The Night of Baba Yaga

Praise for The Night of Baba Yaga

Winner for the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger Award
Winner of the CrimeFest Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award
Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Mystery
CrimeReads Best International Crime Fiction of the Year
BookPage’s Top 10 Books of the Month
A BookBrowse Top Pick
An ABA Indie Gift Guide Selection
A Ms. Magazine Most Anticipated Feminist Book of the Year
Publishers Weekly’s Spring 2024 Preview Top 10 Mysteries & Thrillers
★ Starred Reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, BookPage, and Foreword Reviews

“An explosive thriller.”
—Parade

“Through a fresh lens, Otani spins a lean and mean tale of female empowerment — think Thelma & Louise vs. the yakuza . . . Translated in bursts of vivid prose by Sam Bett, this mismatched pair becomes the reader’s guide to a time-jumping outlaw tale that is both shocking in its violence and bracing in its depiction of a relationship that no one — not the yakuza’s minions, their boss or the women themselves — see coming.”
—Paula Woods, Los Angeles Times

“This transgressive thriller is chock-full of cinematic fight scenes and peppered with glimpses of emotional awareness and vulnerability, adding up to a page-turning, gritty, surrealist wonder.”
—The Seattle Times

“Joyfully aggressive and painfully tender, The Night of Baba Yaga dares to reimagine the boundaries of self within the systems of any society, boldly questioning ideas of violence, love, family and honor.”
—The Japan Times

“Here’s the queer yakuza thriller we’ve been waiting for! From the ferocious fights to the secret tenderness, this one will keep you on the edge of your seat.”
—Ms. Magazine

“Enraging, funny and exciting.”
—The Times (UK)

“Part kick-to-the-solar-plexus martial arts thriller and part poignant queer love story, Akira Otani’s spare, tightly plotted The Night of Baba Yaga is a violent and transgressive marvel. The two women at its center—the tough bodyguard Yoriko Shindo and Shoko, the yakuza ‘princess’ she’s charged with protecting—couldn’t be more different on the surface, but they awake in each other a desire to live free from the yakuza’s cruelty. I read the novel in a breathless flash and still can’t shake the sheer power of its ending.”
—John Copenhaver, Lambda Award–winning author of Hall of Mirrors

“Otani’s explosive debut navigates gender and time, offering a gripping, unbreakable thriller.”
—Tokyo Weekender

“In The Night of Baba Yaga (translated from the Japanese by Sam Bett), Akira Otani takes a familiar form and gender-bends it. A rogue agent in a yakuza gang, the eyelash-batting young girl trapped under her criminal father’s thumb, a connection that sparks and holds into a wish of escape. It’s a classic story, but Otani transports it into new, exciting dimensions.”
—Chicago Review of Books

“Filled with visceral action and unexpected twists, The Night of Baba Yaga manages to be both brutal and touching, and at times subtly funny. Author Akira Otani’s English-language debut is a shocking work of Japanese noir.”
—Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

“This has Old Boy levels of violence and subject matter . . . but it’s also very funny and it’s a bit of a mystery . . . Extremely gory and violent but it’s also an amazing tale of a woman in a man’s world literally fighting to get free. The action whips by so fast, it will take you no time to read it.”
—Liberty Hardy, Book Riot’s All the Books!

“A wild ride with comic book pacing on a gritty path of surprise beginnings, middles, and ends, with a few moments to stop and smell the scorched rose gardens along the way. An entertaining guess-fest and disconcerting gore-tour up until the last bloody page.”
—Ian McCord, Avid Bookshop (Athens, GA)

“Unflinching . . . The Night of Baba Yaga is a fast-paced novel with thrilling storytelling underlined with astute social commentary.”
—PopMatters

“The Night of Baba Yaga is a novel to be widely—and voraciously—read, even if it’s at the beach.”
—Asian Review of Books

“As thrilling as it is fast paced.”
—First Clue Reviews

“Highly engrossing.”
—Gumshoe Review

“Tough muscle with a tender heart.”
—The Hard Word

“A superb revenge thriller led by powerful female characters.”
—Crime Fiction Lover

“Otani’s artful, staccato sentences, deftly translated by Bett, draw readers in, and an unexpected time-jump midway through the novel gives it an ingenious jolt of life. This tender yet furious crime saga will leave readers hungry for more from Otani soon.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Otani paints a vivid, unsettling picture of the violent world of the Yakuza. A mashup of crime thriller and queer romance, this fascinating fairy tale retelling has a decidedly un-fairytale-like ending but showcases the power of two very different women who risk everything to be free.”
—Library Journal, Starred Review

“The sharp prose conveys action sequences, tense exchanges, and tender moments with deftness and lively details. By turns terrifying and empowering, The Night of Baba Yaga is a dark thriller in which two women defy all conventions and risk much to regain their autonomy.”
—Foreword Reviews, Starred Review

“Circular plotting, clear villainy, and primal motives evoke the Brothers Grimm’s warning tales; this literary genre-bender will appeal to readers who favor fairy-tale adaptations, vigilante-justice thrillers, and queer crime fiction.”
—Booklist, Starred Review

“The English language debut of Japanese writer Akira Otani, features all the elements you could hope for from a crime thriller set in the Land of the Rising Sun: a heroine spiritually descended from samurai stock; two pairs of lovers on the run; a beautiful and spoiled young woman treated like a hothouse flower by her doting father; and a yakuza presence that is gloriously, gratuitously violent, well beyond the traditional chopping off of a pinky finger for perceived insubordination.”
—BookPage, Starred Review

“Otani’s prose is tight and sharp, conveying a great deal with short, blunt sentences . . . The book’s translation by Sam Bett is excellent as well, and untranslated Japanese terms are provided with a clear and concise definition in a footnote. I highly recommend The Night of Baba Yaga to fans of thrillers, especially those focused on martial arts or organized crime, as well as readers looking to branch out into the genre.”
—BookBrowse