This is an interesting novel that takes inspiration from Russian myths, folklore and history but becomes something unique with a touch of darkness I have to say I enjoyed. The writing was beautiful but I will say that the structure and story may not be for everyone. There is a strangeness to this novel that is paired with brutality. However there is also magical writing and a wonderfully woven tale that made it hard for me to look away.

A chilling tale that looks at the darker side of revenge and family while keeping a sense of dark fantasy and the ‘whimsy’ of the circus. I do believe this may not be for everyone but if you are looking for a unique story that is as strange as it is beautiful this one is for you.
As always thank you to Titan Books for the advanced copy to review, my reviews are always honest and freely given.

The Lady, The Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death is a fantasy loosely based on Russian mythology and history. The story centres around a family of circus performers and in particular one woman and her granddaughter who both become tiger trainers. But the narrative is in no way that straight forward, told as a tale within a tale that in itself reflects a myth, and that winds in and out of their lives.
The framing of the narrative is the story of Sara Sidorova. When the book opens Sara, a young woman is being pursued through the forest and has been shot. Close to death she calls on the spirit of Amba the tiger and finds herself climbing into another realm where she meets the god of death, in the form of a tiger and the goddesses of the evening and morning stars. The Goddess of the Evening Star, it turns out, is also her granddaughter also called Sara Irenda Lubchen. Her granddaughter then tells Sara the story of her life or at least a possible life, should Sara survive. In that story, the younger Sara is sent to her now ageing crotchety grandmother in the capital when her parents are killed. Sara is then deposited at the circus where she is tasked with looking after their aging tiger. The circus itself is the centrepiece of an authoritarian regime and soon Sara is caught up in the use of the circus and uses it to find some power of her own.
The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death is told in fairy tale mode. It is a story within a story which itself also contains stories. But each of these reflect each other. When in the circus, the younger Sara takes on the persona of Lady Pale Face and then finds her own personal story reflecting the myth of the Lady and her descent into hell, pursued by the sun god. There are hints that her story is somehow connected to the story of her grandmother but the extent of those resonances does not come clear until the final portion of the novel which winds the story back to before its opening.
While the names of places and people have been changed, the book is clearly an analogy of the Soviet Union. The name Amba is that given to the Siberian Tiger and has some place in Russian mythology. But it is more in the way the book deals with the political – the use of the circus as a propaganda tool, the way people are disappeared, the way those in power use their power. In both stories, the threat and reality of sexual abuse as a form of power is realised. In the case of the granddaughter she tries to use this to gain some agency but she does this not only at the expense of everyone around her but of her own sense of self.
If Marshall is referencing particular people or events in Russian or Slavic history it is not clear from the text. But maybe it doesn’t matter as the behaviours that she is exploring are, unfortunately universal. While the book feels historical and place based it is also emblematic of many authoritarian regimes, their use of entertainment to sway the masses and in that respect illuminates the pitfalls of collaboration to gain power.
Overall, The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death is atmospheric and interesting, resonant and self referential, but does not quite cohere. While Marshall does illuminate the dangers of authoritarian regimes, these are not particularly new ideas. And it is unclear in the end what if anything she is trying to say through her analogy.

I wanted to love this book. I have enjoyed Marshall's short stories in the past. I did try several times with this book. It was just too confusing and I didn't know what was what. The storyline itself was confusing enough, the way it was written just was too hard to follow. I am very disappointed because it had such potential.

A fever dream of a novel, Helen Marshall's The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl who Loved Death is lush, strange, and deeply unsettling. It invites the reader into a world steeped in magic and menace, where the dazzling spectacle of the circus masks the brutal machinery of a totalitarian regime. At its best the novel is a mesmerizing meditation on power, identity, and the slipperiness of truth - blending myth, history, and the uncanny in ways that feel both timeless and urgently modern.

Marshall revels in the theatrical and the unreal yet grounds her story in very real horrors. Her world building is both grand and claustrophobic, filled with tyrants, living gods, and performers, all of whom blur the line between performance and reality. The novel is rich with themes: the seduction and danger of belief, the ways stories shape identity, and how power reshapes both. There’s a meta textual delight in how the novel folds in on itself, stories within stories, truths masquerading as fictions, and time unraveling like a coiled ribbon. It’s a celebration of storytelling as both rebellion and refuge.

But the very qualities that make the novel so ambitious are also its biggest stumbling blocks. The narrative is deeply circuitous, and not in a gently meandering way - it loops, doubles back, and occasionally loses its own thread. At times it’s genuinely difficult to discern who is telling the story, whose perspective we're inhabiting, or even if what we’re reading is “really” happening within the world of the novel. This ambiguity, while thematically resonant, can be frustrating especially in a book that offers little by way of firm conclusions or emotional resolution. The ending, for all its ambiguity, felt more muted than profound leaving me more bereft than moved.

A fun reading experience from start to finish. Intriguing story, characters that will appeal to all reads and action packed twists and turns.

Unfortunately dnf'd this about 50 pages in - interesting story and writing but the style just isn't for me! Love the Russian folklore however.

gorgeous writing that weaves an elegant maze for your mind. the characters are interesting, too, but the plot really carries this forward. however, this comes at the occasional cost that it's sometimes hard to keep parts straight. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

Another Deathless coded book that isn't brave enough to be as unhinged and and imaginative as its source material. While I can sometimes enjoy books with this type of omniscient, out-of-order plot, I didn't feel that enough of my questions were answered by the end of this story for this to prove effective. However, without giving spoilers I loved the cyclical nature of the story and the commentary on cycles of death and vengeance. My favorite scenes were those that took place in the circus itself, and I found myself somewhat irritated each time I was pulled back into the meta-narrative. I think this would have been a better story with a different narrative framing device.

This book is so frustrating. I ended up DNFing at around 60%.

I wanted to love this. I really did. And there were passages that I did love. Some of the prose was some of the most beautiful that I have ever read, but it was small chunks scattered here and there that kept me going in the hopes of finding another small snippet. Unfortunately, there just weren't enough of these to sustain me, and that's why I finally gave up.

Honestly, it's just a confusing story. I get the overall gist of it, and I like the overall arc, but the details get lost in the obscure manner in which they are being told. Not to mention the odd time mixing of the grandmother and granddaughter of the past and the future.

The change Irenda to Lady Pale-Throat where she becomes more sexual is where I decided I had had enough. I thought she was younger and the men were older, so it just kind of gave me an ick? Coupled with how bored I was just waiting for the next beautiful passage to come along was enough to DNF.

Absolutely beautiful writing makes this Russian inspired myth/fable a must read, even if the plot circles around itself and I admit to occasional getting lost in whose story it was telling.
3.5 Stars.