Skip to main content

The Tiger's Daughter

The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera


*I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Synopsis
This is the story of a Qorin warrior, Barsalayaa Shefali, and a divine empress, O-Shizuka, two young women and warriors, raised together across borders since their prophesied birth, who must work together to save the world from the threat of demons.


Review
Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t really my cup of tea. While the writing was lovely, I found the manner of story-telling a bit jarring and unusual. First it is told in third-person present, then told in letter form, with first-person directing the narrative to a specific person, referred to as “you”. It drove me crazy that basically the entire book was a "letter", and it was about events the person reading it had already lived through.

The plot meandered… I guess there was really no “plot”, no specific direction the story was headed. It was mostly an info-dump. The story was about two girls, life-long friends, falling in love. It was also the story about one girl’s battle with a dark disease which changes her entirely. However, I really didn't care at all about the characters and what happened to them.

I confess I found myself bored, skimming over portions, especially in the beginning, and I was not absorbed in the story until the last 15 percent. The book did end on a happy note, which redeemed it a little. 

The world portrayed was very vivid and interesting, with the cultures obviously influenced by real-world Mongolian, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. I liked that women were powerful and warriors. I thought the threat of the demons added an interesting and grim twist to the overall story.

As I said above, it just wasn’t really something that caught my interest.


Rating
2 stars


Details
Genre: Fantasy.
Language: None.
Sex: One explicit sex scene.
Violence: A lot of graphic violence.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This Savage Song

This Savage Song - Victoria Schwab Review: The newest book by one of my favorite authors, V.E. Schwab (She goes by "Victoria" for her YA novels). I love the premise for the book: violent acts create actual monsters. The two main characters are a human girl named Kate who desperately wants to be a (figurative) monster: a big, bad crime boss like her father, who runs one half of V-City. The other is August, who is a literal monster, a Malchai, one that drains the souls of his victims through his music, who desperately seeks his own personal humanity. I loved them both, and their personalities and characters and drives are so multi-faceted and real. They interact with other characters in believable and different ways. The juxtaposition of these two characters in and of itself is one of the driving things behind this story, and one of the things that makes it so compelling. Even though marketed as a YA, it really delves into the deep questions: What makes us human? W...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Reader

The Reader by Traci Chee Synopsis (from Goodreads) "Sefia lives her life on the run. After her father is viciously murdered, she flees to the forest with her aunt Nin, the only person left she can trust. . . . But when Nin is kidnapped, Sefia is suddenly on her own, with no way to know who’s taken Nin or where she is. Her only clue is a strange rectangular object that once belonged to her father left behind, something she comes to realize is a book." Review The main reason I picked up this book was that it got a LOT of hype. I thought it was a good book, but I'd say more for younger YA. I think if I were 12-14, I would have REALLY loved this book. The premise is interesting: In a world where reading doesn't exist, Sefia has a rare book. However, I found at times the story was a bit too  meta... stories within stories within stories, and how reading is literally magic. The pacing was quite slow. I also found the feel or tone of the story jumped around. Fi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Anticipated September Releases

September is looking like THE month for book publications! Here are 5 books that I'm looking forward to: 1) The Reader - Traci Chee Release date: 13 September I've heard a lot of hype about this book and the premise sounds interesting. A world where reading is illegal. After Sefia's father is murdered, she finds the only thing that holds the answers is a strange, rectangular object he left behind--a book. 2) A Shadow Bright and Burning - Jessica Cluess Release date: 20 September Again, a book that has received a lot of attention. Henrietta Howel is the first female sorcerer in a hundred years and has been heralded as the Chosen One. Except she isn't. But she can't let them know. 3) Three Dark Crowns - Kendare Blake Release date: 20 September I love Kendare Blake and everything she's ever written, so when I heard about this new series I was beyond excited. Besides that, the story sounds very intriguing. And, knowing Blake, it will b...
Post a Comment
Read more