Sherwood, Harriet (18 April 2022). "The God of Small Things to Shuggie Bain: the Queen's jubilee book list". The Guardian . Retrieved 30 April 2022. Yangsze Choo's The Night Tiger pulls us into a world of servants and masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzling, propulsive novel is the intimate coming-of-age of a child and a young woman, each searching for their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible.

One plot point relies on knowing the Chinese versions of English names, and I immediately guessed the answer, because that’s how I would transliterate Lydia. When William’s Chinese name came up, it turned out to be 威力安，not 威廉 as I expected, so I thought that Lydia was just another coincidence or a misdirection. So it was a double twist when the whole thing was revealed. Such a great series of twists. Oftentimes the book mentions that Ren feels a “tingle, like the twitch of cat whiskers, as though Yi is still with him.” What did you think about this? Do you believe he could feel Yi and a sense of danger that was to come? THE NIGHT TIGER is an interesting book, and I like the author's style of writing. I bought her other book, THE GHOST BRIDE, relatively recently and I'm hoping it'll be better than this one. I didn't hate THE NIGHT TIGER, but it has all the good ideas/less than optimal execution dichotomies and pacing issues of a debut novel, and since this isn't a debut novel, that isn't good. Still, it's great to see #OwnVoices historical fiction that explores time periods and situations that aren't getting as much representation as, say, Tudor England or British/American-fought WWII, so kudos for that. On top of that, there's a lot of repetition, which unfortunately doesn't feel like a narrative device, but like a tool to keep the bar low for readers with short attentions spans: How often do we have to hear about the five virtues and what they signify, how often do we have to hear about Ren's age, how often do we have to hear explanations regarding the weretiger? (Yes, I can repete myself as well, but do you feel like my review is literature?) Houseboy Ren is trying to fulfil his former master’s dying wish: to find his lost finger within 49 days.Ren is an 11-year-old boy on a mission to locate his former masters missing finger so that he can bury it with his body. He has 49 days to do so for his master to be a rest. If he fails to find the missing finger, his master will be doomed to roam the earth forever. The book is set in 1931 in Malaysia, the main characters are Jin Li also knoen as Louise, a young woman, who has a busy life working in part-time jobs and she still doesn't know what to do with her life! There are two main storylines here, which take place in Malaysia in 1931. The first belongs to Ji Lin and is told in the first person. Ji Lin is a young woman working as an apprentice in a dressmaker’s shop. She is also secretly working part-time at the May Flower Dance hall as a dance girl, which is not considered an appropriate job for respectable young women. Ji Lin needs the extra income to help pay off her mother’s mahjong gambling debts before her stern stepfather finds out. The second storyline is told in the third person and belongs to Ren, an eleven year servant assigned a task by his dying master. Ren must find and recover his master’s severed finger in the 49 days it will take his master’s consciousness to travel from one life to the next and bury it with his body so he can be whole in the afterlife. Second, I really disliked the stepsister/brother romance. Not my thing at all. I don't know why so many authors do this. There's just no need. If your sibling/step-sibling is starting to look hot, get yourself out of the house. Seriously. A mesmerizing tale of murder, romance, and superstition….So vividly told, you can practically smell the oleander blossoms outside Acton’s house. This Night Tiger is worth a prowl.” — USA Today

In Yangsze Choo's The Night Tiger, the two main characters, Ji and Ren, are named for two of the five virtues that make up the ethical system of Confucianism. Confucianism is a spiritual/philosophical tradition born out of the teachings of Chinese philosopher Confucius (who is believed to have lived circa 551-479 BCE), and it has been profoundly influential on the cultures of many Asian countries, including China, Vietnam, Japan and Korea. The five virtues come from the Confucian texts known as The Analects and The Book of Mencius (both originally published circa 475-221 BCE). They have been an integral part of the Chinese ethos for millennia, and continue to serve as moral guidelines in contemporary life. Malaya, with its mix of Malays, Chinese, and Indians, is full of spirits: a looking-glass world governed by unsettling rules. The European werewolf is a man who, when the moon is full, turns his skin inside out and become a beast. He then leaves the village and goes into the forest to kill. But for the natives here, the weretiger is not a man, but a beast who, when he chooses, put on a human skin and comes from the jungle into the village to prey on humans. It’s almost exactly the reverse situation and in some ways more disturbing”. I did not expect to be so entranced by this book. The variety of characters and the exotic setting, 1930's Malaya, was a positive aspect for me.For example, when I was growing up, I was told not to hang around banana trees at night because there are female ghosts that come out of them. That's an Indian superstition. And the Malays only plant frangipani in graveyards. But everybody else there, whether Chinese, Indian, whatever, also avoids it outside of graveyards. A lot of the tiger myths are Malay, but they may have some Chinese roots as well, because there are many Chinese stories of weretigers.