Aunt Tigress is an urban fantasy novel, written by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin, and published by DAW Books. A contemporary fantasy with a messy and queer main character, Tam, having to deal with a supernatural world that she belongs to, even if she decided to abandon it, as she's pulled by the death of her aunt; a story that blends together Chinese and First Nation mythologies to create a really enjoyable novel.

Tam Lin is part tiger; her mother, human and her father, tiger, immigrated together to Calgary years early. Tam grew knowing she was different and with violent impulses, but learned to control it after her father's death; she was the apprentice of her aunt (also a tiger), but after some episodes that hurt other people, she cut ties with her. After this, she step out of the supernatural world, until the violent assassination of her Aunt pulls her again, but this time in the company of a university friend, Janet, who also has a certain background with her Aunt Tigress.

While the story starts a bit slow, and the direction seemed unclear, we rapidly uncover more about why Janet wanted to befriend Tam; however, from that starting point, we get an excellent exercise of character building, giving each one a complex past that ties them with the present. While Janet started with an intention, we can see how the relationship fastly evolves into a queer romance, which is tied with the rest of our fantasy story, investigating about Aunt Tigress and her past grifts.

What I really loved is the worldbuilding: not only with the blend of Chinese myths with fantasy and other mythologies, but how well integrated they are as part of the world; also props for using a non-USA city for the story. The pacing is a little bit slow at the start, but it is more a consequence of how the past of the characters is introduced to us, making the plot to wait a bit until it advances.

Aunt Tigress is a strong debut, a great urban fantasy novel if you are looking for different mythologies and queer relationships with a fair dose of intrigue and action. I wonder if the author will continue writing in this world, but my curiosity is picked, for sure!