The Tiger Flu

The Tiger Flu by Larissa Lai is a work of dystopian speculative fiction first published in 2018 by Arsenal Pulp Press, an independent publisher based in Vancouver, Canada. With its focus on futuristic technologies that merge and manipulate human biology, The Tiger Flu can be subclassified as a cyber/biopunk thriller. The book won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award, which recognizes and celebrates the best LGBTQ books of the year. A Chinese Canadian, lesbian writer, Larissa Lai often explores themes of race, culture, gender, and sexuality in her writing.

This guide refers to the third printing of the paperback edition from 2020.

Plot Summary

Kirilow “Kiri” Groundsel is a member of the matriarchal Grist Village, and Kora Ko is the 15-year-old granddaughter of Lennox Ko, the founder of the cloning company Jemini that played a pivotal role in unleashing a tiger flu pandemic. The story, which divided in five parts, is told from Kiri and Kora’s alternating first-person perspectives. Each chapter features a heading that notes the day and the season when the chapter takes place. Each chapter also is marked with the point of view from which it is told.

In the universe of The Tiger Flu, set in the year 2145, the citizens of earth are fragmented after a flu pandemic—the eponymous “tiger flu”—kills or infects most of the world’s male population.