Well .....
so .....
I JUST GOT AN ARC FOR THIS BOOK AND I CANT CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT ;)
Because this sounds ah-ma-zing!
Also ... girls kissing? I'm SO in!
One of my most anticipated reads of 2017 just got a lot closer <3 526 2.5 stars
The most valuable member of the clan is the person who tells the best stories around the fire.
Frankly, anything blurbed by V.E. Schwab I expect to love. Alas, this was not the best story told around the fire, albeit showing immense potential.
Mid-book, I feared I was going to end up rating one of my most anticipated releases less than 2 stars. The first half lulled me to sleep, resulting in a lot of skimming. The second half was distinctly better, the last 100 or so pages interesting even. From 5 stars to DNFs, you'll see everything among this debut's ratings, as it is a peculiar book and simply subject to individual taste.
The Tiger's Daughter entailed a beautifully written same sex romance with two heart-winning heroines, but the action-packed fantasy I'd hoped for based on the premise was nonexistent. To me, The Tiger's Daughter was more an epic love story than an epic fantasy novel. The storytelling – the point of view written in form of a letter – was not to my liking. Though the book ended better than it started, I lowered my rating to 2.5 stars because it couldn't make up for the earlier amount of bored skimming.
Side note: In my understanding, this book is going to be published as adult fantasy, and its content warrants being shelved as such (or NA), but definitely not YA.
I had a rocky start with The Tiger's Daughter. I am not the greatest fan of present tense in fantasy novels, and though I quickly got used to the tense, I struggled to adapt to the point of view. The story switches between few chapters written in 3rd person POV and most of the chapters in the form of a letter in 2nd person POV. The point of view will be one key point deciding whether you'll connect or disconnect from the story. It took me way too long to adapt to this peculiar perspective which dampened my enjoyment of this book. As mentioned, most of the book is written as a letter from one lover to another. A friend of mine correctly pointed out that it makes no sense to write a letter in order to describe experiences in which the addressee took part, but I'll leave that unquestioned for now. Unfortunately, noticeable parts of the letter contained info-dump to establish the world-building. This improved as the story progressed but it made me put The Tiger's Daughter aside after one chapter and pick it up several weeks later. Again, this may be subject to individual taste, but it certainly wasn't how I would've chosen to tell the story. Arsenault Rivera demonstrates excellent skill with regard to writing but there were also passages that felt choppy or forced to me.
You can tell how much work went into the world-building but it does have its obvious flaws. The realm Arsenault Rivera has created is rich in its influences from several Asian cultures, which would've been amazing, had it not blatantly mirrored them. The two (main) differing ethnicities – the Hokkaran people and the Qorin tribe – seem to have been heavily inspired by Japanese and Tibetan/Mongolian culture (one Qorin character even bore the last name of a Tibetan friend of mine). I did enjoy the clash between these two ethnicities; the Hokkaran who deem themselves superior to the tribes of the steppes and the Qorin who wouldn't trade their freedom under the stars for Hokkaran golden cages. But it would've been better if these fictional ethnicities hadn't been so similar to the actual world cultures. It doesn't go unnoticed that Arsenault Rivera freely mixed Asian cultures, for example Japanese and Chinese, which can be problematic, especially for readers of the respective origins (Airy's review and Laurelinvanyar's review confront this issue better than I can!). There are also several terms Arsenault Rivera uses with disregard of offence to these respective cultures, such as a description of being flat-faced. If readers personally affected by this consider this racist, then it's racist, end of story.
In the centre of golden palaces and the vastness of the steppes, Arsenault Rivera placed two opposites attracted to each other like moths to the light. As with everything I like about this book, it took me 250 pages to realise that I was fond of these characters. O-Shizuka aka Empress Yui is an overly confident, spoiled, rampant peacock of a royal but with a fierce protective sense for her lover and her people. Barsalyya Shefali is a shy and observant warrior from whose point of view the letters are written. I really enjoyed how these two characters balanced out each other's flaws. The Tiger's Daughter features many diverse elements, the obvious ones being the same sex romance and the various ethnicities. Shefali's mother, though mute by choice, communicated in sign language which was amazing.
Apart letter format and the point of view, which I needed time getting used to, it was the plot that let me down most. The story switches between the present, told from the perspective of O-Shizuka, and the past, told through a letter written by Shefali. However, the letter is predominant and, for most of the time, I was a bit confused of how the past related back to the present. Besides, I was simply bored out of my mind for the first half of the book. Mid-book, it seemed like barely anything had happened, save for a few tiny adventures, character bonding, and a hint of political intrigue. Up to that point, the plot had felt entirely without aim. I expect a good book to hook me within the first 50 pages but, sadly, that didn't happen. During the second half, the plot improved noticeably. The romance got serious, the book finally spouted some demons, and the political intrigue turned into a full-blown conspiracy. I also saw a swordfight carried out over more than two passages for the first time since O-Shizuka had always beaten her opponents with one strike before. I love heroines that are good at fighting but this seemed a little extreme. I was disappointed with the plot, mostly because the premise had me expect something fast-paced and action-packed.
The romance was well written, following the growing love between two girls who had wrestled each other half to death as children but became each other's most trusted companions as they became older. I thought the characters were a little young for the mature way they behaved, and there is some explicit/graphic content (!) with regard to love scenes (see my earlier remark about this not classifying as YA). It's also unlikely someone running a high fever would have the energy for mind-blowing sex, just saying. Last but not least, as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Arsenault Rivera certainly knew how to let her story advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. The same sex romance is considered forbidden but these societal standards are continuously challenged by the two lovers and trusted side protagonists, and I believe this will be a great example of a fictional realm who will learn to accept same sex relationships as a given.
We're both girls, I said.
You grabbed me by the flap of my deel. Mad with strength, you rolled us over. Hot tears fell on my chest and face.
Did you hear me? you roared. I don't care! In all the lands of the Empire, I've only ever wanted to marry you. You fool Quorin! You do not hesitate to slay a tiger, but you hesitate to kiss a girl?
Though the same sex romance was one of the reasons I'd been curious about this debut – f/f relationships are so rare in fantasy –, I was disappointed by how much stronger the love story was than the plot. The political intrigue was enjoyable but I'd have needed more of it and earlier in the book. The fantasy elements seemed underdevelopped until the very end. Albeit having improved, The Tiger's Daughter was a letdown for me. Lastly, there is also the issue of appropriation of East Asian culture and potential racism as pointed out by a reviewer of Japanese origin, which should be taken seriously.
**I received an eARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts are my own. Quotations may be subject to change in the final copy.** 526 Okay, it's really long overdue for me to read this as it was a book I was highly anticipating last year, and some how I just didn't find the time to read it. I am super happy that I made time recently, because this is one of my new absolute favourite reads, and I am now SO excited for the sequel.
This is a Mongol-inspired fantasy setting with an Empress of the Hokkaran and an heir to the Quorin at the centre of the story. They are childhood best friends (their mothers were best friends too) and we follow their story through letters and present day. Both are women of great importance in their world. They have powers that are unique to them, and a personality which shines through in all situations. They are strong, powerful, brave and noble. They radiate their calm and collected-ness, and they are some of my favourite ever fantasy ladies to read about.
Also, they are in love.
I have never, ever read a fantasy book which focuses on two main characters with a lesbian romance. This is just something that is sorely lacking in the genre, and I am so happy when I see books like this one which boldly break the mould and focus on the relationship between these two women right from the start.
As I mentioned before, this is a story largely told through letters and therefore it's second-person, but not addressing the read, addressing the Empress who is the one receiving the letters. Our Empress is called Shizuka and our Tiger's Daughter is called Shefali. All we know at the start of the book is that they grew up together and have formed a bond so strong that time and distance will never break it. We also know that although Shizuka rules, her childhood was fraught, and Shefali is now not with her, and is undertaking a very dangerous task.
Honestly, this book starts a little slow, we follow the letter and the Empress in two storylines, with the present-day story taking a back seat to the ruminations on the past in Shefali's letter. I was a little unsure if I liked this style at first, but very soon the story gripped me, and I found myself absorbed and loving the immersion.
The pacing, once it gets going, is super fast, and I feel like especially the second half of the book there were heaps of elements I didn't expect and that I really enjoyed. We see different types of magic, some of which is inspired by nature, animals and legends. We also get influence from Eastern cultures which inform parts of the story such as the mythology and the tribe-like–Empire relationship.
Honestly, this is by far one of the best books I have read this year for it's originality, it's story, and it's characters. I am super duper excited for the sequel, and you can bet I will read that one quicker than I got around to this one. It was solidly a 5*s read for me :) 526 I received an ARC off of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. This does not persuade my actual opinion of the novel.
1 Star.
DNF @ 29%
You know, I don't even know where to start with this review. I don't have much to say. Nor do I feel like reviewing this. It's quite a shame, because I've had this book on my TBR list for months. So when I was approved to receive an ARC, it was pretty magnificent and close to a dream-come-true (I'm exaggerating here). But then, within the first and second chapters, it had to go and disappoint me to no end. Everything just dragged and I did not enjoy a single thing.
Being completely honest, I don't even know what was going on. There were these letters that seemed important ('cause letters usually tend to add to the story somehow), but these ended up being a bunch of information-dumps that ticked me off to no end. I'm wondering why they were even in the novel, and why they were so long too.
Overall, this is a short review because I have nothing to say about this novel, other than: I did not enjoy it. Plus, I didn't read too much of it, so there really isn't much for me to say. But, I definitely won't be coming back to this one. It's just not for me. And I do feel bad about rating this poorly. I don't like doing that. It's also a big shame to me too because Victoria Schwab loved this novel (she's one of my favorite authors), and I didn't.
Thank you NetGalley, for providing me with this ARC. 526 The Tiger's Daughter is an f/f adult fantasy story that follows two warrior princesses. f/f adult fantasy isn't as common as it should be, so this was one of my most anticipated books for the second half of this year. Most reviews I've read weren't good, but I really liked this.
I think it's really important to get into this book with the right expectations. It's a tome (500+ pages) and it's told through letters. It's slow, really slow. And if you're expecting an epic fantasy adventure that just happens to have a f/f romance in it, you will be disappointed.
The Tiger's Daughter is mainly a slow-burn love story. Yes, Shefali and Shizuka will go on adventures, will duel demons and kill tigers. But the story isn't about that, it's about their love for each other. I didn't think that was a flaw.
I loved Shefali and Shizuka, both as characters and as a couple. We see them growing up from the PoV of Shefali, who is writing the letters. We see them go through challenges and fights, and still they get out of them, together.
The side characters didn't disappoint either.
I also really liked that there was a trans character. Ren doesn't appear for many scenes, but I loved her and I want to know if we'll see more of her in the future books.
The pacing wasn't perfect, but that's often the case with books that are told through letters or mixed media. The writing got a bit melodramatic sometimes, but for the most part I liked it.
The premise didn't make much sense - Shefali is writing letters to Shizuka, and sometimes she says I don't need to describe [x] to you, but [description of x], and she's telling Shizuka things she already knows. In the end the whole thing did make a little bit more sense, but still.
The worldbuilding was inspired by the cultures of Japan, Mongolia and sometimes China, and as some reviews will tell you, it isn't done well (you can't solve your inaccuracies by changing some letters here and there and hoping your readers won't recognize what you're talking about). Hokkaro is as Japanese as Ravka from Shadow and Bone is Russian or as Kenettra from The Young Elites is Italian - not at all. It may seem Japanese from an outsider perspective, but it isn't, and if you, unlike me, are familiar with Japanese culture, that's probably going to bother you. So, consider that.
I really liked the worldbuilding, especially what we see of the Qorin (the nomads). Maybe it's because everything was written in Shefali's PoV and Shefali is Qorin, but I felt like we never really got to know Hokkaran customs. The descriptions were really pretty, that's true, but they didn't feel as real. The way Shefali talked about the Qorin, her love for her people - that did, and it was one of my favorite parts of the book.
11/11/18: reread, raising rating to 4.5 stars. I'm so glad this book exist, we do not usually get fated love stories for f/f content, or stories that are completely focused on the f/f romance outside of contemporary. Also, I love Shefali and Shizuka both as characters and as a couple, I care about them enough that I was never bored during this reread, and this is a long book 526
K. Arsenault Rivera Ï 4 Read
Even gods can be slain….
The Hokkaran empire has conquered every land within their bold reach―but failed to notice a lurking darkness festering within the people. Now, their border walls begin to crumble, and villages fall to demons swarming out of the forests.
Away on the silver steppes, the remaining tribes of nomadic Qorin retreat and protect their own, having bartered a treaty with the empire, exchanging inheritance through the dynasties. It is up to two young warriors, raised together across borders since their prophesied birth, to save the world from the encroaching demons.
This is the story of an infamous Qorin warrior, Barsalayaa Shefali, a spoiled divine warrior empress, O-Shizuka, and a power that can reach through time and space to save a land from a truly insidious evil. The Tiger’s Daughter (Ascendant, #1)
4.5 stars! 526 Sloppy (on my part because, well, DNF) buddy read with Elise. She will vouch for my initial enthusiasm and the disappointment that followed, and she will forgive me for being so untrustworthy.
DNF 45%
1.5
First of all, let me tell you I am absolutely broken-hearted to have to rate The Tiger's Daughter two stars. To be honest, hadn't I been so hopeful and excited for this book, I think I would have rated it even one star, and you know I am no sentimental, so just think how bitter must I be now if I was so invested as to let that influence me, instead of judging the book only for what it is, as I always proud myself on doing. But enough of me being dramatic.
•My main reason to be mad at The Tiger's Daughter is that this book seriously challenged my suspension of disbelief. The reason is very simple, and I think many, many readers, when the book comes out, will notice it and be dumbfounded.
The book is rather long, but comprises only six, though long, chapters. In the very first chapter, one of the the main characters, Empress Shizuka, receives a letter from Shefali, our second protagonist.
And this letter is my problem.
🡲 This letter was still going on when I gave up, well into chapter four, that is to say, nearly half the book. In short, it reached the length of a short novel. Who would write a letter that long?
🡲 This letter is full of info-dump, even about the culture and life of the addressee. It also tells events in which the addressee herself took part, and that therefore she must know. Who would write to someone just to tell them, extensively, the story of their life, with no other apparent motive than the mere telling?
Yes, you get it. The problem is that this letter is the dumbest and least reasonable and believable thing ever. It goes on and on, saying You did this, and said this, and I answered that. It's stupid, perplexing and I honestly thought it must all be a joke, because that was the most generous hypothesis I could think of, the least being that Rivera has no idea of how readers interact with what they read, resulting in my necessary conviction that she has never picked up a novel in her life.
•My constant preoccupation with the telling technique clearly hindered my progresses and my enjoyment of what I was reading. I did not care for the characters and I felt I was given no reason to. It's been a very long time since I have felt so apathetic toward a whole set of characters.
•The plot is astoundingly aimless. Halfway through it, I still was honestly in the dark as to what this story was supposed to be about, apart from a lesbian couple. Pretty much the same happened to me with The Bone Witch, which I also dropped because life is to show short to spend it being led by the nose by books that look as disoriented as it gets.
•The romance was, with the Asian setting, what I was really looking forward to about the book, but just as the setting (see next paragraphs) it gave me no gratification, mostly because I didn't care for the character, which means that, in order to win me over, the romance should have being nothing less than off-the-charts, which it wasn't at all.
Moreover (but at this point I guess this is super secondary) the one sex scene I read was quite cheesy. There was a line especially (When you positioned yourself over me, I swear I was looking up at the Eternal Sky, and yes, she is clearly talking about her lady parts) fit to be compared to Maas's best expedients. But as I said, this almost becomes marginal if we consider how poorly convincing all the rest is.
⚠️ Speaking of which, The Tiger's Daughter is not a young adult and I don't understand why it is shelved as such. It's definitely adult.
⚠️ At one point in her never-ending letter, Shefali refers to herself as flat faced, which set off an alarm bell inside my head. So I browsed through the reviews that the book had already received (as of now, the publication is still several months away) and, luckily, I stumbled upon Laurelinvanyar's, which you can read here. I don't know the first thing about Japanese, Chinese or Mongolian cultures, but this reviewer, being Japanese, certainly does, and I think it's important for all the readers of this book (those who like it and those who don't) to listen to what Laurelinvanyar has to say about appropriation, the consumability of culture, history and female warriors, and respect in general, because it's never too late to learn something about that.
➽ I am so disappointed with this book. I thought it was one of the most promising releases of this year, and I had great hopes, but the flaws of The Tiger's Daughter being not of the subjective kind, I can't even blame my expectations for this fiasco. I can't begin to explain how much it saddens me to see all this potential wasted. 526 DNFing at 43%
Me with my kindle at the prospect of returning to this book:
I had such high hopes for this, and hate to report that I'm let down.
A Fantasy novel inspired by Japanese and Mongolian Cultures with a F/F romance. On the surface, that sounds amazing, but I find the execution sorely lacking. Much of the plot is waylaid by repeated infodumps of the author's world-building notes in the place of actually telling a story.
Better fantasy authors know that worldbuilding is best done with the advancement of the story. Here, very little happens at all as either one of the 2 narrators explains endless minutiae about their respective cultures when very little of it actually pertains to what's going on.
I have to talk about the romance for a second. I spent the entire time reading in a state of incredulity in regards to the ages of the two characters. For pretty much the entirety of what I read, the two female romantic leads were children. Much of the start of the story recounts their time when they were 5 years old, then 8 years old, and 10 etc., realizing that they were in love, and soulmates. I get where the author was going with it - that these two souls are bound to each other - but it felt so cliched to me.
Most people rarely, if ever, have found their true loves at 10 years old. So all the sweeping declarations about never leaving each other, always being together and how beautiful they thought the other girl was felt heavy handed and I'm going to be honest - a little bit creepy.
I wanted much more plot than we get in this book. This needed balancing between romance and fantasy plot movement. Heavy editing might have done wonders for this.
The way the story is told is enough to make me wonder if the author has ever picked up a book in her life. The book starts with the Present-tense POV character, Empress Yui, receiving a letter from her friend. The POV then switches into second person present as the author of this letter waxes philosophical about their entire childhood to her penpal/romantic interest.
At first, I thought the letter was just going to be a few pages long, which I had no problem with. However....
It just.
Keeps.
Going!
I'm not a huge fan of second-person narrative voice, but it can be fun when it's executed correctly. It's not here.
What sort of friend sends an entire novel to her childhood romantic interest, re-telling all of their experiences that she was there for the majority of? It makes zero sense and was probably the most frustrating aspect of this book for me.
It also should be noted at this point that this book is only 6 chapters long. And the first section of the letters before the switch back to Empress Yui's POV is over 2 chapters long. I kept getting distracted trying to guess how long the letter was going to ramble on for.
There are also a number of complaints I've read from other reviewers better suited than I am to address the issue about a concern of the author lifting too much from Japanese and Mongolian cultures to create her own. She shifts certain words and spellings here and there, and makes some pretty awkward errors that might offend some readers of Asian descent who are familiar with the history of these cultures. Check out the review that better explains those issues than I ever could
here
I'm sorry to do it, but I have so many other books to read and can't handle another minute on a book that's just not catching my attention.
Withholding a Starred review as I didn't actually complete the book.
_________
A huge thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book! 526 My official blurb: A love letter to my favorite kind of fantasy―rich, expansive, and grounded in human truth. It is a story of star-crossed loves, of fate and power and passion, and it is simply exquisite. 526 2 stars
*sigh* Here we go. This should be fun.
The Tiger's Daughter caught my interest when I first heard about it from other reviewers and from Twitter. Not only did it have such a beautiful cover, but it took place in an East Asian inspired world. Combine that with promises of demon slaying and you would think this would be a good book, right?
Wrong.
Short review: The Tiger's Daughter is an epic fantasy romance story of two warriors killing demons falling in love.
Long Review: There was so much potential for the Tiger's Daughter to be a great fantasy book. When the reviews started to come in, I made sure to have not any high expectations considering most of my friends and other reviewers were mixed on it. Hell, some people dnf'd the book. I wanted to see if there were any positive stuff in it. Sure, there were a few, but they paled in comparison to the many problems I had with the story, the format, and the characters.
To give you a basic rundown, The Tiger's Daughter is a fantasy story about two warriors, Shizuka and Shefali, and their journey from how they met and the events that lead up to them fighting demons. The story is told in 2nd person letter format where Shefali writes the events of when they met up to where they are now with short interludes from Shizuka's POV set years after their adventure.
When reviews started coming out of how the book was long and a little bit boring, I braced myself to expect the same thing. That's exactly what I got. A boring pile of bland pudding.
The one thing I sort of liked but feel a bit iffy about it is the setting.
If you guys haven't heard, there's been some talk about the use of Mongolian, Japanese, and even bits of Chinese influence on the setting. Basically, an East Asian setting. However, there have been other reviewers who say that it wasn't executed in a good way. When you're combining the elements and cultures of three different countries, you're bound to be called out for some inaccuracies.
There's also the issue of how honorifics are used. I get that Rivera was drawing inspiration from the use of honorifics and tried to change them, but I think it would've been best if she had stuck to the original use of honorifics instead of creating a new type. There is no glossary so it's hard to keep up with how someone should be addressed. For example, Keiko-Lao. Lao what? It was just messy.
I'm giving Rivera the benefit of the doubt and say that it was mostly human error on her part. She did not intend to make some inaccuracies. Could she have done further research? Yes, but these were just mistakes from the product of human error.
I'm not of Asian descent nor did I ever study the cultures, so I won't go into specific details about the inaccuracies. But keep an open mind and read other reviews and see what they have to say.
Other than the setting and writing style (Which is pretty great), those were the only positive aspects of the book.
As for the negatives...
Right off the bat, I did not like the format of the story. I do like when letters are implemented in a story, but the letters (yes, plural) Shefali wrote were just redundant in my opinion. Not to mention they didn't make sense in a narrative way.
The letters primarily spoke of the girls' lives from when they met, how they got together, and up until where Shizuka is reading them with Shefali absent. I kid you not when I say that some parts of the letters were just filler. There were several times when I just wanted Shefali to get to the point instead of writing about something that had no relevance to the plot.
This was me throughout the story.
I'll admit, I put down the book just because of the long letters, and I even avoided reading it on a few occasions because of the letters, which is why this review is a little late. I just cannot see why they had to be so long.
Adding to the long letters, the format didn't make sense to me in a narrative way. The point of the letters was for Shefali to recall the times they've been together through the best and worst of times. That there was a major flaw that I and others have seen.
Shizuka was RIGHT THERE for the majority of those letters. She was with Shefali as they fell in love and (rarely) fought demons. If she was right there the entire time, then why write letters about those moments?
You could argue that it offers a different point of view and goes into more detail about what they were doing and I can sort of agree with that. But in a narrative sense, the letters were just redundant. What is the point of them being there if Shizuka and Shefali were together for the majority of the letters? Unless Shizuka has the attention span of a goldfish or has crappy memory, the letters didn't need to be there.
Plot-wise...
There was none.
There was hardly any plot development. The synopsis does say that the girls would fight demons but that was a rarity. The story was just them falling in love. Now, I don't mind romance in a story so long as it doesn't take over the plot and the characters don't make stupid decisions for the sake of love. And while Shizuka and Shefali didn't make rash decisions, their romance took over everything. This is a character-driven story so there won't be that much plot, but even then, I was not a fan of the romance being the overall arc of the book.
To top it off, I did not like Shizuka or Shefali. Shizuka was this pissed off girl who has anger issues and Shefali was constantly putting Shizuka on a high pedestal to the point where it got annoying. I will give them credit for being these powerful warriors who can slay demons, but I still found them annoying, especially Shizuka's anger.
Speaking of Shizuka, there wasn't enough development for her. To me, all I got to know about her was from Shefali's constant boasting about her. The book was telling instead of showing us about Shizuka. And the short chapters that were from Shizuka's pov were too short and didn't help her character arc. Not to mention that for 90% of the time, she was angry.
Shizuka = A N G E R Y
Did I think the romance between them was good? Yes.
Did I think the romance took over the story? Also yes.
It's a bit sad to say that I was disappointed in The Tiger's Daughter because I really wanted it to be good. However, it wasn't. Already, the next book, The Phoenix Empress has been announced and hopefully, that will be better than the Tiger's Daughter.
Because:
1) it doesn't seem like it will be in letter format.
2) it has an actual plot.
Here's hoping it's better.
Verdict
The Tiger's Daughter was a disappointment to me. With a narrative that didn't make sense, a romance that took up most of the book, unimpressive characters, lack of plot, and redundant letters hindered this book.
Thanks for reading my review!
-Cesar 526