"My favourite animal was a white tiger because I was born in the year of the tiger, and because I assumed anything born white must have a better chance at life."

Bestiary interweaves magical realism and fantasy to explore the family history of three Taiwanese women. Grandmother, mother and daughter. K-Ming Chang uses magical realism to connect the trio of unnamed women throughout the narrative, using various beasts and animals, drawing on myths and stories to tell the tale of these women and their origins. She uses the concepts of holes in the ground as a way for the daughter to connect to her roots and heritage as here she finds the stories of her grandmother, mother and aunts.

Bestiary is incredibly imaginative, visceral and queer. It's clever and whilst it initially took a little bit of time and help from looking up other reviews about the book to wrap my head around some of the metaphors, I definitely became absorbed in the power of K-Ming Chang's storytelling.

I really liked the sections about language. The way the girls spoke about being told off for not using plurals because Chinese words don't have plurals. The way the girls spoke about misspelling words to end up with time together. Both an assertion of their connection to the Chinese language and a way to connect to each other. Language and words continue to have a powerful presence in this book. The way Ben spoke about her choice of name really struck me.

"When the teacher asked her why she'd chosen a boy name, she said, I liked Ben because it's already short for something. This way, none of you can abbreviate me further."

There was just so much depth and meaning to K-Ming Chang's words, her metaphors, her magical realism that absorbe me.

It is also a story of love between the Daughter and Ben who explore their love and friendship. How their friendship blossoms, how they learn to explore each others' bodies, and grow together.

I will say there were still elements of the magical realism where I felt some of the meaning eluded me slightly. However this book is clever, absorbing and a beautifully visceral, imaginative and gritty exploration of identities, heritage, relationships and family.

Thanks to the publishers for the gifted copy for review.