Review: Red Tigress

Red Tigress by Amélie Wen Zhao
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Would it really surprise you to know that in this terrible time of increased anti-Asian racism, of #StopAsianHate trending online, that this book, sequel to one its author wrote in response to widespread issues within Asia itself (in particular human trafficking), is authored by the one Asian author YA Twitter would rather pretend was cancelled? Or, more accurately, that as soon as it became clear she was a victim of racist bullying from notorious edgelord Emily Duncan because they (almost in the same week) had dueling Bardugo-esque YA fantasy novels in a pseudo-Russian setting, that someone, somewhere, pointed out that Blood Heir was dragged on accusations of anti-Blackness, and therefore Amélie Wen Zhao deserved no sympathy?

Would it really surprise you?

Because it doesn't surprise me, because YA Twitter is never, has never, been about real change. It's always been about social vengeance over social justice. I'm still convinced Kat Rosenfield had the right call with her theory of Zhao's attempted cancellation being long-gamed revenge for her calling out Justina Ireland for anti-Asian comments, not to mention one of her biggest critics being great friends with Margaret Owen, who also almost had dueling pseudo-Bardugo with Zhao as well...

But I digress.

As difficult as it is to read and rate Zhao's books without harkening back to the controversies it engendered back in 2019, it's also easy for me to say how disheartening it is that the first book was almost cancelled - and for sure postponed - to begin with. Because if that book had had the big, expensive, all out push publishing was prepared to give in the summer of 2019, then Red Tigress would for sure have been one of the biggest books of 2021. But as it is, I'm pretty sure I'm one of the few who read this one so far, and that's a crying, crying shame. Because it's in this book that Zhao really starts digging deep into what makes this world tick, expanding on her world-building with even more clearly pan-Asian influences - as Ana and Ramson go around the continent in search of allies in their fight against the sinister Morganya and her flesh Affinity, you'd be hard-pressed to not imagine a truly international cast playing these characters in a film or TV adaptation.

And, being one of the closest to the GRRM style that we've had yet in YA fantasy, Zhao loses no time not only delving into the darkest side of humanity, but also raising the stakes to unimaginable levels. Particularly near the end, when there's one particular twist that a lesser book might just resort to resolving with a hackneyed reversal, but nope. Zhao doesn't go there. Because some things just can't be easy going into the forthcoming finale.

And you know I'm gonna read the hell out of that finale too, when it eventually drops.



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