BOOK REVIEWS: The Tiger's Daughter

The Tiger's Daughter

K. Arsenault Rivera

I received a free ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I tried. I genuinely tried. But around halfway through, I had to give in to the fact that not only could I not finish this book by the time it would be released, I couldn't finish it at all.  It is definitely a book that I wanted to like. Historical/Fantasy lesfic is definitely up my alley... but nah.




There are a lot of flaws in both the narrative structure and world building of this book. The writing style contributed the most to my being unable to struggle through the book. The author has chosen to alternate between first person present and SECOND PERSON PAST. It is jarring to the extreme, particularly after you realize that Shefali has essentially decided to write an entire novel to her friend Shizuka that recounts their entire lives together, most of which the recipient of the letter was present for. This makes it even stranger when the author infodumps large swaths of text about one culture or the other; both Shefali and Shizuka know all of this already. Why would you compose that long of a letter, breaking the fourth wall constantly to try to drop all of this information you both know in the laps of the readers? You wouldn't. And without any kind of in-narrative reason for Shefali to recount their adventures, there is zero urgency behind the story.

These writing choices contribute also to a severe lack of action. Occasionally, it picks up but we see so little directly that it is very hard to engage with the characters. Also, because the letters go one way, the story lacks the unfolding interest of epistolary fiction. Trust, I have read epistolary fiction from the 18th century that was over a thousand pages long each. It doesn't work as well when the characters aren't communicating back and forth.

Furthermore, there are other more detailed reviews that can get into this, but the world building itself all stems from a haphazard blending pan-Asiatic cultures, which includes some demons or something, but as far as I've read, neither narrator has bothered to infodump on how magic or demons work. There are plenty of borrowed words from Japanese and Chinese, without any kind of glossary, as you would have even in the event that you made up your fantasy languages (Tolkien).  Thus, it is at once drearily boring and confusing.

Thus, I am sad to say that I wouldn't recommend this book. I think it's a pity, because the concept is not beyond redemption, but the execution should have been corrected early in the editing process.