Chapter 8: An Explanation

Last time, we finally met Ren.  Ren the human, I mean.  We've known Ren the tiger ever since chapter three.

I miss Ren the tiger.

Chapter Eight: An Explanation

The man approached me carefully with his hands splayed out in front of him and repeated, "Kelsey, it's me, Ren."

The drama!!!!!

Kelsey is scared and confused as he walks towards her with his hands out.  I am also pretty terrified.  Not only does she have literally no reason to connect "tiger" and "hot human dude" other than "the tiger acted weird sometimes," there's a strange guy walking towards you while reaching for you!  Yikes!!!

He came closer, put his hand on his muscled chest, and spoke slowly. "Kelsey, don't run.  I'm Ren. The tiger."

He's hot, geddit?  Like, so hot.

He shows her the collar and rope that she used to tie the tiger to the tree from the last chapter, and she notices that the tiger is missing.  Kelsey is having some trouble understanding what he's saying.

Now, I've spoken before about how long it takes for Kelsey to put things together.  Her thoughts on Mr. Kadam are painfully slow.  But it actually works here, since there is literally no way she could have expected a tiger to be a hot man when she hadn't experienced anything supernatural before this. It makes sense that she would have trouble processing this stuff right away.

Her refusal to even consider Mr. Kadam being involved is still dumb, though.

I tried to take another step and almost fell backward over the wall.  He reached me in the blink of an eye and caught my waist, steadying me.

Whoa, hands to yourself there, dude.  This is more of a criticism of Ren here, because why the heck would you do this to a girl you're walking towards somewhat menacingly?  That you're trying to get to trust you?

"Are you alright?" he asked politely.

"No!"  He was still holding my hand.  I stared at it, imagining the tiger's paws.

There has been no mention of him grabbing her hand before this, but all of a sudden he's "still" holding her hand.  In addition to being incredibly forward, it's not even consistent with what's happening.

"Kelsey?"  I looked up into his startling blue eyes.  "I am your tiger."

I whispered, "No. No!  It's not possible.  How could that be?"




I take back what I said before, the bit's been going on for too long.  Now she's just being deliberately slow.

Ren asks her to step inside the hut and let him explain what's going on.  Kelsey follows him inside, and he's still holding her hand "as if afraid that I would run back into the jungle."  So, a strange man is holding her hand to keep her from running away from him as he brings her into a strange house in the middle of the jungle.

That sounds really bad when you write it down.

I didn't usually follow strange men around, but something about him made me feel safe.

You said the exact same thing about Mr. Kadam, who played a role in getting you here and abandoning you in the middle of the jungle.  You have bad judgment.

She knows this in the same way that she knew the tiger wouldn't hurt her.  So, magic, I guess.

Kelsey takes the time to spend an entire paragraph describing the inside of the hut in excruciating detail, which is really weird after the dude-tiger transformation (which you'd think she'd be more preoccupied with) and the fact that she's literally in the middle of what I can only describe as a kidnapping.

He gets her to sit on the bed (which is making my alarm bells go off even louder, holy shit) while he leans up against a wall, all sexy-like.

I felt the fear in my body drain away while a new emotion rushed forward to fill the void: anger.  Despite all the time I'd spent with him, he'd chosen not to share this secret with me.

That's what you're angry about?  That he didn't let you know he was actually a hot human dude?  You have no idea how this tiger thing even works at this point.  You have no idea what the rules are for this tiger situation!



He'd led me through the jungle, apparently on purpose, and allowed me to believe that I was lost, in a foreign country, in the wilderness, alone.

Fair point.  Except you feel inexplicably safe with him?  What??

She's mostly angry with the fact that he didn't trust her with his secret, though.  Even though he's known her for all of two weeks and some change at this point.

Looking at him with suspicion, I irritably asked, "So, what are you?  Are you a man who became a tiger or a tiger that turned into a man?  Or are you like a werewolf?  If you bit me, would I turn into a tiger too?"

Priorities!  Those are the first questions a normal person would ask!!!  Not anything like, "What the fuck are we doing here in the middle of the jungle?  Are you kidnapping me?  What the fuck is wrong with you?"

He just stares at her instead of even trying to answer her questions.  Kelsey even describes it as "disconcerting."  She asks him to move farther away from her while she tries to figure out what's going wrong.  Ugh, he's creepy.  I think we're supposed to think this is charming or something (Oh, he can't keep his eyes off of her and he just wants to be close to her!) but since Kelsey is very much not into it, it just comes off as terrifying.

He sighs (disappointedly? If so, yikes) and sits in a chair, leaning back on the two back legs.  Why?  I dunno, but Houck thought it was important enough to describe.  Is it supposed to make him look cool or blasé about the whole thing?

Kelsey asks him to explain himself and while he's thinking about the best way to do that, Kelsey ogles him.

He didn't look very tiger-like, other than his eyes.  He had full lips, a square jaw, and an aristocratic nose.  He didn't look like any other man I'd ever seen.  I couldn't place it, but there was something else, something cultured about him.  He exuded confidence, strength, and nobility.


Even barefoot with nondescript clothing, he looked like someone powerful.  An even if he weren't good looking--and he was extremely good looking--I still would have been drawn to him.  Maybe that was the tiger part of him.  Tigers always seem regal to me.  They capture my attention.  [random tense change, wut] He was as beautiful a man as he was a tiger.

Hoo boy. There's that weird bit where she equates being beautiful with royalty, which makes it seem like he's hot because he's a prince (okay, Kelsey doesn't quite know this yet, but it's super obvious).  And then immediately after saying that she would have been attracted to him even if he wasn't hot, she talks about how regal tigers are and that he's hot.  What a weird non sequitur of a paragraph.

He seems to really enjoy her ogling him, which is both still creepy and extremely arrogant.  So far, I really don't like him.

Kelsey tells him to get a move on and to explain himself.

"He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and a forefinger, then slid his hand up through his silky black hair, mussing it in a distractingly attractive way.

Of course he did.  He's hot, geddit???

He says a single sentence (essentially that he doesn't know where to start) which gives Kelsey a case of the vapors.

His voice was quiet, refined, and genial, and I soon found myself mesmerized by it.  He spoke English very well with just a slight accent.  He had a honeyed voice--the kind that sends a girl off into wistful daydreams.  I shook off my reaction and caught him scrutinizing me with his cobalt blue eyes.

Uh huh.  So him literally just talking is enough to get her to zone out and be unable to pay attention to what he's saying?  That's like a supervillain power.

There was a tangible connection between us.  I didn't know if it was simple attraction or something else.  His presence was unsettling.  I tried looking away from him to calm myself, but I ended up twisting my hands and staring at my feet, which were tapping the bamboo floor with jittery energy.  When I looked back at his face, the side of his mouth was turned up in a smirk and one of his eyebrows was raised.

I think Kilgrave from Jessica Jones had to work harder to brainwash people.  Yikes.

"Kelsey, try to relax.  I would never harm you."

"Okay.  I'll sit on my hands.  Is that better?"

He laughed.

Whoa.  Even his laugh is magnetic.


Whoa.  I don't care.

The narration takes some time to mention that he has "powerful shoulders" as he tries to explain himself.  He picks up an apron and starts playing with the strings (lolwut) while he says, "I have to do this quickly." Then why were you letting her ogle you earlier?  You could have said, uh, anything during that.  It would have broken up the unrelenting "omg he's so hooooot" description we've been getting so far.

Anyway. He explains that Mr. Kadam's story about Prince Dhiren was mostly accurate, except for the ending.  Dhiren and Kishan weren't killed, but they were turned into tigers.  For, uh, some reason.  He continues:

"Mr. Kadam has faithfully kept our secret all of these centuries.  Please don't blame him for bringing you here. It was my fault.  You see, I...need you, Kelsey."

Gag.  But this does bring us back to that conversation between the mysterious hot guy and Mr. Kadam outside of the truck from a couple of chapters ago.  See, Mr. Kadam was trying to keep Kelsey away from going with Ren into the jungle.  Which means that the only reason Kelsey is here is because Matt's dad wanted her to get kidnapped and/or murdered in India and because Ren "needs" her so badly.

I am so sketched out by this, guys.  It's not ever treated as horrifyingly as it should be in the book.  But yikes.

Kelsey asks what he means by that.

"Mr. Kadam and I believe you are the only one who can break the curse.  Somehow, you've already freed me from captivity."

Except Mr. Kadam didn't believe that she's The One, at least originally.  Because of the little fact that Kelsey is here on recommendation from the circus.  I guess Mr. Kadam might have agreed to it because she's ~special~ or whatever, but it was very much not his decision for her to bring her out into the jungle.

Kelsey says that she didn't free Ren at all, since Mr. Kadam bought him from the circus.  Ren responds that Mr. Kadam was "unable to purchase [his] freedom until [Kelsey] came along" because he wasn't able to turn back into a dude until someone "special" came along.  Yes, the book actually uses the word "special" to describe its protagonist, and then offers no explanation as to why she's "special" in the first place.

But wait. Mr. Kadam couldn't buy Ren before they found someone special?  And the best way to find a special someone to break a centuries-long Indian curse is hanging around in circuses until the right person happens along?  It's not like Mr. Kadam didn't know where Ren was this entire time (since he explains all the way back in chapter four that the mysterious "employer," who is actually himself, has been following the whereabouts of the white tiger for a number of years).  Wouldn't it make more sense to try to expose Ren to as many people as possible and try to find someone who can help him that way?  And not stick him in a tiny broke circus in the middle of Oregon?

My brain hurts.

Kelsey asks what he expects her to do about the situation, and Ren says that they're waiting for someone to explain it to her.  "Even I don't know why you are the chosen one."  Oh, great, not only is she special enough to break the curse for Reasons but there's also a prophecy involved.

A lot of people get really upset when prophecies show up in fantasy.  I don't necessarily agree with that, since I think they can be used really well if they're integrated properly into the story.  Harry Potter's prophecy doesn't show up until the fifth book in the series, and even that prophecy was properly set up by the third book, which involved a prophecy that wasn't even about the protagonist.  The Lightning Thief has a prophecy that drives the main quest, but all the prophecies in the Percy Jackson series are written to be so obtuse it's almost impossible to guess what's going to happen until after the prophecy is fulfilled, and it makes sense because prophecies play a huge role in Greek mythology.  Even The Belgariad, despite its other problems, has a really interesting take on what a prophecy is--two sentient prophecies compete by shaping events in the real world in order to become the prophecy that gets fulfilled.

The ones I listed also have an element of ambiguity.  These prophecies can be failed as well.  Harry Potter's prophecy doesn't tell you who's going to win in the end, and it has an equal chance of being either Harry or Voldemort surviving at the end.  The prophecies in Percy Jackson always come true, but they're so cryptic and impossible to interpret the characters don't even try to figure out how they end and just use them as a jumping off point for quests.  The prophecy in The Belgariad has a counterpart that has an equal chance of succeeding and supplanting the prophecy that guides the protagonist, and there's nothing that says the "good" prophecy has to win at all.

The prophecy here isn't integrated into the story very well.  It shows up out of nowhere, both too late for a prophecy that's supposed to be guiding the story the entire time, like in Percy Jackson (we're almost 25% of the way through the book at this point) and too early for there to be a reveal of a prophecy that's been in place the whole time without the characters knowing, like in Harry Potter.  We also don't get to know if it's a definite prophecy or not at this point.  Looking ahead (it's aaaaall the way in chapter twelve), it definitely allows for failure, but not in an interesting way.  I'll get more into it when we actually get to read the prophecy driving the plot (which happens almost 40% of the way through the book, by the way!  The main driving force of the plot isn't in the book until almost halfway through!  Pacing, what's that!!)

Back to the story.  Ren gives Kelsey the option of leaving and going home as long as she listens to what the shaman has to say.  So, at least he gives her an out and he isn't literally kidnapping her.  It's sad that I find that to be a positive thing.

Who was I to reject a handsome man--I mean tiger.  I think my comparison to Kilgrave is getting more accurate as time goes on.

There's some more purple prose describing Ren smiling when she agrees to stay (ugh).  Then Ren drops the bombshell that Mr. Kadam wanted to tell Kelsey the truth from the outset but that Ren didn't let him.  "I thought that if you spent a little more time with me, you would learn to trust me, and I could reveal who I was in my own way."  Through kidnapping.

Kelsey says that she would have gone with them anyway if she knew the truth.  I can actually see both sides to this one, but since Mr. Kadam's way would have involved less kidnapping under false pretenses, I'm going to agree with Kelsey here.

Ren continues to be a smug bastard:

"You know, sleeping outdoors isn't all bad.  You get to stare up at the stars and cool breezes ruffle your fur after a hot day.  The grass smells sweet and," he made eye contact with me, "so does your hair."

I blushed and grumbled, "Well, I'm glad someone enjoyed it."

He smiled smugly and said, "I did."

So, from that exchange, I think we can reasonably conclude that Ren didn't want to tell her the truth just so he could spend more time creeping on her and...sniffing her hair?  Ick.

Kelsey then changes her mind from the previous page after talking some more with Ren about how he should have told her the truth from the outset.  His presence is so disorienting that she changes her mind to agree with him almost instantly.  I'm still terrified of this man.

I admitted, "You're probably right.  If you had changed into a man there, I don't think I would have come."

Are you kidding me?  This is the only explanation I would have accepted for her going in the first place since the way the book does it is so stupid!  Not to mention that doing it this way would actually have given Kelsey more agency as a protagonist, since as it is she's basically tricked into helping these people and just goes along with it.  Because Ren's hot.

Ren asks the question that I've been asking this entire time--"Why did you come?"  Great, now Houck is making me agree with the kidnapping creepy guy!

"I wanted to spend more time with...you.  You know, the tiger.  I would have missed him. I mean you."  I blushed. 

Not gonna cut it, missy.  That's still a terrible explanation.

Ren cuts the conversation short and tells her that he'll turn back into a tiger soon, since he can't stay a dude for very long.  Kelsey asks, "Do you understand me when you are a tiger?  Can I still speak to you?"  This would be a decent question except for the fact that it is immediately preceded by a multiple-page-long conversation where it was made very clear that Ren knows what's going on when he's a tiger.  Not to mention the weird stuff he was doing back at the circus and on the way here when he was a tiger.

Kelsey still has more questions, but Ren says it'll have to wait until tomorrow when he can turn into a dude again.  Kelsey says, "Don't leave me alone. This whole situation is really scary."  Wait no, that's how a normal person would say it.  She actually says, "The jungle frightens me, and this situation frightens me."  Just how a human teenage girl would phrase this, yes.

She asks him not to leave her alone in the jungle and "his face softened into a tender expression, and his mouth turned up in a sincere smile.  "Asambhava.  I won't." Houck doesn't tell us what this means, which forces me to look up what it means.  It means "impossible."  I only bring this up because there's an entire forum online dedicated to translating all the stuff Houck doesn't bother to translate in the book.  Which also has the terrifying implication that this book has a number of genuine fans.

Ren turns back into a tiger, which is not described because it would be hard to do (not like the interior of a plane).  "He clenched his fist and tightened his jaw.  I saw a tremor pass through his body, and the chair fell forward as he collapsed to the ground on his hands and knees.  I stood to reach out to him and I was amazed to see his body morph back into the tiger I knew so well.  Come on, this would be a great time to dazzle us with some magic!  This is the first supernatural thing we've seen in the entire book so far, and Kelsey's wardrobe gets more description!  This is really irritating to me for some reason.  The stuff that doesn't need to be described is, and the stuff I want to see described is just glossed over.

Closing Thoughts

So, what was actually explained in this chapter?  Ren promised Kelsey that he would answer all of her questions, but the only things that got explained were the fact that Ren the tiger is Ren the human.  I guess the chapter title is correct, since there was only "an" explanation.

The other thing we get from this chapter is that Ren is just, so hot, you guys.  Simply being in the same room with him is enough to make you unable to speak or think, and he effectively brainwashes Kelsey pretty effectively into forgetting that she was basically kidnapped.

Next time,  Chapter 9: A Friend, where we get to meet the shaman Ren was talking about, who might explain what's going on.

He doesn't, but I can always dream.

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