Tiger Daughter is much more … palatable? … and suitable for its target market of 11 to 14 year olds. This is merely to set expectations so readers don’t feel they’re about to plunge into a depressing terrifying bloodbath. My comments are in no way intended to diminish the awfulness of living with even this level of domestic violence. By “light”, I mean she didn’t gloss over it, it felt real to me as a reader, but violent scenes were few and far between with relatively mild violence. Considering the “heavy” subject matter, Lim’s representation of DV was “light”. Lim’s depiction of domestic violence was realistic given that this violence occurs on a sliding scale. Her depiction of poverty is realistic I only recall one other recent OzYA book that did this so well, and that’s Frankie by Shivaun Plozza. Lim represents first and second generation immigrants and women with care, respect and detail. However, these two students live in actual poverty with only their dreams driving them to escape.
Being scholarship students at private schools is a common theme in Australian Young Adult fiction as a way of introducing the “poor” character. Wen and Henry plan to sit an exam to enter a scholarship program. She tries to help him in a supplementary English class despite the teacher disciplining her for interpreting. Wen’s best friend is Henry, a refugee still learning English. He is extremely controlling and unreasonable. And taking his frustrations out on his family. His frustrations at not qualifying in Australia ended with him working at a restaurant. Wen is the Tiger Daughter of two Chinese immigrants, one of whom was a surgeon in China.
A review by Nalini Haynes Trigger warnings: domestic violence (depicted), depression, and suicide (not depicted but discussed)
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