What do you think?
Rate this book
The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death
Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus meets Helen Oyeyemi's Mr Fox in this dark fantasy tale infused with mystery and threat. From the multi-award-winning author of The Migration, comes the story of a young woman and her grandmother living in the shadow of an endless war, where the painted glamour of the circus hides a world of seduction, violence, cruelty and revenge.
Sara Sidorova lies dying. As she hovers between life and death, she receives a visitation from Amba, the tiger god who will devour creation if he is released from the chains that bind him. Amba gives Sara Sidorova an extraordinary gift: a glimpse into the future.
Years later, her granddaughter Irenda will grow up in a wartorn country where survival means obedience. When a devastating attack robs her of her mother, she travels to Hrana City. There, her grandmother agrees to teach her the ultimate secret: how to tame death. But it won’t be easy…
In the circus that offers her first taste of power, Irenda will have to tame another tiger if she is to survive. Amongst the magicians, the strongmen and the contortionists, she will start down a dangerous road, to carry out a revenge decades in the making... and bring justice into the world for herself and for her family.
Rich with glamour and strangeness, brutality and deceit and the dark magic of the circus, this haunting fable will chill your bones and make your heart ache.
Sara Sidorova lies dying. As she hovers between life and death, she receives a visitation from Amba, the tiger god who will devour creation if he is released from the chains that bind him. Amba gives Sara Sidorova an extraordinary gift: a glimpse into the future.
Years later, her granddaughter Irenda will grow up in a wartorn country where survival means obedience. When a devastating attack robs her of her mother, she travels to Hrana City. There, her grandmother agrees to teach her the ultimate secret: how to tame death. But it won’t be easy…
In the circus that offers her first taste of power, Irenda will have to tame another tiger if she is to survive. Amongst the magicians, the strongmen and the contortionists, she will start down a dangerous road, to carry out a revenge decades in the making... and bring justice into the world for herself and for her family.
Rich with glamour and strangeness, brutality and deceit and the dark magic of the circus, this haunting fable will chill your bones and make your heart ache.
368 pages, Paperback
First published June 10, 2025
23 people are currently reading
1015 people want to read
About the author
Helen Marshall
115 books202 followersHelen Marshall (manuscriptgal.com) is an award-winning author, editor, and bibliophile.
Her poetry and short fiction have been published in The Chiaroscuro, Paper Crow, Abyss & Apex, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and Tor.com. In 2011, she released a collection of poems entitled Skeleton Leaves from Kelp Queen Press and her collection of short stories Hair Side, Flesh Side was released from ChiZine Publications in 2012. This collection won the 2013 British Fantasy Sydney J. Bounds Award and was short-listed for a 2013 Aurora Award for Best Related Work. It was named one of the top ten F/SF books of 2012 by January Magazine. Her second fiction collection Gifts for the One Who Comes After launched in September 2014.
Her poetry and short fiction have been published in The Chiaroscuro, Paper Crow, Abyss & Apex, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and Tor.com. In 2011, she released a collection of poems entitled Skeleton Leaves from Kelp Queen Press and her collection of short stories Hair Side, Flesh Side was released from ChiZine Publications in 2012. This collection won the 2013 British Fantasy Sydney J. Bounds Award and was short-listed for a 2013 Aurora Award for Best Related Work. It was named one of the top ten F/SF books of 2012 by January Magazine. Her second fiction collection Gifts for the One Who Comes After launched in September 2014.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
June 14, 2025
A fever dream of a novel, Helen Marshall's The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl who Loved Death is lush, strange, and deeply unsettling. It invites the reader into a world steeped in magic and menace, where the dazzling spectacle of the circus masks the brutal machinery of a totalitarian regime. At its best the novel is a mesmerising meditation on power, identity, and the slipperiness of truth — blending myth, history, and the uncanny in ways that feel both timeless and urgently modern.
Marshall revels in the theatrical and the unreal yet grounds her story in very real horrors. Her world building is both grand and claustrophobic, filled with tyrants, living gods, and performers, all of whom blur the line between performance and reality. The novel is rich with themes: the seduction and danger of belief, the ways stories shape identity, and how power reshapes both. There’s a meta textual delight in how the novel folds in on itself, stories within stories, truths masquerading as fictions, and time unraveling like a coiled ribbon. It’s a celebration of storytelling as both rebellion and refuge.
But the very qualities that make the novel so ambitious are also its biggest stumbling blocks. The narrative is deeply circuitous, and not in a gently meandering way — it loops, doubles back, and occasionally loses its own thread. At times it’s genuinely difficult to discern who is telling the story, whose perspective we're inhabiting, or even if what we’re reading is “really” happening within the world of the novel. This ambiguity, while thematically resonant, can be frustrating especially in a book that offers little by way of firm conclusions or emotional resolution. The ending, for all its ambiguity, felt more muted than profound leaving me more bereft than moved.
Thank you Titan for the ARC
Marshall revels in the theatrical and the unreal yet grounds her story in very real horrors. Her world building is both grand and claustrophobic, filled with tyrants, living gods, and performers, all of whom blur the line between performance and reality. The novel is rich with themes: the seduction and danger of belief, the ways stories shape identity, and how power reshapes both. There’s a meta textual delight in how the novel folds in on itself, stories within stories, truths masquerading as fictions, and time unraveling like a coiled ribbon. It’s a celebration of storytelling as both rebellion and refuge.
But the very qualities that make the novel so ambitious are also its biggest stumbling blocks. The narrative is deeply circuitous, and not in a gently meandering way — it loops, doubles back, and occasionally loses its own thread. At times it’s genuinely difficult to discern who is telling the story, whose perspective we're inhabiting, or even if what we’re reading is “really” happening within the world of the novel. This ambiguity, while thematically resonant, can be frustrating especially in a book that offers little by way of firm conclusions or emotional resolution. The ending, for all its ambiguity, felt more muted than profound leaving me more bereft than moved.
Thank you Titan for the ARC
June 27, 2025
Review originally on JamReads
The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death is a literary fantasy novel, written by Helen Marshall, and published by Titan Books. A smart proposal that plays with the concept of the power of stories, following generations of the same family in a dangerous country inspired by Eastern Europe, combining elements of old folklore with more modern ones such as the propaganda of authoritative regimes, all enveloped in a superb prose.
Strana is again at war; a young widow called Sara Sidorova is running, trying to escape the enemy soldiers. As she's shot, she finds herself in the presence of Amba, the Tiger that once freed will devour the universe, guarded by two entities called the Morning and the Evening Star; Sara will get to see not only her future life but also of her granddaughter Irenda, being able to experience all the pain that is to come, having the choice to not only end her life but also freeing Amba ending with the universe and effectively, preventing what is to happen.
And like with a matrioshka, Marshall continues playing with the concept of stories inside other stories, taking us with Irenda and her life in the circus; a lush and dazzling world that is used as the mask for the totalitarianism that is dominating Strana. The line between performance and reality is totally blurred, and we can see how the own power of spectacle is used as a reinforce for the propaganda needed by the political power; and all this dazzling world contrasts with the bleakness of Hrana City and the own country of Strana, where violence and blood is every day's coin. Irenda's story is one about contrasts, and similarly to with Sara, grief is also at the center of many pivotal moments; and while there's pain, we also have a glimmer of hope.
Marshall blends the old and the modern, the folklore and the religion made out of power, all to create a setting that serves as the scenario where our characters are representing their plays; the narrative style tends to go into a circular style, showing how everything is part of a sempiternal cycle, with many elements that readers will recognise from one moment to other.
The prose borders a bit on the lyrical, and the pacing is relatively calm, however, it engulfs you and doesn't let you stop reading without having one more question to answer.
The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death is, simply, a brilliant book; an excellent literary fantasy proposal which is quite unique in the way it portrays many themes while also taking some bold stylistic choices, all to create a memorable novel. One of my highlights of the year, without a doubt.
The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death is a literary fantasy novel, written by Helen Marshall, and published by Titan Books. A smart proposal that plays with the concept of the power of stories, following generations of the same family in a dangerous country inspired by Eastern Europe, combining elements of old folklore with more modern ones such as the propaganda of authoritative regimes, all enveloped in a superb prose.
Strana is again at war; a young widow called Sara Sidorova is running, trying to escape the enemy soldiers. As she's shot, she finds herself in the presence of Amba, the Tiger that once freed will devour the universe, guarded by two entities called the Morning and the Evening Star; Sara will get to see not only her future life but also of her granddaughter Irenda, being able to experience all the pain that is to come, having the choice to not only end her life but also freeing Amba ending with the universe and effectively, preventing what is to happen.
And like with a matrioshka, Marshall continues playing with the concept of stories inside other stories, taking us with Irenda and her life in the circus; a lush and dazzling world that is used as the mask for the totalitarianism that is dominating Strana. The line between performance and reality is totally blurred, and we can see how the own power of spectacle is used as a reinforce for the propaganda needed by the political power; and all this dazzling world contrasts with the bleakness of Hrana City and the own country of Strana, where violence and blood is every day's coin. Irenda's story is one about contrasts, and similarly to with Sara, grief is also at the center of many pivotal moments; and while there's pain, we also have a glimmer of hope.
Marshall blends the old and the modern, the folklore and the religion made out of power, all to create a setting that serves as the scenario where our characters are representing their plays; the narrative style tends to go into a circular style, showing how everything is part of a sempiternal cycle, with many elements that readers will recognise from one moment to other.
The prose borders a bit on the lyrical, and the pacing is relatively calm, however, it engulfs you and doesn't let you stop reading without having one more question to answer.
The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death is, simply, a brilliant book; an excellent literary fantasy proposal which is quite unique in the way it portrays many themes while also taking some bold stylistic choices, all to create a memorable novel. One of my highlights of the year, without a doubt.
Read
August 2, 2025My review of the novel—which I absolutely enjoyed—can be found in July 2025 issue of Locus.
June 16, 2025
Beautiful strange magical and shipping a tale that reminds us that stories are dangerous too. I loved it
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
July 4, 2025
This is a story-within-a-story book, told by a grandmother to a granddaughter (or vice versa) even though they didn't really know each other in real life.
Welcome to Helen Marshall Land.
Marshall is a fantasist who writes immaculately perfect metaphors and can wrap arcane concepts around her little finger. Once you get your head around the frame story, the book plunges into the meat of the tale (pun intended) about a tiger named Amba that might be more than a tiger, and the girl who loves him and cares for him at the circus.
What the book really wants to deal with is oppression, perpetrated by the State and promulgated by the idea of a forever war. The entire society is in thrall to the General who runs the State, evoking images of the book 1984, among others. The circus enables the narrative to travel around, but it can never escape the vigilance (and interference – or is that support?) of the State, the General and his minions. There is great loss in this novel that affects all the characters.
As with any good fantasy, there's ambiguity in the narrative: is the POV character (the girl) perceiving things accurately, and what is happening to her personality over the course of the book? Interwoven with occasional comments from the grandmother-granddaughter observers that remind us we are experiencing a tale as told by a participant, therefore somewhat suspect.
I wish I could tell you just how good Marshall is at this, but you have to see for yourself.
Welcome to Helen Marshall Land.
Marshall is a fantasist who writes immaculately perfect metaphors and can wrap arcane concepts around her little finger. Once you get your head around the frame story, the book plunges into the meat of the tale (pun intended) about a tiger named Amba that might be more than a tiger, and the girl who loves him and cares for him at the circus.
What the book really wants to deal with is oppression, perpetrated by the State and promulgated by the idea of a forever war. The entire society is in thrall to the General who runs the State, evoking images of the book 1984, among others. The circus enables the narrative to travel around, but it can never escape the vigilance (and interference – or is that support?) of the State, the General and his minions. There is great loss in this novel that affects all the characters.
As with any good fantasy, there's ambiguity in the narrative: is the POV character (the girl) perceiving things accurately, and what is happening to her personality over the course of the book? Interwoven with occasional comments from the grandmother-granddaughter observers that remind us we are experiencing a tale as told by a participant, therefore somewhat suspect.
I wish I could tell you just how good Marshall is at this, but you have to see for yourself.
Want to read
October 17, 2024"Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus meets Helen Oyeyemi's Mr Fox in this dark fantasy tale infused with mystery and threat. "
June 18, 2025
Sara Sidorova was visited by Amba, the tiger god, who gave her a glimpse into the future. Years later, her granddaughter Irenda will grow up in a war-torn country where survival means obedience. When a devastating attack orphans her, she travels to Hrana City. Within the circus, staff will teach Irenda how to tame death. It's dangerous to carry out a revenge decades in the making, but it will bring justice into the world for herself and for her family.
The book is structured as stories within stories, a sleepy once upon a time built on the bones of an Eastern European countryside. Sara was widowed and shot in the same area where her granddaughter Irenda will grow up. The town is one where neighbors watch and inform on each other, and a bomb turns victims into heroes. Grief carries a currency and cachet in this world, and Irenda still carries it with her when she meets Sara. It's a little more muted when she's in the circus, but hovers throughout her actions. The oppressive government sponsors the circus, so its dread fills the members. She starts off caring for the tiger, seen as the personification of death, and the revenge that Sara sought is a convoluted one after Irenda has her own sorrow and pain to deal with.
The novel takes us behind the scenes of a circus, with the acts and magic shows watched very closely by the military in charge. The tense undercurrent and grief carry Irenda forward, with Sara's viewpoint at intervals. The wars tear the ordinary people apart, and opportunities for justice or survival are sometimes few and only within the realm of story. The lyrical writing makes this feel like a modern fairy tale.
The book is structured as stories within stories, a sleepy once upon a time built on the bones of an Eastern European countryside. Sara was widowed and shot in the same area where her granddaughter Irenda will grow up. The town is one where neighbors watch and inform on each other, and a bomb turns victims into heroes. Grief carries a currency and cachet in this world, and Irenda still carries it with her when she meets Sara. It's a little more muted when she's in the circus, but hovers throughout her actions. The oppressive government sponsors the circus, so its dread fills the members. She starts off caring for the tiger, seen as the personification of death, and the revenge that Sara sought is a convoluted one after Irenda has her own sorrow and pain to deal with.
The novel takes us behind the scenes of a circus, with the acts and magic shows watched very closely by the military in charge. The tense undercurrent and grief carry Irenda forward, with Sara's viewpoint at intervals. The wars tear the ordinary people apart, and opportunities for justice or survival are sometimes few and only within the realm of story. The lyrical writing makes this feel like a modern fairy tale.
July 2, 2025
I gave this book 3.5 stars.
Thank you so much to Titan Books for sending me a physical ARC to read and review.
The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death by Helen Marshall reads like a dark fairytale that balances European folklore with modern themes. It is rooted in a cautionary tale that feels bleak as we follow the story of a grandmother and granddaughter as they battle to break a generational curse.
Cyclical in theme, Marshall weaves the lives of both characters and interconnects their stories to present a harrowing and heavy message about power, performance, and politics. Marshall does all this while maintaining lyrical writing that feels bold with its slashes of vibrancy and the author is not shy in her descriptions as she strips the book down to its bones. Although this book is beautifully written which kept me entirely captivated, it could also be confusing at times with the narrative and plot. I felt sometimes it was written in circles, and the repetition threw me off.
However, it delivers a unique and strange story that is unsettling and animalistic with a setting that serves its purpose well for commentary on life imitating art. It's a raw and honest read that is complicated and forces its reader to face realities. Above all, I loved how stories were at the heart of this book: how they teach and guide us, and how there is an answer in every story, and therefore, we always have hope.
Thank you so much to Titan Books for sending me a physical ARC to read and review.
The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death by Helen Marshall reads like a dark fairytale that balances European folklore with modern themes. It is rooted in a cautionary tale that feels bleak as we follow the story of a grandmother and granddaughter as they battle to break a generational curse.
Cyclical in theme, Marshall weaves the lives of both characters and interconnects their stories to present a harrowing and heavy message about power, performance, and politics. Marshall does all this while maintaining lyrical writing that feels bold with its slashes of vibrancy and the author is not shy in her descriptions as she strips the book down to its bones. Although this book is beautifully written which kept me entirely captivated, it could also be confusing at times with the narrative and plot. I felt sometimes it was written in circles, and the repetition threw me off.
However, it delivers a unique and strange story that is unsettling and animalistic with a setting that serves its purpose well for commentary on life imitating art. It's a raw and honest read that is complicated and forces its reader to face realities. Above all, I loved how stories were at the heart of this book: how they teach and guide us, and how there is an answer in every story, and therefore, we always have hope.
November 5, 2025
Honestly, worth having on your shelf just for the cover art.
This novel draws extravagantly on a rage of Eastern European folk tales, and the best of inspirations from Angela Carter's writing. I must admit, I was thrown out a few times - in a good way - realising this was set in the modern era, with occasional references to modern technology, because of the way Marshall incorporates so many mythological storytelling elements.
The structure itself is so clever - having Sara Sidorova's voice occasionally interject into what she is observing in the present day (the future for her) felt like some very delicious meta-commentary.
"Around and around the universe turns like a great spindle, yarning out story after story. That's the art of the mirabilist, I've learned: kenning the warp and weft of the world's affairs, pulling a thread here, a thread there, weaving ill fortune and good, dyeing each strand in heart's blood."
"'Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village in the forest. The girl dreamed of fire, every night she dreamed of fire...' Her voice was husky and she leaned in close, touched her lips to mine. A pulse of heat strung itself between my groin and my wrists. 'Smile for them Irenda. If you're lucky, no one will look deeper than your smile.'"
"Instead I remembered the corset and what it had said to me about the self: how one could delight in excess, in beauty, a certain wildness. I wanted my patrons to know beauty. To understand how beauty was the life of the soul. But my heroine would be beyond it, a frozen thing, an iceberg queen, unmoved, uninvolved, incapable of pain, incapable of love. That was what made her free."
"It seems to me at times that the soldiers
who never returned from the bloody fields
did not sink into the earth at all
but instead flew off - pure white cranes."
"Suddenly I wanted to be the child who believed without question and never asked who gave the orders and why. I wanted to remember how it was to be a joint, or a ligament, or a hand, ora finger, some part of a moving whole."
"The crowd swarmed around me - mobbing, dancing, and praying - and I let them do it. My hands twisted free from Master Fortunato's and I sank into muscles, meat, and sinew. They surrounded me. Fingers clutching after me, tearing sequins from my gown to be kept as private treasures.
Red hips, red waist, red breasts."
"There are stars in their depths, she thinks, new constellations of light unseen by any mortal. How is a woman supposed to look into such vastness and resist?"
"I practice poses for my act. There are nine basic passions: joy, sorrow, fear, scorn, anger, amazement, jealousy, revenge, and pity. I promised Papa I'd master them while he was away. It's been a good task for me. Once I know these I'll have felt everything there is to feel in the world."
This novel draws extravagantly on a rage of Eastern European folk tales, and the best of inspirations from Angela Carter's writing. I must admit, I was thrown out a few times - in a good way - realising this was set in the modern era, with occasional references to modern technology, because of the way Marshall incorporates so many mythological storytelling elements.
The structure itself is so clever - having Sara Sidorova's voice occasionally interject into what she is observing in the present day (the future for her) felt like some very delicious meta-commentary.
"Around and around the universe turns like a great spindle, yarning out story after story. That's the art of the mirabilist, I've learned: kenning the warp and weft of the world's affairs, pulling a thread here, a thread there, weaving ill fortune and good, dyeing each strand in heart's blood."
"'Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village in the forest. The girl dreamed of fire, every night she dreamed of fire...' Her voice was husky and she leaned in close, touched her lips to mine. A pulse of heat strung itself between my groin and my wrists. 'Smile for them Irenda. If you're lucky, no one will look deeper than your smile.'"
"Instead I remembered the corset and what it had said to me about the self: how one could delight in excess, in beauty, a certain wildness. I wanted my patrons to know beauty. To understand how beauty was the life of the soul. But my heroine would be beyond it, a frozen thing, an iceberg queen, unmoved, uninvolved, incapable of pain, incapable of love. That was what made her free."
"It seems to me at times that the soldiers
who never returned from the bloody fields
did not sink into the earth at all
but instead flew off - pure white cranes."
"Suddenly I wanted to be the child who believed without question and never asked who gave the orders and why. I wanted to remember how it was to be a joint, or a ligament, or a hand, ora finger, some part of a moving whole."
"The crowd swarmed around me - mobbing, dancing, and praying - and I let them do it. My hands twisted free from Master Fortunato's and I sank into muscles, meat, and sinew. They surrounded me. Fingers clutching after me, tearing sequins from my gown to be kept as private treasures.
Red hips, red waist, red breasts."
"There are stars in their depths, she thinks, new constellations of light unseen by any mortal. How is a woman supposed to look into such vastness and resist?"
"I practice poses for my act. There are nine basic passions: joy, sorrow, fear, scorn, anger, amazement, jealousy, revenge, and pity. I promised Papa I'd master them while he was away. It's been a good task for me. Once I know these I'll have felt everything there is to feel in the world."
June 5, 2025
The Lady, The Tiger and The Girl who loved Death
I actually had a hard time putting this book down. I read The Night Circus a few years ago and this book definitely has the same haunting quality and written in a unique way! The storyline of this book was a little confusing but it was beautifully written and the fact that it was written a little like a maze had me more captivated. Helen Marshall captured both the glamour and the dark elements of the Circus, featuring themes of seduction, death, violence, cruelty, revenge but also themes of finding love and fitting into a world that’s completely against you.
It’s brutal, it’s complex, it’s haunting but it’s also beautiful, honest and captivating! Reading this book is truly an experience and one that is difficult to put into words.
Thank you to New South Publishing for sending me a physical copy to read and review!
July 3, 2025
I think the magical aspect of this book was also its biggest disappointment. The writing style tried to create something beautiful, but for me it really lacked something, which made it feel clunky. There were moments when I genuinely felt like the story was set in the 19th century, and then suddenly they were in modern cars. It felt like there were a whole bunch of metaphors hidden throughout—or at least it came across that way—which made it hard for me to truly feel the atmosphere. Such a shame, but I’m landing on a low 2.5 stars.
March 25, 2025
Absolutely beautiful writing makes this Russian inspired myth/fable a must read, even if the plot circles around itself and I admit to occasional getting lost in whose story it was telling.
3.5 Stars.
3.5 Stars.
May 22, 2025
gorgeous writing that weaves an elegant maze for your mind. the characters are interesting, too, but the plot really carries this forward. however, this comes at the occasional cost that it's sometimes hard to keep parts straight. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.
November 13, 2025
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was an interesting book. My bookclub buddy read this as paperback and was confused so I tried on audiobook and it didn’t help. I think the format it was written in just was not for me and the story was just clunky.
This was an interesting book. My bookclub buddy read this as paperback and was confused so I tried on audiobook and it didn’t help. I think the format it was written in just was not for me and the story was just clunky.
August 3, 2025
You can’t pop in and out of this story, you have to give it a lot of time all at once, and then it can grab you. :) 🐅
August 18, 2025
3.5 stars, good but too vague at times
August 25, 2025
Unique, beautiful, and timeless.
September 23, 2025
femininomenon
November 14, 2025
A beautiful, poetic novel. A sensuous exploration of self, the body, and death, and the lives of women in times of war.
January 2, 2026
DNF@ 6% (January 2, 2026)
Yeah, this just didn't give me anything to grab onto. It might get good in another 20 pages, I don't care enough to stick around and find out.
Yeah, this just didn't give me anything to grab onto. It might get good in another 20 pages, I don't care enough to stick around and find out.
July 27, 2025
Gorgeous exercise in magical realism. Like a Russian nesting doll, Helen Marshall hides stories within tales within fables, following three generations of women struggling within an Eastern European-style totalitarian regime. Weaving it together into a fantastical tapestry of both enchanting folklore and brutal reality, Marshall once again proves herself as one of the finest Canadian fantasists going. More, please!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews