RaveThe Nerd DailyVo opts for the story within a story format, which I personally find to be one of the aspects that makes these novellas so fascinating! At the tiger’s command, Chih goes on to recount the love story of the scholar Dieu and the tiger Ho Thi Thao as recorded in the Singing Hill archives. However, the tigers keep interrupting Chih to tell the tale as they know it, which turns out to be quite different from the human narrative. As the tigers insist their version of Ho Thi Thao’s legend is the real history, and the humans got it wrong, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain skilfully explores how there can be so many different interpretations of a narrative, and how only the victor’s side of a story is what history keeps account of ... just the right mix of elegant, enchanting, and whimsical. Vo’s exploration of queer love in this book is achingly beautiful; and her worldbuilding is lush and detailed this time around as well as she takes us to a completely different side of Chih’s world.