Chapter 9: A Friend

My brief unannounced hiatus is over now that I've taken my first official law school exam, of which I live in mortal fear of receiving the grade I receive because my professor is a notoriously harsh grader, so what better way to distract myself from the potential of abject failure than sporking a book that I don't even like reading?

I need to find something good to read for a change.

Anyway, last time we met Ren the human, who was actually Ren the tiger the whole time, as he tried to explain the whole were-tiger thing and his reasons for dragging Kelsey to the other side of the world and getting her lost in a jungle for several days.  The reason for this ended up being so that Ren could selfishly reveal himself to her in his own way and, I swear to God, because her hair smells nice and he wanted to spend more time with her.  As a tiger.  While she didn't know that he is actually an adult human man creeping on her.

Why are we supposed to like Ren again?

Oh, yeah.  He's hot.

😍😍😍

I somehow missed all of this on my first reading of this book earlier this year (as in, like, March).  And my two (!) previous attempts in high school and early on in college.  I spent all this time thinking that Ren was a cardboard cutout of a character whose only trait was "hot," but that's because I got caught up in Houck's portrayal of him.  He is always played off as a true gentleman that only wants the best for Kelsey, and if you try to do a character analysis of him with that as your baseline, he comes off as incredibly one-dimensional and bland.  But, if you look at him through his actions rather than the rose-tinted glasses Houck uses to filter his character through, he ends up as an incredibly selfish and self-serving character who has to get his own way no matter what.  Or, at least that's how he came across in the last chapter.

Which honestly could have worked if you start off with a flawed character that eventually grows and becomes more selfless and aware of others' needs and feelings.  It kind of makes sense with his backstory, too--he was the eldest son of a powerful emperor who was beloved by his people (according to Mr. Kadam, at least), so it would follow that he would be a bit spoiled.  There could be a whole arc about him coming to terms with living as a human again without the safety net of wealth and a powerful family.  Kelsey, as someone who grew up in this modern world, would then actually be in a position of power over him, for once.

That would be nice.

(On a tangent, I was looking for a picture to put in this section, and this series has a remarkable amount of fanart.  Like, a massive amount. And some of it is really, really good for some reason?)

Anyway, let's get the show on the road.

Chapter Nine: A Friend

Hoo, boy.  This chapter is gonna be a bit rough.  Remember Maurizio?  And how he was an offensive Italian stereotype?  Well, we're about to meet Houck's idea of an Indian shaman.  It's, uh...

Not good.

I feel dirty after reading this chapter.

At the end of the last chapter, Ren told Kelsey that they were waiting for the "friend" that shows up in this chapter, and that he'll be there in a few hours.  Then he turned back into a tiger because he ran out of...human juice.

Kelsey decides to take a bath before the shaman shows up, even though she has received no indication that she is allowed to mess around with his stuff.  Also she seems remarkably unfazed about bathing in a complete stranger's tub, which is one of those free-standing ones that needs to be filled with a bucket and doesn't have a drain.  Gross.

Kelsey complains about filling up buckets to fill up the bath. She has complained about every step of her adventure after getting off of the airplane.  It's not fun to read.  Can't we read about a character who is excited about the story she's in?  I get that it's supposed to be a fish-out-of-water story, but that doesn't mean she has to complain about literally everything she does.

She starts to take her shirt off and, uh:

I got about halfway down when I suddenly realized that I had an audience.  I heard my shirt together and turned around to find Ren watching me.

UUUUHHHHHHH...

"Some gentleman you are.  You're being as quiet as a mouse on purpose, aren't you?  Well, I don't think so, Mister.  You'd better sit outside until I'm done with my bath."  I waved my arm in the air. "Go...keep watch or something."

If Kelsey didn't catch him watching her, he totally would have stayed and watched.  The only difference here between Ren creeping on Kelsey and Edward creeping on Bella is the fact that Bella didn't know he was watching her sleep.  And at least she was fully-clothed.

I just...is this supposed to be funny?  Charming?  It's literally a scene of a three-hundred-year-old man trying to watch a barely-legal teenage girl take a bath.  I hate that I just had to type that sentence out.  And Kelsey's reaction makes it seem like it's supposed to be a comedic situation.  Like, "Ha ha, you're incorrigible!"

Yuck.

Kelsey steals the stranger's homemade soap to clean up.  One, she has not received any indication that she is allowed to do this.  Two, is it just me or is using a completely strange bar of soap you found in a hut in the middle of the jungle kind of gross?  Maybe it's just me?

Kelsey is still confused about the whole situation.  I agree, since the chapter called "An Explanation" failed to do any of that.

She lets Ren back inside after finishing her bath and berates him and Mr. Kadam a little bit for not telling her why she's there.  Which is both redundant because we just read an entire chapter of her saying the exact same thing, and annoying because, as I've already talked about, it makes no sense in the first place.  Kelsey ties a ribbon onto her braid, because clothing choices make up character traits in this universe.  Then she falls asleep.

When she wakes up a few hours later, there's a strange man in the house preparing some plants on the table.  This turns out to be Phet, the shaman Ren mentioned.  Kelsey expresses no surprise, or any emotion at all, to find another person in the room when she wakes up.  At least he's not staring at her?

"Hallo, little lady.  You sleep long time.  Very tired.  Very, very tired."

Uh...

"You hungry?  Eat.  Good food, hmmm?"  The shaman smacked his lips.  "Very tast-ey."

I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with--

"Kahl-See.  You have good name.  Strong."

I just...um.  This...this is racist, right?  It's not just me?  This guy talks like a mix between Charlie Chan, Mickey Rooney's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's, and fucking...Yoda.  He's even described as being very small and wrinkly.

Just, aahhh, I don't like it.

It was bad enough with Maurizio, but at least Maurizio's stereotyping was limited to saying random words in Italian.  I don't think Houck knows enough Hindi to just pepper in the other language like she did with Italian, so we get...this delightful little dialect.

I've only read a couple of written dialects that I actually liked.  The first being Hagrid (who speaks gruffly, and his dialogue reflects this) and the second being the Nac Mac Feegle (who speak in a strong Scottish brogue).  Why do those work while this isn't even remotely okay?  Well, for one thing, English is their first language.  So for both of these, their dialect comes not from being unable to speak the language, but because of a deviation in speaking a language that they are able to speak fluently.

Here, English clearly isn't Phet's first language.  The dialect doesn't even come close to resembling a deviation from the norm of a native language.  It's pointing out how people who don't speak the language don't speak well.  It's bad.

That's not even getting into the whole, uh, "non-white character speaking broken English" thing.  It's been a massive issue in a lot of American media for freaking forever.  It's been especially bad for Asian characters--I mentioned Charlie Chan and Mickey Rooney before, but they're not even close to the only examples of this.

A white man playing a Chinese character and speaking in broken English.

A white man playing a Japanese character and speaking in broken English.

A white man playing an Indian character and speaking in broken English.

A white man voicing an Indian character where a lot of the comedy stems from "lol what a wacky accent."

I'm going to cut this analysis a bit short here because you could write an entire dissertation on the racist portrayal of Asian characters through speech patterns.  But there's a long history of portraying cultures subjected to white colonialism as speaking in a very specific way.  It's probably a good rule of thumb that if you want to write a dialect for a character whose culture was literally under British colonialism for three hundred and fifty years, just...don't.

The fact that Phet's dialogue can even be compared to these is, uh, not good.  But Phet is coming from a similar place to these--he is being written by a white woman with no real connection to the culture that he comes from (Houck's blog says in her FAQ section that she's never been to India), and the slap-dash research that's present here makes me think Houck chose India as a setting because it's an "exotic" location.

It would have been so, so easy for Phet to speak like a human being instead of an Indian stereotype.  Ren and Mr. Kadam speak perfect English, and Kishan (who we haven't met in the story yet) speaks perfect English despite having spent the last three hundred years as a tiger in the jungle in India!

I guess Phet is supposed to seem like the ~mystical spiritual guide~ though.  That's also pretty gross.  I'll get into that at the end of the chapter after we hear more about the prophecy (oh, goody).

Other than the speech, Phet is...well, I'll just let the Tiger's curse wiki page (yes, this exists) describe him:

"Phet is a small, brown, wrinkly man with a crown of wiry grey hair circling the back of his head.  He has a shiny bald head, scrawny arms, and knobby legs.  He only has a few of his teeth."

So, Yoda.

"Although Phet is happy and mildly childish at times, even mischievous, but he can become serious when the situation calls for it. [sic]  He is a very wise man."

Oh boy, infantilization of brown characters!  Awesome!  (bleeeehhhhhhh)

And my favorite bit:

The author of the book has given him many stereotypical characteristics.

HAHAHAHA EVEN THE WIKI MADE BY THE FANS POINTS OUT HOW RACIST THIS CHARACTER IS

Anyway.  Phet makes Kelsey some food and the two start to talk.  They actually introduce themselves here.

I asked him, "What's your name?"

"My name, uh, too immense.  You call me Phet."

I have no idea what "Phet" is short for, and I don't think Houck does either, since I don't think it's ever brought up again.  I'm annoyed.

Phet says that Mr. Kadam let him know that Kelsey and Ren would be here.  Um, when?  Mr. Kadam didn't know Kelsey was coming with them until they were on their way to India, and I don't think Phet has a phone (and with the stereotypical portrayal of him that we get, he definitely doesn't).  I guess Mr. Kadam could have done so in the twelve or so hours he was apart from Kelsey as the mysterious "business" he had to attend to, but there aren't any roads here and it took Kelsey several days to hike there through the jungle. And it's not like they're right next to a road, because it takes Kelsey almost a day to hike back out of the jungle to a road.  So Mr. Kadam hasn't had enough time to get to Phet and talk to him before this.

He says that after Mr. Kadam let him know, he went to "Suki lake for...preparation." Um, "suki" is a Japanese word, Houck.  I think you mean "sukhi," which means "blessed" in Hindi.  It's a slight difference, but romanization of Asian words makes a huge difference.

Phet went to this Japanese lake in order to catch a small red bird.  This bird is apparently pretty special, as Phet calls it "Durga's hatchling."  I have looked around for any birds associated with the Durga mythos and the closest thing I can find is that Chamunda, a form of Durga, uses a brown wood owl as a vehicle.  This seems to have been made up for this book.

"Will he sing for us?"

"Who is knowing?  Sometime bird never sing, whole lifetime.  Only sing if special parson.  Kahl-see is special parson?"

Fuck, the narrative itself is even using the word "special."

"Who is Durga?"

This simple question is emblematic of the whole problem with this plot.  Kelsey has no idea what's going on the entire time she's here.  She has no idea who any of the mythological figures that show up are, and she has zero connection with any of the culture or, in this case, history of what she's dealing with.  Because she lacks any information about what's going on, she cannot be an active protagonist.  The plot shunts her into the role of a reactive protagonist because her experiences are fundamentally unable to mesh with what the plot requires.  Which means we end up getting lots and lots of exposition while also having a very passive protagonist just doing what she's told.

It's infuriating.

Phet responds, explaining some more about this bird.

"Ah.  Durga be-u-ti-full goddess, and Phet," gesturing to himself, "is willing low servant.  Bird sing for Durga and one special woman."

Leaving aside the fact that this is a sentence fragment (seriously, editors?  Just say "He gestured to himself," it's not that hard!!), we aren't given any characteristics that make this woman "special."  She's just "special," we don't need any explanation!

Kelsey helps him with his plants, which he's been working on for the last three pages.  Then Houck decides to talk about the fact that Phet collects herbs for a living for a while, I guess so she can list off various Indian plants and show off the fact that she did research.  I'll go through these one by one because, predictably, it's not even correct.

The more interesting ones were arjuna, the ground bark of a tree used medicinally to aid circulation and digestion...

While it is true that arjuna is used for cardiovascular disease (not necessarily to improve circulation) and a cure for dysentary, this medicinal usage comes from an entirely different system of medicine.  I'm coming from a bit of background in studying Chinese medicine from a historical perspective, so I don't know much about Ayurvedic medicine other that what's on its Wikipedia page, but it looks similar enough to Chinese medicine that treatments are generally used in the same way.  Arjuna is used to balance between the three humors of vata, pitha, and kapha.  Because of this arjuna is used for a whole lot of things, such as earaches, STIs and to increase virility.

...turmeric, good for circulation as well but also provided aid to the respiratory system...

Turmeric also balances the three humors, and was used for skin conditions including scorpion stings, snake bites, and parasitic skin conditions like ringworm.  It was also used to heal cuts and scrapes, sprained and inflamed joints.  It was used as a decongestant when inhaled, but it seems like a lot of remedies used it in topical pastes made with a ton of other ingredients.

...and neem leaves, which did something to aid digestion.  I didn't ask any detailed questions about that one.

That joke only fucking works if you look it up like I did.  It's because neem leaves can be used to get rid of intestinal parasites.  This is because neem leaves have the "cold" attribute, which is good for other digestion problems in Ayurvedic medicine.  It's also used for diabetes.

Others were gotu kola, which smelled bitter and sweet.  Phet said it gave long life and lots of energy.

This is actually right, and this is how it is used in both Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine.  It supposedly works because it benefits every part of the mind-body-spirit understanding of human health.  It's also supposed to help improve cognition somehow.

Brahmi leaves helped a person think better...

Brahmi leaves benefit the mind and the nervous system as a whole by increasing awareness of the consciousness.  This "awareness" is the "feminine essence of universal consciousness" according to this debatably reputable website.  I'm only including it because it's a nice change from the whole "female yin energy is cold and weak" aspect of Chinese medicine.

...and shatavari root was a root good for female problems.

That includes a lot of different things?  Is it a pain reliever during menstruation?  A contraceptive? An abortive agent?  Alleviating menopausal symptoms?

I found some websites that say it has anti-inflammatory properties, which means it's probably a pain reliever (I use anti-inflammatory drugs to treat period cramps) so that's probably what Houck is talking about here, maybe.

"I remember that smell from the jungle.  It's that gummy stuff that drips from the tree, right?"

"Very good Kahl-see.  It name olibanum.  Come from Boswellia tree, but maybe you call frankincense."

Phet tells Kelsey to eat it and it's spicy.  Phet then tells her to take a deep breath and says, "You see? Good you stum-ack, good breathe, no worries."  I have no idea what the fuck this means.

It's apparently supposed to help with respiratory illnesses, but its main function seems to be an insect repellant or perfume.  Eating it like Kelsey did is supposed to help with tooth decay and aid digestion.

After this weird non-sequitur about medicinal herbs out of nowhere, Kelsey figures that she should try to figure out what's going on, since Ren did a terrible job of explaining it.

"You wish to help the tiger?"

"Yes, I wish to help him.  I'm angry that he tricked me, but I understand why he did."  I ducked my head and shrugged my shoulders.  "I just want him to be free."  At that moment, the little red bird burst into a lovely song and continued to sing for the next few minutes.

Phet is really happy to hear the bird sing.

"Kahl-see!  You very special!   Joyful is my feeling!  Phet to perceive song of Durga!"

So, uh, why is Kelsey special again?  You've given no attributes for being part of the quest other than "is special."  What, is she special because she wants to help break the curse?  I don't think that's an entirely unique goal for her to have.  Mr. Kadam wants to help break the curse.

Now I want this story to be about Mr. Kadam instead of Kelsey.  That would be pretty fun.  It could be like a buddy comedy!

Phet tells her to stay the night while he gets ready to help her more tomorrow.  "Now go drowse."  Yeah.

Kelsey goes to sleep and wakes up the next morning to let her know that he has some good news about Durga's involvement in the Plot.  As Kelsey is eating breakfast, Ren stares at her some more.

"Ren, stop staring at me!"

If your protagonist has to constantly tell her love interest to leave her alone, that's probably not great for your story.

And, just...ugh.  Here's Phet's entire explanation.  I hate it.

"Kahl-see, I am favorable man at present.  Durga exclaim to me.  She will help you.  Numerous year in the past, Anik Kadam pursue remedy to comfort Ren.  I advise him Durga be partial to tiger, but no one can alleviate him.  He ask me what can he do?  That nighttime, Phet dream two tigers, one pale like moon, one black, night resembling.  Durga speak softly my hear.  She say only special girl can break curse.  Phet know girl is Durga's favored one.  She struggle for tiger.  I tell Anik: watch for goddess' special girl.  I give indication--girl alone, brown hair, dark eyes.  She be devoted to tiger, and her utterance are powerful like goddess melody.  Help tiger be free again.  I tell Anik: discover Durga's favored one and bring to me."

Yikes.  Also, Mr. Kadam didn't pick Kelsey out!  Matt's dad did!

Also, the only characteristics necessary to be chosen by a literal goddess are "alone, brown hair, brown eyes, likes tigers."  And that description only applies to a single person out of the seven billion other people on the planet.

I hate this book.

"Phet, what are you talking about?"

"You are strong, beautiful warrior like Durga."

"Me? A strong, beautiful warrior?  I think you have the wrong girl."

Well, Kelsey definitely isn't strong, either physically or mentally.  She had trouble filling up a bathtub, and Ren mentally steamrolls her every time he's in her field of view.  We don't really know what Kelsey looks like, other than the brief description she got in chapter one, so I can't comment on the "beautiful" aspect outside of the fact that she's not thrilled with her appearance.  But she's a teenage girl, I'll give her slack on that one.  And she's definitely not a warrior.  She's been in exactly zero fights, and Ren does all the fighting in this book (until Kelsey gets a magical weapon later on, in which case Ren only does most of the fighting).

Phet tells her that if she goes to Kanheri Cave and unlocks a special chamber with the Mujulaain seal, Durga will help her break the curse.

I felt overwhelmed.  My mind kept screaming, Not possible!  Not possible!  How did I get trapped in this bizarre situation.  Oh, yeah.  I volunteered.

NO.  YOU.  DIDN'T.  You volunteered to work at the circus.  Matt's dad recommended you to Mr.  Kadam, and then he asked you to go with him.  That's very different from volunteering.  And then you were tricked into coming here.  You haven't chosen to do ANYTHING.

Kelsey says that she'll go to the cave, and Phet offers to bless her before she and Ren leave.  Or, well, "Phet bestow you goddess mark and prayer." Have I mentioned that I really don't like reading Phet's dialogue?

There's a long description of what he does for the mark of the goddess, but it's essentially just a henna tattoo.

Kelsey thanks Phet for what he's done over the twenty-four hours or so, and she and Ren walk back out into the jungle.  End of chapter.

Closing Thoughts

Hoo, boy.  The book has been pretty bad up until this point, but this is where it takes a turn into actual racism.

The depiction of Phet is awful.  I thought Maurizio was offensive, because he was played purely for laughs, but Phet is...well, there's a lot wrong with how Houck presents him.

Phet speaks a broken dialect of English.  I've already spoken at length about why this is an offensive and stereotypical portrayal of Asian characters.  He's described as looking like Yoda.  Which is fine if you're talking about a green puppet, and less find if you're describing an actual human being.

He's infantilized and exists purely to be a spiritual guide to the protagonist.  He's an Indian version of the Magical Negro, whose only purpose is to help the white protagonist achieve their goal.  Plot-wise, the only useful thing he does is tell them where to go to get the real quest going, and give Kelsey her henna tattoo (which comes into play later on).

And then there's Kelsey.  Or, actually, Kelsey's role in the narrative.  Kelsey is a white character--she was born and raised in Oregon and has had zero contact with India or anything related to India before she meets a tiger that came from there. She knows nothing about Indian history or Indian mythology.  Despite this, she is this story's Chosen One, literally "favored" by the goddess Durga, and is the only one who can break the curse on Ren--a curse steeped in Indian culture and mythology, as well.

This is a textbook example of a white savior complex.  Quoting from Wikipedia, "In film, the white savior is a cinematic trope in which a white character rescues people of color from their plight.  The white savior is portrayed as messianic and often learns something about themselves in the process of rescuing...Types of stories include white travels to "exotic" Asian locations...or white protagonists having "racially diverse" helpers."  These all describe Kelsey perfectly--the entire plot is rescuing Ren (and by extension his brother and Mr. Kadam) from their curse. She is literally a chosen one of one of the major goddesses.  She's in India, which is portrayed by the narration as an exotic location.  Mr. Kadam and Phet are the "racially diverse helpers" that do all the hard work in telling her where to go and what to do.

How would you fix this?  I think it's still an interesting idea to tell a story set in India, because there's a rich history of mythology and culture to draw from.  The easiest fix would just be to...not make Kelsey white?  If Kelsey was Indian, it would change the story from a white savior complex story that is just...really gross...into more of a story of reclaiming your roots and learning about your own culture.  She could even still have the same backstory--maybe her family moved to Oregon from India, and she's struggling to identify with her cultural heritage.

Or something.

The way this is right now, it just reeks of the long history of colonialism and exploitation that Houck just sweeps under the rug and ignores because "it's a YA paranormal romance, it doesn't matter."

And that's just wrong.

Next time, Chapter Ten: A Safe Haven.