Tiger's Curse (Tiger's Curse, #1)

by Colleen Houck

[nannah]

This is probably the worst book I've read all year. I've seen it recommended on everyone's "diverse book" lists, so of course I had to pick it up. But it's bad. It's just . . . really bad.

Book content warnings:
unhealthy relationships
extremely possessive men in relationships
racism

Kelsey Hayes is an incredibly ridiculous white woman who out of everyone in the world, is the Chosen One of an Indian goddess to break the curse on an Indian prince. And if this sounds like some mighty white savior syndrome, you're right! This book has an incredibly bad case of it. The author, Colleen Houck, is also white. Do I think the book's racism/white savior syndrome is intentional? No, but that doesn't make it any less harmful.

So Kelsey is tracked down by this Indian prince's knights (now secretary) and goes to India with them to break the curse (because that's normal, right? And her foster parents are totally cool with it right away). The prince, nicknamed Ren, is under a curse that has transformed him into a tiger, except for twenty-four minutes out of every day.

And that's it, that's the plot. There's no urgent, driving force for the rest of the book. Characters even mention, "there's no rush, take your time" multiple times. That's not an engaging plot! The plot is the driving force behind a book, driving characters, motives, etc. This thing wandered and wandered. Kelsey did something stupid, then romance happened. That's literally the outline.

The main focus of this book is the developing relationship between Kelsey and Ren. However, that relationship is not healthy. In the beginning it disturbed me so much I remember pausing to comment that I hoped Ren would turn out to be the villain! As the book went on, this feeling only intensified. Ren is extremely possessive and frightening. Sure, some of it might be intentional, as the two parted at the end, , but it's still obvious that they're meant to be romanticized by the reader. But with lines like "I won't let you leave", "[. . .] do you think I'd simply let you go? Let you walk out of my life without a backward glance?", "I know what you're thinking, and I'm not going to let you escape again. You can either take a seat and have dinner with me like a normal date. Or, you can sit on my lap while I force-feed you.".

No, this sounds like someone you'd file a restraining order on.

Besides all this, the writing is awful. Not only is it purely functional, it's just bad writing. Don't take my word for it, though. Take a look at this:

"'Ren, stop! The branches are scratching us. They have needles underneath that follow our movements. They're the thorny grasping dangers! We have to run or they'll ensnare us!'"

And finally, I'll just end with the worst of it: the racism. This review is already negative enough, but the racism and ignorance really made this book hard to read. First, we have Ren, who's Indian and . . . . as he states in the book: Asian? He literally says he's biracial because his mother was Asian. I hate to break it to you, Colleen Houck . . . but India is in Asia. She keeps insisting Asia is this separate place from India? And insists Asia is one single place? I know she's thinking East Asia, but ohhh, that's just so ignorant and annoying. If you mean East Asia (or specifically China), just say it. This whole white people thinking Asia = E. Asia is a narrow-minded line of thinking that many Asians have been trying to end.

And then in the second half, for some reason Houck decides to add in a Japanese creature to an Indian spirit world (and says they're Chinese??). It takes a VERY SIMPLE google search to find out kappa are Japanese creatures, not Chinese. Mixing them with Indian religion/mythology really adds nothing to the book, especially since it only happens once during the entire novel.

Except for the villain, every Indian character has golden skin and non-brown eyes. Hmmmm. Ren has blue eyes, his brother has golden eyes, and another has violet eyes. What's wrong with brown eyes and brown skin? Not to mention Ren is a white tiger, and his brother (the betrayer) is a black tiger and described as "darker" when human.

This whole book is just a mess, and I'm so astonished the book has so many fans.