Book Club: The Night Tiger

I started a book club.

It was a lot of work finding women who were interested and nearby in creating a group that's focus would be on a different book each month. I used Bumble BFF to find them and had to weed through flaky unresponsive people to find the five women plus me that will make up our group. After I chose the first book (we will rotate so everyone gets a chance to choose), we finally met up at my home this Saturday to get to know one another, chat about the book, and eat the large spread I put out. 

It was so interesting getting to know everyone and even though the conversation got off topic a bit, we had some really great conversations about The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo.

This book contained everything you could look for in a book. I understand why it was chosen as a book club favorite: it has romance, murder, mystery, and supernatural elements. Everything anyone could have ever wanted.

I spent most of the book really trying to figure out how the author was going to tie in all the various plots, murders, and mysteries that came up. A consensus that our group came to was that we were disappointed by the lack of connection in the end. We were disappointed that it didn't all tie neatly together but I think that is also what makes this novel interesting and unique compared to other mystery-like books. For once, I hadn't figured out the end of the novel halfway through the book and I appreciated that it did totally surprise me.

I, personally, loved the characters in the novel although one group member had a great dislike for Shin but I found that the characters all had a sense of realness to them that you don't always find in other novels. They all had varying and interesting points of views, unique voices and perspectives, and relatable flaws that made them feel more like real characters. Often, I'm disappointed in character development in novels but I found that I really enjoyed all the characters in this one. 

One thing I didn't like about the novel was the ambiguity of the supernatural and death. The author never really confirms the legends, myths, and dreamlike death world that readers experience and that left me feeling a bit unsettled. The book was focused on realism with supernatural elements and I really wanted confirmation on the author's perspective of what was true and what wasn't. That doesn't come and I think it is left open-ended for each reader to decide what they believe is true.

Overall, I found this to be an interesting and engaging novel with characters that felt real and mostly had believable motivations. I would definitely recommend it as a book club book as we all had a lot of opinions and things to say about it. I felt like it was a good choice, to begin with. 

I have to include a picture of a bit of the spread I made that night. I was so excited to create a beautiful cheese board for the first time and I must say, I think I did a great job. I ended up having so much food that I used several different boards (plus a veggie platter and homemade bread). I had a lot of leftover cheese at the end but it won't go bad in my home. 

It was a lovely night full of getting to know one another, connection, and literature. This is exactly what I was looking for when I started this group and I hope it continues as long as I live here.