Aunt Tigress
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Qin's vivid and wildly imaginative debut centers on Tamara Lin, the descendant of semi-immortal tiger spirits from the high mountains of China. Her late father was a tiger, as is her strange, often cruel aunt. But Calgary, Alberta, isn't a great place for her kind, so Tam works hard to seem as normal as possible. Though her aunt is plotting something big, Tam wants no part of it—she's far more focused on impressing Janet, the beautiful redhead from her university botany class. But after monsters start following Tam and the sky turns red, she learns that her aunt has been flayed to death. Tam, now the last tiger, inherits a house full of stolen Indigenous magic, a fox revenant familiar, a demon lawyer's bonded assistant, and a broken world that she's obliged to put right. There's a classic urban fantasy vibe to the plot, but the focus on Chinese and Indigenous magic feels fresh. The author taps deep into the immigrant experience, playing with the tensions that come from importing ancient traditions to a land and people that already have their own equally rich history. Qin is a writer to watch.
