Now Read This: Tiger Cult (Briana Morgan)

“Tiger Cult” is a tense, enjoyable tale with enough dramatic flair, making it worth picking up and hard to put down despite its minor flaws.

Tiger Cult is the upcoming Thriller novel from Briana Morgan (The Tricker-Treater, Livingston Girls, The Reyes Incident) that focuses on Sarah, a young lady recounting her time living with a Cult.  

The book opens in the present day, with our narrator/ protagonist enjoying a domestic home life with her wife Naomi and their daughter Michaela. However, everything is not perfect because Sarah and Naomi are quickly running out of money, and their solution involves the couple revisiting the biggest (shared) trauma of their lives.  

Sarah and Naomi are the survivors of a nefarious cult nicknamed ‘The Tiger Cult’ — a collective of vulnerable women who were forced to perform dangerous acts onstage for the public alongside tigers and other big cats. This collective was affectionately named ‘The Vixens’ by the cult’s leader, Vega, a domineering and abusive man who views women and animals as nothing more than commodities.  

Years after their escape, Sarah and Naomi are faced with an impossible proposition: to tell their side of the story to a documentarian and, in turn, to forcibly relive their life-changing traumas.  

Sarah is reluctant. However, out of desperation, she agrees to divulge her version of events because she values her family’s financial security more than her comfort or emotional stability.  

The timeline of traumatic events is recounted via Sarah’s flashbacks and through her interview with Emily, the documentary filmmaker.  

Through Sarah’s inner monologue, we are fully immersed in the disturbing world that these women were forced to inhabit.  

Akin to the true story of Tiger King, Tiger Cult seeks to villainize a specific type of Alpha Male whose imagined ‘strength’ lies in his ability to abuse creatures more powerful than himself, with his imagined power growing from this.  

Enter Vega, a sleazy entrepreneur with a penchant for exotic animals and beautiful women. He quickly sets his sights upon young Sarah when she approaches the big cat compound one day to inquire about a job.  

Much of the story unfolds in the sprawling jungle vistas of a big cat reserve deep in the Floridian wilderness. The reserve is home to a colorful assortment of characters who each have their own burden to carry.  

The men and women employed by Vega live on-site. They tend to various exotic breeds, including veterinarian work and enclosure cleaning. While the women partake in their share of manual labor, Vega clarifies that their main purpose is to look good on the stage… and in his bedroom.  

The story seeks to shed light on the inequality between the genders; the fact that a person who identifies as female can be abused and controlled because of their reproductive systems is a chilling reminder that not all genders are equal while the Patriarchy exists.

Every day, women are systematically abused, coerced, trafficked, and even killed because men are still placed at the top of the societal food chain. Tiger Cult is a reclamation of power to every gender who has ever experienced abuse at the hands of Cishet men.  

Sarah and Naomi’s story may begin with them rooted in a sense of powerlessness. However, by the story’s end, we learn about the extreme challenges and traumas they fought to overcome.  

Their love for one another is the catalyst that triggers a domino effect of events that ultimately ends in a place of female empowerment.  

Unfortunately, not everything in Tiger Cult worked for me. 

Early on, Sarah describes how her family threw her out upon learning of her Queerness. However, we are led to believe that she completely falls for Vega, a cis-hetero man. 

This can be explained if Sarah identifies as bisexual. Still, I found the attention and explicit detail describing the heterosexual sex scenes a bit odd, considering the author is currently plugging the novel online as ”Queer and disability rep”. Additionally, the lead character describes herself as Queer. Therefore, the large focus on hetero sex felt out of place to me personally.

The lovemaking between Sarah and her wife, for example, is only alluded to and is quickly glossed over; however, every sexual scene between Sarah and Vega is pored over in lurid, overtly sexualized detail. This is a strange choice given the book’s stated focus on queer female empowerment.

Sarah describes her surprise over how magnetic she initially finds Vega. I believe that the author seeks to mimic the narrative around how incredibly enchanting cult leaders can be in real life, as many survivors and former members have themselves described in the media. This is further explored in the story’s nefarious twist, which I won’t spoil.

Still, I found the hyper-fixation and gratuitous descriptions around the male-on-female, abusive sex a little odd. 

That’s not the only area where Tiger Cult stumbles in its narrative. 

Some language and descriptions used to characterize the story’s villain are problematic. He is a dark-skinned man with an Arabic forename and a Hispanic surname (Suleiman Vega) described as having ‘’bronze skin’’ (historically, many Hispanic cultures have referred to themselves as ‘La Raza De Bronce: The Bronze Race’). Another paragraph describing an African-American lady (Naomi) did not sit well with me.  

When Sarah describes her wife incurring a traumatic injury, she describes her as ‘’paler than I thought she could get,’’ which felt a little gross given that the character (and the author) is white.  

The author’s descriptive techniques were lacking during dramatic scenes. The entire purpose of the cult revolves around death-defying performances with tigers. However, none of the fanciful acts are described much, if at all, and major events such as births and injuries are merely mentioned with little to no detail.  

Some work is required of the reader’s imagination, particularly around basic human biology. In a scene where a Vixen has a dangerous birth, the baby pops out some 3-4 months PREMATURE yet is completely healthy despite no medical assistance, anesthesia, etc., during a home birth. 

There are a few instances where we are introduced to a shocking event. Yet, despite the catastrophic implications, the aftermath does not touch upon it. A grisly amputation scene comes to mind.

These instances ruined the novel’s ebb and flow and, admittedly, pulled me out of the action.

Despite its flaws, Tiger Cult excels in many areas.

The tension builds slowly and steadily, allowing the reader to immerse themselves fully in this strange world. Every character’s choices are strongly rooted in their personal traumas or addictions. 

The idea of coercing a small populace with systematic abuse, which seeks to manipulate each person’s own personal struggles and to weaponize their low self-esteem against them, calls to mind the real-life tactics deployed by Scientologists and other dangerous Cults.  

The fact that each member is forced to share their deepest and darkest with their leader, who will likely use this information as emotional leverage against them later, is both insidious and sadly believable. 

Where Morgan excels as a writer is her ability to make her reader empathize with a multitude of characters despite their deeply rooted flaws.

One can imagine oneself in the shoes of every character, and despite the large cast, we feel a deeper emotional resonance because of this. The women fall into a rhythmic thrum of daily domestication despite the horrors that await them at every turn.  

Vega has a plan for himself and his followers if they take the necessary steps within his chosen timeframe. This adds a ticking clock element that heightens the reader’s anxiety.  

The story is not overtly gratuitous. However, please be aware of trigger warnings that allude to animal abuse, coercive control, domestic abuse, drug misuse, sexual abuse/ coercion, pregnancy, giving birth, and human and animal mutilation. 

Tiger Cult offers an introspective insight into what it means to be human and how easily predators can manipulate us.  

This book is a rallying call for women of all identities to question the Patriarchy’s mechanisms, which seek to divide and separate us, and to instead look for solutions of how we may work together to become more unified.  

Although the story’s depictions of physical trauma are disjointed and a little unbelievable, the story’s believability grows from the strength of every character.  

We have all met kind men who carry the burdens of addiction, just as we may have met manipulative women who seek to separate rather than unite other females. What’s more, we can all empathize and relate to the dark struggles of what it means to survive in a world that seeks to destroy us.  

Vega’s redemption may be laced with conditions that aim to destroy; however, the redemption fought for by Sarah and Naomi reminds us of the beauty that can bloom from even the darkest of traumas.  

During an age where both vulnerable people and animals across the globe are trafficked and exploited for the monetary gain and sadistic pleasures of abusive men, Tiger Cult hits rather close to home for many survivors: therein lies its enduring impact. 

There is enough meat to sink one’s teeth into, no matter how exotic your tastes may be.