole personality. The backstory with her mom wasn't enough character development to make me fall in love with them as a couple.
I found the POV shifts difficult as well. The story shifted from first person from Tam's POV to third person in the back stories of various supporting characters, instead of fleshing out Janet's character as primary love interest. It felt more like they were an established couple who didn't really like each other versus a romance.
It is with a heavy heart that I leave this review. The pacing issues and the romance made this a disappointing book for me. The writing style was so beautiful in the first half.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
2025
September 16, 2025Halloween TBR
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and DAW
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and DAW
March 18, 2025
You and I both knew that I would love this book. From the chaos queer MC to the mythical animal companions/familiars and enough Chinese folklore to fill a book all on its own, Aunt Tigress felt like it was made for me (at times). This was a wild ride from the beginning to the end and I was in it!!!
It’s hard to say the main character’s name without thinking of the villain from a different popular book series: Tam Lin. Was this intentional? I wanna say no, but who knows. It could have been a nod to that. It could have been a snub. It could have not mattered at all. But I couldn’t help thinking about him.😭
I love a magical realism/urban fantasy book. Give me magic in a world I know and I’ll eat that sh!t up! So the fact that this is all based in a magical version of Calgary, British Columbia was so perfect. Have I ever been there? Nope. I can imagine it tho: Mythical creatures living in harmony with humans (right under their noses). Maybe that’s the dreamer in me wishing this was a true story. 😂
This was quite a long story for a debut book. That may be why I didn’t give it a perfect rating. It definitely could have been cut down a bit, but overall I enjoyed the world building and all every single character.
It’s hard to say the main character’s name without thinking of the villain from a different popular book series: Tam Lin. Was this intentional? I wanna say no, but who knows. It could have been a nod to that. It could have been a snub. It could have not mattered at all. But I couldn’t help thinking about him.😭
I love a magical realism/urban fantasy book. Give me magic in a world I know and I’ll eat that sh!t up! So the fact that this is all based in a magical version of Calgary, British Columbia was so perfect. Have I ever been there? Nope. I can imagine it tho: Mythical creatures living in harmony with humans (right under their noses). Maybe that’s the dreamer in me wishing this was a true story. 😂
This was quite a long story for a debut book. That may be why I didn’t give it a perfect rating. It definitely could have been cut down a bit, but overall I enjoyed the world building and all every single character.
April 27, 2025
3.5 stars, probably? i thought the concept was really interesting, and i’ve always been a fan of books where all folklore is real. the weaving together of chinese and first nations folk lore was really fun. a lot of the elements of this felt like reading or listening to a folk tale, where you just had to accept things like “tigers are magical beings and can shapeshift using human skin” which isn’t bad once you get used to it, though it did give the book a dreamlike feeling to me. the tam lin ballad connection was fun too. ultimately i feel pretty neutral about this book, i enjoyed it but it didn’t blow me away and i’m not sure if i’d read it again but i might recommend it if someone is looking for a book and it fits the bill. i also really didn’t like the love interest lmao she was soooo arrogant and annoying.
April 3, 2025
Aunt Tigress is an urban fantasy novel, written by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin, and published by DAW Books. A contemporary fantasy with a messy and queer main character, Tam, having to deal with a supernatural world that she belongs to, even if she decided to abandon it, as she's pulled by the death of her aunt; a story that blends together Chinese and First Nation mythologies to create a really enjoyable novel.
Tam Lin is part tiger; her mother, human and her father, tiger, immigrated together to Calgary years early. Tam grew knowing she was different and with violent impulses, but learned to control it after her father's death; she was the apprentice of her aunt (also a tiger), but after some episodes that hurt other people, she cut ties with her. After this, she step out of the supernatural world, until the violent assassination of her Aunt pulls her again, but this time in the company of a university friend, Janet, who also has a certain background with her Aunt Tigress.
While the story starts a bit slow, and the direction seemed unclear, we rapidly uncover more about why Janet wanted to befriend Tam; however, from that starting point, we get an excellent exercise of character building, giving each one a complex past that ties them with the present. While Janet started with an intention, we can see how the relationship fastly evolves into a queer romance, which is tied with the rest of our fantasy story, investigating about Aunt Tigress and her past grifts.
What I really loved is the worldbuilding: not only with the blend of Chinese myths with fantasy and other mythologies, but how well integrated they are as part of the world; also props for using a non-USA city for the story. The pacing is a little bit slow at the start, but it is more a consequence of how the past of the characters is introduced to us, making the plot to wait a bit until it advances.
Aunt Tigress is a strong debut, a great urban fantasy novel if you are looking for different mythologies and queer relationships with a fair dose of intrigue and action. I wonder if the author will continue writing in this world, but my curiosity is picked, for sure!
Tam Lin is part tiger; her mother, human and her father, tiger, immigrated together to Calgary years early. Tam grew knowing she was different and with violent impulses, but learned to control it after her father's death; she was the apprentice of her aunt (also a tiger), but after some episodes that hurt other people, she cut ties with her. After this, she step out of the supernatural world, until the violent assassination of her Aunt pulls her again, but this time in the company of a university friend, Janet, who also has a certain background with her Aunt Tigress.
While the story starts a bit slow, and the direction seemed unclear, we rapidly uncover more about why Janet wanted to befriend Tam; however, from that starting point, we get an excellent exercise of character building, giving each one a complex past that ties them with the present. While Janet started with an intention, we can see how the relationship fastly evolves into a queer romance, which is tied with the rest of our fantasy story, investigating about Aunt Tigress and her past grifts.
What I really loved is the worldbuilding: not only with the blend of Chinese myths with fantasy and other mythologies, but how well integrated they are as part of the world; also props for using a non-USA city for the story. The pacing is a little bit slow at the start, but it is more a consequence of how the past of the characters is introduced to us, making the plot to wait a bit until it advances.
Aunt Tigress is a strong debut, a great urban fantasy novel if you are looking for different mythologies and queer relationships with a fair dose of intrigue and action. I wonder if the author will continue writing in this world, but my curiosity is picked, for sure!
March 17, 2025
Mini blurb: In Canada, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant family, half human and half supernatural tiger, who renounced her tiger roots but can still perceive the supernatural world, starts investigating the death of her old mentor Aunt Tigress, while coming to term with the harm she caused in her company.
***
Rated 2.5 really.
First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley and Edelweiss, and got approved on both sites. Thanks to DAW for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.
I'm so, so bummed (more so because I was approved for this one on both the galley sites!). The blurb and the Seanan McGuire comparison had me very excited for this book, and I can see the merit in it (the book - the comparison, not so much), but I wasn't enjoying myself, and I decided to call it quits at 25% for a few reasons. First off, the story and the writing didn't manage to grab me - both the supernatural world and the imagery felt too crowded, for lack of a better word, and at times confusing, or it may be that my eyes glazed over because there wasn't a single element that stood out enough to hook me on the narrative. Secondly, while I'm a seasoned horror reader, I was often grossed out by the specific brand of horror employed here (like, for instance, women with a hole-shaped disease on their arms, or fetus-like creatures preserved in jars and described in detail). The story-within-the-story device didn't help - it isn't one I'm particularly fond of, because it takes me out of the story, and if my interest is already waning, it only exacerbates the matter. Last but not least, I need to forge a strong connection with my characters (especially when I have issues with the plot), and Tam didn't came across as a compelling enough protagonist for me to do that. I saw what this book was trying to do (especially in regard to themes of heritage and cultural appropriation), and I'm sure it will resonate with a number of fantasy readers, but I couldn't find it in me to continue reading.
Note: definitive review (I don't have enough to say to justify writing a full-length one later, and of course I don't plan to reread this book).
***
Rated 2.5 really.
First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley and Edelweiss, and got approved on both sites. Thanks to DAW for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.
I'm so, so bummed (more so because I was approved for this one on both the galley sites!). The blurb and the Seanan McGuire comparison had me very excited for this book, and I can see the merit in it (the book - the comparison, not so much), but I wasn't enjoying myself, and I decided to call it quits at 25% for a few reasons. First off, the story and the writing didn't manage to grab me - both the supernatural world and the imagery felt too crowded, for lack of a better word, and at times confusing, or it may be that my eyes glazed over because there wasn't a single element that stood out enough to hook me on the narrative. Secondly, while I'm a seasoned horror reader, I was often grossed out by the specific brand of horror employed here (like, for instance, women with a hole-shaped disease on their arms, or fetus-like creatures preserved in jars and described in detail). The story-within-the-story device didn't help - it isn't one I'm particularly fond of, because it takes me out of the story, and if my interest is already waning, it only exacerbates the matter. Last but not least, I need to forge a strong connection with my characters (especially when I have issues with the plot), and Tam didn't came across as a compelling enough protagonist for me to do that. I saw what this book was trying to do (especially in regard to themes of heritage and cultural appropriation), and I'm sure it will resonate with a number of fantasy readers, but I couldn't find it in me to continue reading.
Note: definitive review (I don't have enough to say to justify writing a full-length one later, and of course I don't plan to reread this book).
February 15, 2025
This was unfortunately a no from me. The insta-romance between Tam and Janet wasn't convincing, in part because both characters felt like caricatures -- Tam's main trait was being scared and Janet was rude and pushy. I'm not sure how someone you barely know barging into your house, eating your food unannounced, and being blatantly rude to your mom AND THEN NOT CLEANING UP YOUR DISHES is anything but a turn-off, even considering the complex relationship between Tam and her mom. I liked the melding of First Nations and Chinese mythology in theory, but the infodumps and jarring flashbacks slowed down the story significantly without actually providing much context. It's difficult to write unlikeable characters that the reader still wants to read about, and that wasn't accomplished here -- I just didn't want to spend any more time with them than I had to (especially Aunt Tigress, which is saying something considering how much I usually love prickly old women whose goals outweigh caring for others), let alone 450ish pages.
January 1, 2026
This was doing some interesting things.
Tam Lin is half tiger on her father's side, and lives in a world where the supernatural coexists alongside the ordinary, unbeknownst to most regular humans. The story follows her, her girlfriend (Janet), and a random mysterious boy (Jack), as they try to solve the mystery of Tam's dangerous Aunt Tigress.
It has a strong present-day storyline, and then often uses a story-within-a-story format to jump backward and to the side to narrate pieces of lore and backstory. I didn't mind this too much. I'm used to books that do this with in-world myths, but not with backstory. It did get a little wearying by the end, when the backstory starts coming really thick at exactly the time we should be reaching the story's climax.
Things I liked:
• Tam Lin's dark past. I liked that Tam truly had done some awful things, and had to deal with them coming back to haunt her.
• The gore and creepy lore. There were some truly creative, horrible, gross descriptions and concepts, without ever becoming just tawdry or vulgar.
• The minimalist world. It doesn't delve super deep into the inner workings of the magic or mythology. While I do love an exhaustively explained hard magic system, I appreciate a mysterious soft magic system as well, and I think it was the right choice for this story.
Things I did not like:
• The "in-between." I hate dream worlds, and we spent like half the story here.
• At the end it really did feel like we got 5 chapters of just pure backstory, absolutely kneecapping any anticipation or tension I had for the final confrontation.
• The viewing of other people's memories. At a time where we were ALREADY getting all these backstory aside chapters, plunging Tam into back-to-back dream sequences that retroactively explained everything mysterious about the story felt like a real cop-out. Especially her mother's memory. I know we can neverrrr have a real, emotional conversation with a ~Chinese mother~ but there was such potential for a load-bearing moment here between two characters, and never even dealing with it in real life was disappointing.
• Tam's inability to act or speak. This is partially her personality and partially her trauma, but it got frustrating. I understand experiencing freeze reactions under stress, but "I couldn't find the words" or similar phrases were used SO MUCH. And being in the in-between where she's "more confident," and not even being able to TRY to describe the scenery to Janet? Come on. Half of their conversations were Janet saying 4 paragraphs and then Tam just shrugging. It made Tam seem like an inanimate rock sometimes. If Janet hadn't been there, I don't think Tam and Jack would have exchanged more than 10 words for the whole story.
Overall, I respect this book's vision, but I don't think it fully landed.
Tam Lin is half tiger on her father's side, and lives in a world where the supernatural coexists alongside the ordinary, unbeknownst to most regular humans. The story follows her, her girlfriend (Janet), and a random mysterious boy (Jack), as they try to solve the mystery of Tam's dangerous Aunt Tigress.
It has a strong present-day storyline, and then often uses a story-within-a-story format to jump backward and to the side to narrate pieces of lore and backstory. I didn't mind this too much. I'm used to books that do this with in-world myths, but not with backstory. It did get a little wearying by the end, when the backstory starts coming really thick at exactly the time we should be reaching the story's climax.
Things I liked:
• Tam Lin's dark past. I liked that Tam truly had done some awful things, and had to deal with them coming back to haunt her.
• The gore and creepy lore. There were some truly creative, horrible, gross descriptions and concepts, without ever becoming just tawdry or vulgar.
• The minimalist world. It doesn't delve super deep into the inner workings of the magic or mythology. While I do love an exhaustively explained hard magic system, I appreciate a mysterious soft magic system as well, and I think it was the right choice for this story.
Things I did not like:
• The "in-between." I hate dream worlds, and we spent like half the story here.
• At the end it really did feel like we got 5 chapters of just pure backstory, absolutely kneecapping any anticipation or tension I had for the final confrontation.
• The viewing of other people's memories. At a time where we were ALREADY getting all these backstory aside chapters, plunging Tam into back-to-back dream sequences that retroactively explained everything mysterious about the story felt like a real cop-out. Especially her mother's memory. I know we can neverrrr have a real, emotional conversation with a ~Chinese mother~ but there was such potential for a load-bearing moment here between two characters, and never even dealing with it in real life was disappointing.
• Tam's inability to act or speak. This is partially her personality and partially her trauma, but it got frustrating. I understand experiencing freeze reactions under stress, but "I couldn't find the words" or similar phrases were used SO MUCH. And being in the in-between where she's "more confident," and not even being able to TRY to describe the scenery to Janet? Come on. Half of their conversations were Janet saying 4 paragraphs and then Tam just shrugging. It made Tam seem like an inanimate rock sometimes. If Janet hadn't been there, I don't think Tam and Jack would have exchanged more than 10 words for the whole story.
Overall, I respect this book's vision, but I don't think it fully landed.
June 22, 2025
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Aunt Tigress is a chaotic tale with a unique mix of Chinese and Canadian First Nations mythology wrapped up in what should've been an urban fantasy horror. It follows the story of Tam Lin, a Chinese-Canadian girl who is part tiger, who is forced to face her past after finding out her Aunt Tigress has been murdered. Tam takes after her father and aunt (the titular Aunt Tigress) who are centuries old shapeshifting tigers of Chinese mythology who have emigrated to Canada. Tam's father died when she was young in a mysterious car accident tied up in events related to Aunt Tigress' dealings with the supernatural and his presence through Tam's grief lies heavily over her life and the story. Tam is joined by Janet, her brash girlfriend, and Jack, an Indigenous boy who made a deal with a demon ten years ago, who both have personal stakes in discovering what happened to Aunt Tigress. This is plot line is interspersed with many digressions exploring different characters' backgrounds, relationships and the various Chinese and First Nation's myths that have been weaved together in this book.
This is a very fresh addition to urban fantasy, a genre that I don't usually gravitate towards. I really liked the complicated dynamics between Tam and her family, especially her aunt and her place culturally as a living Chinese myth in Canada. Aunt Tigress is a terrible person and that extent is slowly revealed throughout the novel, but there's a pitiful element to her, she provides Tam with a connection to her own heritage and pride in being a tiger (despite perverting their relationship for her own gain), her motives are tied up with her fierce love for her brother and trying to adjust from being apex predator to an inconsequential being in this new environment. The author explicitly shows Aunt Tigress' cultural appropriation and aggressive exploitation of the Indigenous culture and the destruction she causes in her pursuit for power and we learn alongside Tam the impacts of this on the people around her and her own complicity. It is a discombobulated tale at times and meanders too much but the rich interweaving of two different cultural mythologies makes me excited for what the author writes next.
Aunt Tigress is a chaotic tale with a unique mix of Chinese and Canadian First Nations mythology wrapped up in what should've been an urban fantasy horror. It follows the story of Tam Lin, a Chinese-Canadian girl who is part tiger, who is forced to face her past after finding out her Aunt Tigress has been murdered. Tam takes after her father and aunt (the titular Aunt Tigress) who are centuries old shapeshifting tigers of Chinese mythology who have emigrated to Canada. Tam's father died when she was young in a mysterious car accident tied up in events related to Aunt Tigress' dealings with the supernatural and his presence through Tam's grief lies heavily over her life and the story. Tam is joined by Janet, her brash girlfriend, and Jack, an Indigenous boy who made a deal with a demon ten years ago, who both have personal stakes in discovering what happened to Aunt Tigress. This is plot line is interspersed with many digressions exploring different characters' backgrounds, relationships and the various Chinese and First Nation's myths that have been weaved together in this book.
This is a very fresh addition to urban fantasy, a genre that I don't usually gravitate towards. I really liked the complicated dynamics between Tam and her family, especially her aunt and her place culturally as a living Chinese myth in Canada. Aunt Tigress is a terrible person and that extent is slowly revealed throughout the novel, but there's a pitiful element to her, she provides Tam with a connection to her own heritage and pride in being a tiger (despite perverting their relationship for her own gain), her motives are tied up with her fierce love for her brother and trying to adjust from being apex predator to an inconsequential being in this new environment. The author explicitly shows Aunt Tigress' cultural appropriation and aggressive exploitation of the Indigenous culture and the destruction she causes in her pursuit for power and we learn alongside Tam the impacts of this on the people around her and her own complicity. It is a discombobulated tale at times and meanders too much but the rich interweaving of two different cultural mythologies makes me excited for what the author writes next.
May 11, 2025
This had such a high potential but ultimately didn't work for me
April 10, 2025
Loved this book! I almost never read fantasy so I have no idea how normal it is to write a story where a human university student in a Calgary is also literally a tiger...? I agree with other readers that I prefer the pace of the first half, but I really do enjoy the mythologies sprinkled throughout helping me understand the motivations of all these characters. It's a smart novel with complex worldbuilding and I loved figuring it out.
March 9, 2025
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Aunt Tigress by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin is a mixed first and third person multi-POV contemporary Sapphic fantasy set in Calgary, Canada. Tam Lin has made herself as small and safe as possible, cutting meat completely out of her diet despite her nature as a descendent of a tiger spirit. When her aunt is murdered and skinned, Tam finds she can’t run from her true self forever and her new love, Janet, might be another piece of the past she can’t escape.
The majority of the book is from Tam’s POV and moves at a slower pace. The third person chapters are mostly memories of several other characters that help fill out the worldbuilding and give depth to their stories, such as Jack, a young First Nations man and Raja, a man married to a demon. The slower pacing helps give space for a darker atmosphere and mysterious tone to slowly build as we learn more about Aunt Tigress and the complexity of the world. Of the third person POV chapters, I really appreciated the ones from Jack’s POV as they go into the tragic truth that Indigenous women often are abducted or murdered and the system finds it easier to just stop looking instead of doing whatever they can to find them, specifically calling out a societal issue in modern Canadian and American societies.
What I found to be really interesting was how First Nations and Chinese traditional beliefs are combined without saying one is superior to the other or mixing them in a way that feels inauthentic. Emily Yu-Xuan Qin very specifically calls out that the First Nation beliefs do not belong to Tam and her family and that they are living on land that they did not historically belong to. There is the use of some First Nations beliefs that, to my understanding, are better left unnamed as they are called to the person who names them. I mostly say this so readers can make informed decisions even if the way I articulate is probably quite clumsy.
Tam and Janet’s relationship is very complex. I wouldn’t call the book a romance despite the second chapter being them meeting because the tone isn’t what I expect of a genre romance and the book doesn’t really change if Tam and Janet broke up or were only ever friends. Janet can’t see the supernatural world but is curious about the world Tam comes from, helping lead Tam back towards who she could have been in different circumstances. Their relationship is further complicated by a secret Janet is harboring from the very beginning and how she is connected to Tam.
Content warning for depictions of sexual assault, abuse and homophobia
I would recommend this to readers of contemporary fantasy looking for something exploring the complexity of traditional stories and immigration and fans of Sapphic fantasy who want something that doesn’t feel like a genre romance
Aunt Tigress by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin is a mixed first and third person multi-POV contemporary Sapphic fantasy set in Calgary, Canada. Tam Lin has made herself as small and safe as possible, cutting meat completely out of her diet despite her nature as a descendent of a tiger spirit. When her aunt is murdered and skinned, Tam finds she can’t run from her true self forever and her new love, Janet, might be another piece of the past she can’t escape.
The majority of the book is from Tam’s POV and moves at a slower pace. The third person chapters are mostly memories of several other characters that help fill out the worldbuilding and give depth to their stories, such as Jack, a young First Nations man and Raja, a man married to a demon. The slower pacing helps give space for a darker atmosphere and mysterious tone to slowly build as we learn more about Aunt Tigress and the complexity of the world. Of the third person POV chapters, I really appreciated the ones from Jack’s POV as they go into the tragic truth that Indigenous women often are abducted or murdered and the system finds it easier to just stop looking instead of doing whatever they can to find them, specifically calling out a societal issue in modern Canadian and American societies.
What I found to be really interesting was how First Nations and Chinese traditional beliefs are combined without saying one is superior to the other or mixing them in a way that feels inauthentic. Emily Yu-Xuan Qin very specifically calls out that the First Nation beliefs do not belong to Tam and her family and that they are living on land that they did not historically belong to. There is the use of some First Nations beliefs that, to my understanding, are better left unnamed as they are called to the person who names them. I mostly say this so readers can make informed decisions even if the way I articulate is probably quite clumsy.
Tam and Janet’s relationship is very complex. I wouldn’t call the book a romance despite the second chapter being them meeting because the tone isn’t what I expect of a genre romance and the book doesn’t really change if Tam and Janet broke up or were only ever friends. Janet can’t see the supernatural world but is curious about the world Tam comes from, helping lead Tam back towards who she could have been in different circumstances. Their relationship is further complicated by a secret Janet is harboring from the very beginning and how she is connected to Tam.
Content warning for depictions of sexual assault, abuse and homophobia
I would recommend this to readers of contemporary fantasy looking for something exploring the complexity of traditional stories and immigration and fans of Sapphic fantasy who want something that doesn’t feel like a genre romance
November 17, 2024
I received an advance copy from the publisher via Netgalley for review purposes; this in no way influences my review.
I was immediately drawn to Aunt Tigress by the cover, and the synopsis had me intrigued. Tam is a young woman living in Calgary where the magic from her tiger father is weak because it’s far from the forces she calls on for exorcisms and other magics, but she also knows to respect the magic of First Nations without trying to steal it. Or at least, that’s what her father tried to teach her before he died when she was 12, and her Aunt Tigress tried to mold Tam into a tiger like her. After Aunt Tigress pushes Tam too far, Tam cuts all ties to her aunt, and doesn’t see her again until she is presumed dead and Tam wants to figure out what happened. Along the way Tam is joined by her girlfriend, Janet, who has her own secrets and motivations, and Jack, a young man who has no memories from before he was eight because of a deal with made with Ms. Little, a demon and lawyer.
This is at times a very confusing read because there is so much going on in terms of mythology and motivations. I really enjoyed the storytelling and the way different characters’ histories and motivations were revealed. I also really liked the blending of different lore and mythologies to create the world Tam, Jack, and others inhabit. Learning more about the different characters made it so much better, and I loved the contrast of different motivations and goals. This is a story that deals a lot with redemption and vengeance and what stories and practices are ours. I liked how it dealt with Aunt Tigress being a thief of First Nations knowledge, and Tam’s horror to realize more about who her aunt truly was.
This is a book that started weird and confusing, but as I got more into it, I wanted to learn more about Tam and the world she was living in, as well as what was going on with her aunt. I really enjoyed this overall, and hope there’ll be more stories following Tam and Janet and their work with the supernatural world. If you’re a fan of urban fantasy and complicated characters with complex motivations, I definitely encourage picking this up!
I was immediately drawn to Aunt Tigress by the cover, and the synopsis had me intrigued. Tam is a young woman living in Calgary where the magic from her tiger father is weak because it’s far from the forces she calls on for exorcisms and other magics, but she also knows to respect the magic of First Nations without trying to steal it. Or at least, that’s what her father tried to teach her before he died when she was 12, and her Aunt Tigress tried to mold Tam into a tiger like her. After Aunt Tigress pushes Tam too far, Tam cuts all ties to her aunt, and doesn’t see her again until she is presumed dead and Tam wants to figure out what happened. Along the way Tam is joined by her girlfriend, Janet, who has her own secrets and motivations, and Jack, a young man who has no memories from before he was eight because of a deal with made with Ms. Little, a demon and lawyer.
This is at times a very confusing read because there is so much going on in terms of mythology and motivations. I really enjoyed the storytelling and the way different characters’ histories and motivations were revealed. I also really liked the blending of different lore and mythologies to create the world Tam, Jack, and others inhabit. Learning more about the different characters made it so much better, and I loved the contrast of different motivations and goals. This is a story that deals a lot with redemption and vengeance and what stories and practices are ours. I liked how it dealt with Aunt Tigress being a thief of First Nations knowledge, and Tam’s horror to realize more about who her aunt truly was.
This is a book that started weird and confusing, but as I got more into it, I wanted to learn more about Tam and the world she was living in, as well as what was going on with her aunt. I really enjoyed this overall, and hope there’ll be more stories following Tam and Janet and their work with the supernatural world. If you’re a fan of urban fantasy and complicated characters with complex motivations, I definitely encourage picking this up!
May 27, 2025
5/5 no notes.
The prose is wildly unique, the mythos refreshing and grand in a way I've rarely seen, and the queerness makes my gay little heart sing.
It's bitter, but then the sweetness comes through and surprises you. I need more.
The blending of First Nations and Chinese mythologies kept me wanting to know more and more. And what a villain Aunt Tigress was! All the threads of her life tangling Janet, Jack (I don't want to spoil his Indigenous name), and Tam together made for a narrative roller coaster I couldn't possibly anticipate.
No part of this story was predictable. I cried the last time Tam saw her father in her memories. There's just so much raw emotion in this book.
I love how Emily Yu-Xuan Qin fiercely marched to the beat of her own drum in this story. It felt like she crafted this world without apology, and no one could stop her from doing so.
All the side characters from Fox to Raja complemented Tam's journey beautifully. There wasn't a wasted character in Aunt Tigress.
I just — I'm in love. And I need more. I so desperately need a series with Tam, Jack, and Janet starting their supernatural business.
Please write Book 2, Emily. I'll happily feed Fox my blood to make it happen. Well — okay, some of my blood.
The prose is wildly unique, the mythos refreshing and grand in a way I've rarely seen, and the queerness makes my gay little heart sing.
It's bitter, but then the sweetness comes through and surprises you. I need more.
The blending of First Nations and Chinese mythologies kept me wanting to know more and more. And what a villain Aunt Tigress was! All the threads of her life tangling Janet, Jack (I don't want to spoil his Indigenous name), and Tam together made for a narrative roller coaster I couldn't possibly anticipate.
No part of this story was predictable. I cried the last time Tam saw her father in her memories. There's just so much raw emotion in this book.
I love how Emily Yu-Xuan Qin fiercely marched to the beat of her own drum in this story. It felt like she crafted this world without apology, and no one could stop her from doing so.
All the side characters from Fox to Raja complemented Tam's journey beautifully. There wasn't a wasted character in Aunt Tigress.
I just — I'm in love. And I need more. I so desperately need a series with Tam, Jack, and Janet starting their supernatural business.
Please write Book 2, Emily. I'll happily feed Fox my blood to make it happen. Well — okay, some of my blood.
Want to read
February 9, 2025I'm not saying this is published CaitVi fanfiction... But I am saying the cover gives off that vibe 👀
Read
November 19, 2024DNF. This just isn't my jam.
April 18, 2025
One of my anticipated books for this year, due to its sapphic urban fantasy premise and unusually striking cover. In Aunt Tigress, Chinese-Canadian Tam Lin is struggling to adjust after hearing of her notorious, ruthless Aunt Tigress's death. As Tam investigates her aunt's disappearance, she's forced to travel deeper into the magic underworld of Toronto--and confront the crimes she committed as a teen for Aunt Tigress.
This book is nominally billed as urban fantasy, but it lacks the irrepressible spirits and snarkiness of the typical urban fantasy protagonist. Tam is deeply unhappy, wracked with guilt over the things she did as a teen with Aunt Tigress, and sickeningly ill at ease with her tiger self. She doesn't live in a jauntily noir world of vampires and werewolves. In Tam's Toronto, she's prey, a victim of an endless parade of supernatural creatures looking to feed on her, each one more gruesomely parasitic than the last. In Toronto, the magical world is rooted in First Nations mythology, and most of Tam's Chinese magical background is useless. The combined effect of protagonist and setting made Aunt Tigress feel more like horrorgore than anything urban fantasy.
This was also a book explicitly about cultural appropriation. Tam's Aunt Tigress is presented as a greedy old parasite, living in a den full of artifacts bloodily stolen from Indigenous people. She hoards power and preys on magical beings, scrabbling to build herself into a power in this alien land like she was in the old country. Most of the plot is about Tam coming to terms with who Aunt Tigress is and what she's done (many things, most of them bad). There's also a romance plotline with the brash and abrasive Janet, but Janet serves more as an excuse to explain lore to the outsider and an occasional provider of rude comments than as a major structural romance plotline. A third POV character is a First Nations teen who's sold himself to a demon.
Oh, and a note on the chapter titles--Qin chooses to provide two sets of title names, one in English and one in Chinese. I was sending the Chinese bits to the friend who's learning Mandarin (hi Silver), and they're not translations of the English versions, but totally different wittily literary phrases based on the chapter. The headings and postscript on flashbacks are simpler, things like The Story of the Girl or The Story of the Tiger, and the postscript is End.
A fascinating debut bursting with vivid and horrifying Chinee and First Nations folklore, but also a book that's sometimes as disjointed and uncomfortable in its own skin as Tam. I'm not sure I enjoyed it, but I'm interested to see what Qin writes next.
This book is nominally billed as urban fantasy, but it lacks the irrepressible spirits and snarkiness of the typical urban fantasy protagonist. Tam is deeply unhappy, wracked with guilt over the things she did as a teen with Aunt Tigress, and sickeningly ill at ease with her tiger self. She doesn't live in a jauntily noir world of vampires and werewolves. In Tam's Toronto, she's prey, a victim of an endless parade of supernatural creatures looking to feed on her, each one more gruesomely parasitic than the last. In Toronto, the magical world is rooted in First Nations mythology, and most of Tam's Chinese magical background is useless. The combined effect of protagonist and setting made Aunt Tigress feel more like horrorgore than anything urban fantasy.
This was also a book explicitly about cultural appropriation. Tam's Aunt Tigress is presented as a greedy old parasite, living in a den full of artifacts bloodily stolen from Indigenous people. She hoards power and preys on magical beings, scrabbling to build herself into a power in this alien land like she was in the old country. Most of the plot is about Tam coming to terms with who Aunt Tigress is and what she's done (many things, most of them bad). There's also a romance plotline with the brash and abrasive Janet, but Janet serves more as an excuse to explain lore to the outsider and an occasional provider of rude comments than as a major structural romance plotline. A third POV character is a First Nations teen who's sold himself to a demon.
Oh, and a note on the chapter titles--Qin chooses to provide two sets of title names, one in English and one in Chinese. I was sending the Chinese bits to the friend who's learning Mandarin (hi Silver), and they're not translations of the English versions, but totally different wittily literary phrases based on the chapter. The headings and postscript on flashbacks are simpler, things like The Story of the Girl or The Story of the Tiger, and the postscript is End.
A fascinating debut bursting with vivid and horrifying Chinee and First Nations folklore, but also a book that's sometimes as disjointed and uncomfortable in its own skin as Tam. I'm not sure I enjoyed it, but I'm interested to see what Qin writes next.
March 11, 2025
Tam is the descendent of mythical tigers and can see wondrous and terrifying things around her. But she kind of just wants to live a normal life with her new human girlfriend, not run from tentacled creatures and fix the crimes her Aunt Tigress has committed. When her Aunt is found dead and skinned, Tam is forced back into the past she has left behind.
As somebody who has worked with actual tigers, it was fun to read about a tiger family in human skin, I thought a lot of traits were described so accurately. I wanted to sprawl out in a sunny spot on the floor right alongside Tam and her father. This book is so rich in weaving myths and stories together, combining Chinese and First Nations lore in such an intricate way. So many creatures and legends I had never heard of, and the descriptions of the In-Between especially were so vivid. Some of the book is a bit dark, but it still feels cozy. I liked Tam as a MC, she was not perfect but she has so much heart in the story and is willing to do anything to protect her family and friends. I enjoyed how we get chapters that explore some of the other side characters and their back stories, I think that added so much to the story. I loved the incubus and Tam's familiars the most.
I recommend this book to those who like urban fantasy and supernatural mythology. It was an interesting read and kept my attention! I wanted a little more from the ending, but it was enjoyable and overall a great book. I would definitely read more from Emily Yu-Xuan Qin! Also that cover art is pretty cool. I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley for my opinions.
As somebody who has worked with actual tigers, it was fun to read about a tiger family in human skin, I thought a lot of traits were described so accurately. I wanted to sprawl out in a sunny spot on the floor right alongside Tam and her father. This book is so rich in weaving myths and stories together, combining Chinese and First Nations lore in such an intricate way. So many creatures and legends I had never heard of, and the descriptions of the In-Between especially were so vivid. Some of the book is a bit dark, but it still feels cozy. I liked Tam as a MC, she was not perfect but she has so much heart in the story and is willing to do anything to protect her family and friends. I enjoyed how we get chapters that explore some of the other side characters and their back stories, I think that added so much to the story. I loved the incubus and Tam's familiars the most.
I recommend this book to those who like urban fantasy and supernatural mythology. It was an interesting read and kept my attention! I wanted a little more from the ending, but it was enjoyable and overall a great book. I would definitely read more from Emily Yu-Xuan Qin! Also that cover art is pretty cool. I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley for my opinions.
dnf
April 19, 2025DNF @ 23%
Disappointed to say I am not feeling the writing in this book. Even though I’m only just over 20% through, there were quite a few times where I was either confused and/or thought the editing could have been better. For example: “Is it just me? Or does Miss Little look a hair shorter than before? Her perfectly fitted cardigan suddenly sits loose around her shoulders, and her sleeves climb up the backs of her hands.” – if her sleeves are climbing up the backs of her hands, isn’t she getting taller, then, not shorter? Also “Aunt Tigress gave me the whites of her eyes.” – that’s so clunky? Just say she rolled her eyes…
I also struggled a lot with the interwoven stories because this really slowed the pacing down, and I wasn’t a fan of how Tam and Janet are basically already in a relationship/situationship/something right from the start, so there wasn’t really any chance for me to become invested in this aspect of the story.
Disappointed to say I am not feeling the writing in this book. Even though I’m only just over 20% through, there were quite a few times where I was either confused and/or thought the editing could have been better. For example: “Is it just me? Or does Miss Little look a hair shorter than before? Her perfectly fitted cardigan suddenly sits loose around her shoulders, and her sleeves climb up the backs of her hands.” – if her sleeves are climbing up the backs of her hands, isn’t she getting taller, then, not shorter? Also “Aunt Tigress gave me the whites of her eyes.” – that’s so clunky? Just say she rolled her eyes…
I also struggled a lot with the interwoven stories because this really slowed the pacing down, and I wasn’t a fan of how Tam and Janet are basically already in a relationship/situationship/something right from the start, so there wasn’t really any chance for me to become invested in this aspect of the story.
October 15, 2025
2.5 ☆
I really wanted to love this book, and don't get me wrong, there are some aspects that I adore, but unfortunately, the rest fell flat.
There's a quote towards the end of the book that summarizes my problem with this book: "Tam, are you too busy hiding in other people's mythologies? Won't you show me how your story ends?". Tam is a very flat protagonist, and the book itself treats her as if she's not the protagonist. The entire book is about other people's stories and Tam's involvement in them as a secondary character.
I really wanted to love this book, and don't get me wrong, there are some aspects that I adore, but unfortunately, the rest fell flat.
There's a quote towards the end of the book that summarizes my problem with this book: "Tam, are you too busy hiding in other people's mythologies? Won't you show me how your story ends?". Tam is a very flat protagonist, and the book itself treats her as if she's not the protagonist. The entire book is about other people's stories and Tam's involvement in them as a secondary character.
March 20, 2025
I think this was a really well crafted interesting story. The layers of mythology mixed in with main plot was compelling and gave more depth to the world. I loved the moral grayness of all the characters. Not sure how I feel about the romance. I wish it had been a slower burn. Did appreciate the intimacy issues and how that was handled. Overall I think fans of The Spear Cuts Through Water would enjoy this narrative style.
Rep: Chinese author and MC, lesbian MC and romance
Rep: Chinese author and MC, lesbian MC and romance
May 2, 2025
*****I received this free audiobook from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
So this book was not a book for me. Having said that, I still feel it was written well and if it is your ‘cup of tea’ you would enjoy it. It is a supernatural story with witches, Chinese animals/people and much more. The Aunt Tigress is a nasty supernatural woman and she dies leaving her family to sort with. But it gets crazy.
So this book was not a book for me. Having said that, I still feel it was written well and if it is your ‘cup of tea’ you would enjoy it. It is a supernatural story with witches, Chinese animals/people and much more. The Aunt Tigress is a nasty supernatural woman and she dies leaving her family to sort with. But it gets crazy.
October 19, 2025
I liked the characters and worldbuilding. The romance was sweet and spicy at times but frustrating at other times.
This book was difficult for me to get into due to the constant time jumps. It was hard to find good pacing with the story. The perspective is from the main character's point of view. For this purpose, I feel some backstories of other characters could have been left untold in this book. We don't need to know every backstory of every character, especially if the main character doesn't know about them.
The second half became enthralling. But what really hurts my overall opinion is that some major plot points go unaddressed in the end.
This book was difficult for me to get into due to the constant time jumps. It was hard to find good pacing with the story. The perspective is from the main character's point of view. For this purpose, I feel some backstories of other characters could have been left untold in this book. We don't need to know every backstory of every character, especially if the main character doesn't know about them.
The second half became enthralling. But what really hurts my overall opinion is that some major plot points go unaddressed in the end.
Read
February 3, 2025Aunt Tigress is a tale that shows us the dark and disturbing underbelly of supernatural Calgary. Qin writes with bold style and weaves intricate lore nestled within a story that will make you feel like you’re seated at the scariest campfire of your life!
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