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The Tyger
“The Path Through Time” is Jules’s favorite part of the museum, a marvelous exhibit that brings the past to life, from the present all the way back to the prehistoric. Tonight at his aunt’s wedding reception as Jules walks along the path, it comes alive like never before.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
25 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 24, 2021
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72 people want to read
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Tegan Moore
17 books9 followersTegan Moore is an author and a professional dog trainer.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 1, 2021
He wanted to feel little-kiddish again, that safe kind of scared that didn’t seem to exist anymore.
jules is twelve years old, attending the wedding reception of his beloved aunt lydia, which is being held at his favorite place—a natural history museum whose interactive exhibit, the Path Through Time, takes visitors backwards through the stages of human civilization, ending up in man's wild and unprotected beginningtimes, with a memorable figure.
Stepping onto the Path’s nighttime street was like being picked up out of normal life and set down in olden days, and then, as you walked, older and older days, and all the way back to when animals were huge and everything was tusked, with the short-faced bear at the very end of it all, Arctodus: slavering, shaggy and clawed, his roar filling the room, teeth and tongue slimy and eyes like holes in ice, monster-king of the Path.
Arctodus was in every kid’s nightmares; once you walked the Path he was with you forever, like a god. The Path led you to him, whether you hurried or didn’t. Half the pleasure was knowing the horror you were headed toward.
the path through time that the museum depicts is the exact opposite of what jules is experiencing on his own path through time; the past may have been more dangerous to capital-m man, but his childhood was so much safer and more stable than his life is now; with his parents divorced, and his aunt and mother's relationship in a precarious place, presumably because of his mother's drinking, her public emotional outbursts, and her bitter grief over her failed marriage to an unfaithful man.
jules is coming to realize there are only more tusk'ed problems to face and no knowing what horrors are to come, and he'd love to return to the place where the scariest thing in life was a taxidermied bear.
but on this night, without the crowds and the daylight, surrounded by the distant sounds of the reception's revelries, the path through time is a little bit different than it has been on his previous visits, and as jules heads towards the horror he knows, he might discover something different waiting for him at the exhibit's end.
a lovely and bittersweet little story about growing up and dealing with all of it, with taxidermy animals as metaphor.
They’d been alive, once, and now they were dead but pretending they weren’t.
aren't we all...
read it for yourself here:
https://www.tor.com/2021/02/24/the-ty...
come to my blog!!
April 25, 2021
Jules is twelve years old and he is attending his aunt's wedding at the museum. His parents are going through a divorce and his mum is really emotional and everyone expects Jules to calm his mum down whenever she cries in public. Jules is enjoying his favorite part of the museum but he notices some changes from his previous visits. He's trying to understand everything why there are changes in the museum or were they always like that?
This story is astonishing. The way the author ties Jules's emotions to his surroundings is rather clever. It did go a little slow in the middle or may be I didn't know where the story was going but by the end I loved it as I fully understood the deeper meaning that lies within.
4 stars
This story is astonishing. The way the author ties Jules's emotions to his surroundings is rather clever. It did go a little slow in the middle or may be I didn't know where the story was going but by the end I loved it as I fully understood the deeper meaning that lies within.
4 stars
March 25, 2021
Although I'm not fond of ideology or allegory as fantasy, I do very much enjoy the particular kind of metaphor as fantasy where the metaphor is both subtle and ambiguous, and where there is both magic and metaphor (but which doesn't hit you over the head with the metaphor). This story gets it pretty right, though I feel its ending was just a touch abrupt.
March 27, 2021
Half the pleasure was knowing the horror you were headed toward.
Night at the Museum.... but as a Bildungsroman. Twelve-year-old Jules' perception of everything has changed because his parents got divorced, and now his mum is maniacally drunk at his Aunt Lydia's wedding and keeps insisting he recites William Blake's The Tyger. He decides to escape by exploring the museum attraction that serves as the wedding venue: a path that allows you to walk from the present to prehistoric times, lavish with displays of different historical eras.
The story keeps us in ambiguity about whether or not the museum mannequins are actually alive or it's all in Jules' head, effectively keeping us enthralled in an air of creepiness and backstory— we all expect them to literally come alive in front of Jules' eyes, and yet we also don't. It serves as allegory, much as the story's namesake poem, that Jules sees change because his own life has changed so drastically and he's still unsure of how to deal with things. I feel that Moore does this story fantastically well, heightening our tension with amazingly detailed and engaging atmosphere, and I love the ending. Its abruptness hits home that . That final image of is so simple, but it tells the biggest truth of all.
Night at the Museum.... but as a Bildungsroman. Twelve-year-old Jules' perception of everything has changed because his parents got divorced, and now his mum is maniacally drunk at his Aunt Lydia's wedding and keeps insisting he recites William Blake's The Tyger. He decides to escape by exploring the museum attraction that serves as the wedding venue: a path that allows you to walk from the present to prehistoric times, lavish with displays of different historical eras.
The story keeps us in ambiguity about whether or not the museum mannequins are actually alive or it's all in Jules' head, effectively keeping us enthralled in an air of creepiness and backstory— we all expect them to literally come alive in front of Jules' eyes, and yet we also don't. It serves as allegory, much as the story's namesake poem, that Jules sees change because his own life has changed so drastically and he's still unsure of how to deal with things. I feel that Moore does this story fantastically well, heightening our tension with amazingly detailed and engaging atmosphere, and I love the ending. Its abruptness hits home that . That final image of is so simple, but it tells the biggest truth of all.
July 6, 2021
This story, like most wedding receptions, contained too many relatives, and not enough Arcturus.
February 27, 2021
So: I am never really a fan of stories where the fantastical elements exist entirely to underline a horrible realism. I'm okay with slipstream as a whole, but a lot of times it's a story where like... oh, there are winged people but it's actually because they're the people who are forever marked by sexual assault and are viewed by the public as these tragic victims forever. Or there are powerful old ladies who are witches but it's actually a story about dementia. I like slipstream where the fantastical resonates with the real in a way that both elements are highlighted by the literary commentary inherent in it. But I tend to really dislike it and feel cheated by the narrative when it starts out as oh, this is a cool stories about angels (surprise: Guess what, it's sexual assault!!) or oh neat this is a witch story (surprise: were you ready for this dementia and neglect??), because if I was in the mood to read about that, I would have picked a story that I knew was about that. If I'm reading about angels or witches I probably am not in the mood for them to be a stand-in for something I hadn't braced myself to read about. I don't mind if something comes up in a story or if the metaphor is there regardless, but if the whole story's plot is about that I don't want to be told it's about something else.
The Tyger isn't one of those stories. It is very clear up front what it's about: Jules' relationship with pretty much everyone he knows has changed because his parents got divorced and he doesn't know how to process it. His father cheated on his mother. His mother is furious and drunk. And he's at an extended family get together at his aunt's wedding and having to face this, and it's held in a museum with a display that walks you back through time, and while he tries to explore how his own memories of everyone has been changed by this truth we're seeing his anger and fear and confusion and hurt changing these wax figures, both in reaction to his speculation and in ways out of his control. And parts of it might be really happening -- the story isn't interested in answering if it is or if it isn't -- but at its heart, this isn't a fantasy story so much as a story about fantasies that are helping him process his emotions.
It's very well written, and it's nice to see it done in a way that doesn't rely on the reader going in assuming the story's about a fantastical situation instead of fantasy-as-metaphor. It's nicely written (though some parts I feel could have been tightened, ). Not my usual choice of reading material but slipstream done in a way that appeals to me.
The Tyger isn't one of those stories. It is very clear up front what it's about: Jules' relationship with pretty much everyone he knows has changed because his parents got divorced and he doesn't know how to process it. His father cheated on his mother. His mother is furious and drunk. And he's at an extended family get together at his aunt's wedding and having to face this, and it's held in a museum with a display that walks you back through time, and while he tries to explore how his own memories of everyone has been changed by this truth we're seeing his anger and fear and confusion and hurt changing these wax figures, both in reaction to his speculation and in ways out of his control. And parts of it might be really happening -- the story isn't interested in answering if it is or if it isn't -- but at its heart, this isn't a fantasy story so much as a story about fantasies that are helping him process his emotions.
It's very well written, and it's nice to see it done in a way that doesn't rely on the reader going in assuming the story's about a fantastical situation instead of fantasy-as-metaphor. It's nicely written (though some parts I feel could have been tightened, ). Not my usual choice of reading material but slipstream done in a way that appeals to me.
March 4, 2021
This just didn't work for me. It wasn't terrible, in fact I thought it was fairly well written and had some great imagery. I just didn't really care for the ending or lack thereof and felt like it didn't really deliver on what the blurb promised.
February 27, 2021
More than any other part of the museum, Jules calls “The Path Through Time,” the exhibit that brings the past to life, his favorite. The exhibit’s Path begins with the present day and travels all the way back to prehistoric times. Tonight, Jules is in the museum for his Aunt Lydia’s wedding reception. Tonight, as Jules walks along the Path, he both dreads and anticipates reaching the end where Arctodus waits. Tonight, as Jules walks along the Path, it will come alive in a surprisingly new way.
In this short story, twelve-year-old Jules is dealing with the fallout of his father’s affair and his parents’ resulting divorce. Then he must face his angry mother’s crazy behavior, his father’s normal that wasn’t normal, and his disappointment that his aunt, who is also his godmother, now treats him differently.
The story is both atmospheric and captivating; the descriptions are nothing short of dazzling. Readers will find themselves pulled into the story from the opening lines. As the story unfolds, the mesmerizing Path takes on a life of its own.
The strong sense of place gives the narrative allure as well as a hint of creepiness; the characters are well-developed, their relationships clearly defined. Although this is a wedding reception, there is an undercurrent of uneasiness; readers learn that Lydia and her sister [Jules’s mother] have had some sort of a falling-out.
However, although Jules assumes whatever happened between his aunt and his mother is the cause for the change in the once-close relationship he enjoyed with his godmother, there is no affirmation of this. Nor is there an explanation for the falling-out between the two sisters. It is obvious that the upheaval in his family has affected him, but readers can only wonder exactly what caused the changes that affect Jules. And, while the young boy remains the focus of the narrative, this missing piece of the backstory leaves the story feeling just a tiny bit incomplete.
Recommended.
In this short story, twelve-year-old Jules is dealing with the fallout of his father’s affair and his parents’ resulting divorce. Then he must face his angry mother’s crazy behavior, his father’s normal that wasn’t normal, and his disappointment that his aunt, who is also his godmother, now treats him differently.
The story is both atmospheric and captivating; the descriptions are nothing short of dazzling. Readers will find themselves pulled into the story from the opening lines. As the story unfolds, the mesmerizing Path takes on a life of its own.
The strong sense of place gives the narrative allure as well as a hint of creepiness; the characters are well-developed, their relationships clearly defined. Although this is a wedding reception, there is an undercurrent of uneasiness; readers learn that Lydia and her sister [Jules’s mother] have had some sort of a falling-out.
However, although Jules assumes whatever happened between his aunt and his mother is the cause for the change in the once-close relationship he enjoyed with his godmother, there is no affirmation of this. Nor is there an explanation for the falling-out between the two sisters. It is obvious that the upheaval in his family has affected him, but readers can only wonder exactly what caused the changes that affect Jules. And, while the young boy remains the focus of the narrative, this missing piece of the backstory leaves the story feeling just a tiny bit incomplete.
Recommended.
May 31, 2021
Because it was written to show a child's point-of-view, I found had trouble following, what exactly, was going on, and was left feeling frustrated by not being able to tell what was real and what wasn't.
March 1, 2021
It was okay. Nothing to write home about.
March 5, 2021
Very well written with plenty of suspense and apprehension as seen through the eyes of a child. However, the story did not really work for me and I found the ending slightly unsatisfying.
April 6, 2021
A night at the museum avoiding family becomes journey of self-discovery for a young boy.
September 13, 2021
If Night at the Museum was a horror movie, it would be this short story. That's it, that's the review.
December 20, 2021
Entirely unsettling. Made me want to cry and I'm not entirely sure why.
February 22, 2022
The buildup was more interesting than the payoff here. It was like the author had a great idea to start but couldn't quite stick the landing.
February 24, 2022
Spooky and a tiny bit chilling...
June 29, 2022
I was never truly pulled in or invested in the story. The premise has potential; but, for me, it missed the mark.
August 21, 2022
I think I get what Moore was going for with The Tyger but this story didn't hold my attention like her other work, A Forest, or A Tree.
December 26, 2022
Well written but didn't pull me in
July 30, 2024
2.5 stars. Oh, to be a child needing to encapsulate an animal to feel strong in a time of rage again.
April 8, 2021
I liked this story, but it wasn't what I was expecting. I enjoyed the fact that the reader never really knew what was real, and what was in Jules' imagination.
June 30, 2025
https://reactormag.com/the-tyger-tega...
A good portrayal of a 12 year old boy and his (hopefully only temporarily) dysfunctional mom.
A good portrayal of a 12 year old boy and his (hopefully only temporarily) dysfunctional mom.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews