Book Review: The Tiger Flu by Larissa Lai
Goodreads Description: Kirilow is a doctor apprentice whose lover Peristrophe is a "starfish," a woman who can regenerate her own limbs and organs, which she uses to help her clone sisters whose organs are failing. When a denizen from Salt Water City suffering from a mysterious flu comes into their midst, Peristrophe becomes infected and dies, prompting Kirilow to travel to Salt Water City, where the flu is now a pandemic, to find a new starfish who will help save her sisters. There, Kirilow meets Kora, a girl-woman desperate to save her family from the epidemic. Kora has everything Kirilow is looking for, except the will to abandon her own family. But before Kirilow can convince her, both are kidnapped by a group of powerful men to serve as test subjects for a new technology that can cure the mind of the body.
My Review: This book was probably the biggest disappointment in my recent reading history. There's so much to like about the world and characters, but unfortunately the writing style, coupled with the plot's handling, made for a huge let down within the last one hundred pages.
And there's so much to like about this book! Sci-fi concepts ooze from these pages and fill the world with vibrant life: a village of parthenogenetic women, regrowing body parts, memory/knowledge in chips that can be plugged into the brain, cloning, uploading consciousness to a mainframe, etc, etc. It's set in a future ravaged by climate change, in the midst of a man-made pandemic, where patriarchy and greed poisons the land as well as the people. Our two protagonists, Kirilow and Kora, are both well-crafted characters that carry the story and its themes. The initial set up of the book is excellent: tension builds steadily, our characters push further into risky territory, until finally society springs closed around them.
Something I found incredibly captivating about this book was the way Kora and Kiri's stories appeared to be individualistic in nature -- the hero's quest story, where a protagonist's agency and action shapes the world and plot around them. The Tiger Flu lulls you into believing that it will follow this same trajectory, and it's only when Kiri and Kora really assert themselves that they realize they are merely cogs in a giant machine. Much of the time, society, characters around them, villains, or even government figures have made choices that have pushed Kiri and Kora into the circumstance they're in. At first, Kiri's desire to go to Saltwater City appears to drive the plot, until it's revealed that the (seemingly innocuous) players around her have actually manipulated the her into thinking and behaving in ways that benefit them. In the end, the story reveals a more collectivist perspective. Yes, the plot is still driven by character agency and action, but it's revealed that individuals have less say over their success than they realize. Your successes are just as much determined by your allies and environment as your own actions. This book struck an interesting balance between individualist and collectivist perspectives, which raised some fascinating questions on how much control we have over our own lives.
I also adored the contrast between Kora and Kiri's characters. Kora is younger by a few years, and filled with a compassion and gentleness for others that colours her every action. Even at the beginning of the book when a boy attempts to grope her, she fights him off and then chooses to help him when he nearly falls off a building. She's also much slower to aggression, which is contrasted by Kiri, who is so angry from the trauma she experienced that it threatens to destroy her. At one point, she becomes so consumed by the need for revenge that she's willing to abandon her goals and die like an animal. Kiri and Kora both learn to balance each other, as Kora's kindness can sometimes lead her into danger, while Kiri's anger blinds her to actionable solutions. I also just loved Kiri's journey to give up her quest for revenge and learn to quiet the hatred within her, and only wished that could have been expanded on further.
All of this delicious build up led to an incredibly unsatisfying final 100 pages. As I mentioned earlier, I believe Lai's writing style heavily influenced this. Larissa Lai primarily writes poetry which is reflected in her beautiful use of diction, but it also shows when she's trying to get across plot concepts. When she introduces an idea to the reader (even something as simple as a worldbuilding piece or plot element), she starts out by describing it in very vague terms, or few words, which doesn't help the reader understand the role this object plays in the story, i.e., introducing the flu with "they've got it," which builds mystery and tension (got what?). This is often not enough information for the reader to figure out on their own, which drives them to keep reading. Not long after this, Lai will "explain" through an overuse of telling, often spelling things out to leave no room for misunderstanding. This jump from one extreme (too little info to solve on your own, but encourages you to puzzle over the info) to the other (too much blunt telling, taking away the promise of figuring out the mystery) leads to frustration and dissatisfaction. While the vagueness made it difficult for readers to figure it out on their own, I really enjoyed the mystery and tension that it built, only to have this excitement cut off at the knees when Lai overexplained what was happening. The climax concludes with over a page of As You Know, Bob infodumping that only seeks to explain what already happened, which made the scene drier than an overdone turkey with no gravy. Lai compounded all these incredible ideas and then couldn't explain their intersections without bouncing between vague poetic notions and infodumps. I almost wish Lai had left out the explanations all together and let readers piece together the fever dream on their own.
Even with the low rating, I would suggest that others give this book a shot. Having such a solid start and then failing to deliver made this book a sore spot for me, but I know others may feel differently. If you aren't as put off by Lai's writing style, then you may enjoy the ending much more than I did, and honestly I hope you do. There are so many great elements to this book that I hope someone else can enjoy.
TL;DR: 2/5 stars. A captivating launch that fizzled into a disappointing ending.
