Book Review: The Tiger Who Sleeps Under My Chair by Hannah Foley

 

I like tigers so naturally I picked this up when I saw it. Spoilers ahead.

In the 1800s, Emma Linden is a girl who has been sheltered her entire life due to her susceptibility for mental illness. But then her brother James starts to act odd... Many years later, in the 2020s, a boy named Jude befriends Rosie Linden, Emma's descendant who struggles with mental illness particularly badly. Will both kids be okay and find a way to live with their afflictions?

I liked this book overall, I did. However, I do have to admit that I was a bit disappointing that the tiger on the cover and in the title for the most part wasn't literal, it's more of a metaphor. The book does end with the implied ending that maybe some of the Linden family could shapeshift into tigers, but it's only that, an implication. There's also a taxidermy tiger at the beginning of the story, but again it was very minor. So if you're reading this book explicitly because you like tigers like I did, maybe pick up something else because you might be disappointed.

However, even if there weren't a lot of tigers, I still quite enjoyed this. I think that the two storylines are interwoven brilliantly and the characters were really likable and I also related quite a bit to some of them. I also appreciate how the book handled the intense subject of mental illnesses such as psychosis. It managed to convey what it's like and how we be can support these people very well, especially considering the younger target audience. I also liked the twist regarding Emma and James that, while everyone suspects that Emma is way more likely to be mentally ill, it's actually James who is struggling with it the most. Just goes to show that mental illness can show up even in unlikely cases.

The only thing I really didn't like is when the author referred to Mary Anning's Ichtyosaur as a dinosaur (it's not, it's a marine reptile. That's something different). I get that it's the simpler way to refer to the creature (most kids know what dinosaurs are vs most kids don't know what ichtyosaurs are) but it's incorrect, and if you're gonna make your novel semi-educational about mental health, why not make it semi-educational about fossil creatures as well?

Ah well, still a good book, even if it didn't have as much tiger-ing as I was expecting.

Rating: 4/5