Chapter 14: Tiger, Tiger
Oh, hey, I'm still here!
Apparently my comments weren't working for ages because when I changed the color of the text in my header, this also changed the color of text in the comments section (but not the posts themselves?), which is annoying and weird. Should be fixed now!
Anyway, last time Kelsey had another interminable conversation with Mr. Kadam, and then went and hung out with Ren in the middle of the jungle. And Houck didn't even take advantage of the secluded waterfall to have our lead drool over Ren. I don't know whether to think that this is very progressive or if Houck just isn't taking advantage of the scenes she sets up.
Oh yeah and then Kelsey gets smacked in the head with a rock and passes out in the water. Oh no!!!
Chapter Fourteen: Tiger, Tiger
Oh, it's fine. Ren shakes her awake.
She's got a splitting headache and the light is really bright all around her. It also looks like she inhaled a bunch of water. Ren tries to help her clear her lungs out and takes his shirt off to--
Oh, here it is!
He took off his wet shirt and folded it. Then he gently lifted me and placed it under my sore head, which hurt too much to appreciate his . . . bronzed . . . sculpted . . . muscular . . . bare chest.
I would make fun of this but I think this is the concussion talking.
Well, I guess I must be okay if I can appreciate the view, I thought. Sheesh, I'd have to be dead not to appreciate it.
But wait, you just said that your head hurt too much to appreciate it! By your own words, you have to be dead since you just said that you didn't appreciate it.
See, this is what I'm talking about. Either way would have been fine. But when you have two mutually exclusive sentences presented right next to each other that inherently contradict themselves, it's bad writing! And it's not like I would harp on this so much if it just happened once or twice, but it happens over and over again!
Turns out Ren turned into a dude and dragged her out of the water, and then just...stayed a dude until she woke up. And since he's struggling to stay human at this point, he's been just sitting there for a while not doing anything. I think it's only like this so Kelsey can act concerned for Ren, who just ~saved her life~ and nothing consequential comes of it.
Despite the fact that Kelsey was unconscious for the better part of half an hour, she says it's not a big deal and that she can just take some aspirin and she'll be fine. Half an hour of unconsciousness is a long time. It's not uncommon for concussions to result in brief unconsciousness, of up to a few minutes. If you're unconscious for longer than half an hour, it's indicative of a much more serious traumatic brain injury than a regular old concussion. Now, it's true that Kelsey wasn't unconscious for more than 30 minutes (we think--it's never directly said how long she's been out) but that's still a long time.
So I guess Kelsey has a traumatic brain injury now.
She just kind of hangs out the rest of the day because her head hurts. She feels much better the next day, which is ridiculous, since symptoms of concussions can last for up to weeks or months afterwards, and she was unconscious for an insane amount of time.
It also means that the whole "Kelsey gets knocked out and almost dies in the waterfall" thing was...pointless! No consequences from it, and the rest of the chapter continues normally with only the addition of "Kelsey's head is a bit sore now." The only thing we really got out of it was...Ren takes his shirt off. Oh yeah, and a bit of hurt/comfort fic, I guess? I guess because it's a romance story things just need to happen. Who cares about that whole "fate of the world" plot?
(I do. Or, I would, if I even knew what would happen if things didn't go perfectly for the protagonists, but I've talked about that before.)
Kelsey reads more poetry to Ren, who turns into a human so he can stick his head on her lap before she can tell him off. Humor?
She reads "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" by Shakespeare (a.k.a. Sonnet 18). And for once, it actually kind of relates to the plot or characters! Sure the whole "thy eternal summer shall not fade" bit is metaphorical, but it does refer to Ren being literally immortal. And, you know, since the poem actually relates to the characters themselves and how Kelsey feels about Ren, it's actually relevant!
I know, I'm shocked too.
Ren recites some Indian poetry to Kelsey in return:
Thy heart, indeed, I know not:
but mine, oh! cruel, love
warms by day and by night;
and all my faculties are centered on thee.
Thee, O slender maid,
love only warms;
but me he burns;
as the day-star only stifles the fragrance of the night-flower,
but quenches the very orb of the moon.
This heart of mine,
oh thou who art of all things dearest to it,
will have no object but thee.
Which certainly sounds romantic. I mean, the speaker definitely seems way more into her than she is him, but whatever. But, unlike Sonnet 18, this poem is part of a larger work, so we can look at the context!
This poem is part of the Sakuntala (or Shakuntala depending on your translation), a Sanskrit love poem adapted from the Mahabharata (which everything seems to be). The two main characters, King Dushyanta and Shakuntala fall in love and get married, and the king gives her his ring to remember him by and to gain entry to the palace. However, Shakuntala was cursed by an angry seer and was told that her love would forget all about her unless she could produce a personal token that he had given her. On her way to the palace, the ring her love had given her falls off of Shakuntala's finger, and is swallowed by a fish, so that when she gets to the palace, the king doesn't recognize her and sends her on his way. Later, a fisherman catches the fish that swallowed the ring, and brings it to the king, who remembers Shakuntala and finds her in the forest.
Again, this is actually kind of relevant! But not until the second book for spoilery reasons. Still, props to Houck for actually thinking ahead after the book.
I'm actually shocked that the two poems here are actually important.
Ren asks Kelsey if he can kiss her. Kelsey is immediately made very uncomfortable. This is supposed to be because Kelsey is your typical YA protagonist with low self esteem who can't believe that the hot love interest could possibly be interested in someone so plain and normal. But, uh, I think it goes a bit beyond that. When your protagonist responds to a romantic advance by shouting "Whoa! Red alert!" in her head, I think that's maybe a bad sign?
Also, "I'd never even considered the possibility of a relationship with him, other than friendship." Oh, so that's why you've been constantly drooling over him every time he's human?
(I know that physical attraction doesn't necessarily mean that you'd be interested in having an actual relationship with someone. But this is a YA romance novel, where these two things are always linked together. I literally can't think of a YA book where the main character's attraction to the main love interest means that they're not also interested in a relationship. Of course, this isn't the case with the other guy in a love triangle, who exists to be eye candy that usually ultimately turns out to be a good friend, but Ren isn't the other guy. He's the main love interest. He's the Edward in this scenario.)
Oh, Kelsey also refers to Ren as "virile," which is not a word that I would expect to show up in a YA romance novel where the man asks if he can kiss the lead.
She decides that she's into it despite bringing up the fact that they barely know each other and the fact that he's probably just lonely after being a tiger for over three hundred years, which is honestly a pretty good point. But then she asks what he means by "permission," which I thought was pretty clear. He's trying to be respectful for once, Kelsey! This is a good thing! Especially considering his past behavior!
I babbled, "Girls just need to be swept off their feet, and asking permission is just . . . old-fashioned. It's not spontaneous enough. It doesn't scream passion. It screams old fogy. If you have to ask, then the answer is . . . no."
So the excuse for this is that Kelsey is flustered enough by Ren asking to kiss her that she's looking for a reason to say no. So her reason is that...he respects her boundaries? He's trying not to be too forward? She just said before this that she hadn't even been considering him as a romantic partner (lol yeah right). But even if this was true, this lets her know about his intentions and lets her deal with her own feelings!
Also, not touching the whole "If you have to ask the answer is no" thing because YIKES.
(I get that this is just about a kiss, but still.)
She immediately berates herself, not because this is a stupid argument, but because she wants to kiss him. Ren apologizes for being so forward, which is dumb, because if anything asking permission to kiss someone is the opposite of forward, and what Kelsey told him to do instead is incredibly forward. More inconsistency, I guess! He mopes off into the jungle and Kelsey feels dumb.
Kelsey then says that she wishes he would ask her again even though he said he wouldn't.
YOU JUST TOLD HIM THAT ASKING IS DUMB, YOU IDIOT.
Although I guess this could still be the traumatic brain injury talking.
She quotes The Princess Bride ("As you wish") and some other movies that are much better, which just makes me wish I could watch those instead. The Princess Bride is so much better.
And now...it's time! The moment you've all been waiting for!
Love triangle time!
A big black tiger jumps into the clearing. He has golden eyes. He leaves, and Kelsey is a bit scared, but before she can move, another person walks out of the jungle! And he's hot!
The man was dressed in a black shirt and pants. He was very handsome, but in a darker, more swarthy way than Ren. His skin was antique-bronze and his hair was ink-black, longer than Ren's, but also swept back and slightly curled.
His eyes were gold with specks of copper. I tried to identify the color. I'd never seen anything like it before. They were like pirate gold--the color of gold doubloons. In fact, pirate was a good way to describe him. He looked like the kind of guy who might be found gracing the cover of a historical romance novel, playing the part of the dark lothario.
And he's wearing all black and he's edgy and hot and has gold eyes even though people don't have gold eyes in real life. (I mean, yeah, he's an immortal tiger, but Ren's eyes didn't change color.)
Kelsey immediately recognizes him as Ren's brother. He's heavier and stronger-looking than Ren is. Kelsey thinks that he must take more after their father, which is a crazy statement from someone who has seen neither of Ren's parents and has no idea what they looked like.
Kelsey tells him that she knows who and what he is. And, uh.
He stepped forward and quickly closed the gap between us. Then he cupped my chin, lifting my face for his perusal.
"And who and what do you think I am, my lovely?"
Yeah, he's definitely related to Ren. He has the same lack of respect for personal boundaries and shameless flirting with a complete stranger while stranded out in a jungle.
She describes his voice as being like "hot caramel" which lets us know that this is the other guy in the love triangle.
My favorite.
He confirms that he's Kishan, Ren's younger brother, and then plays with Kelsey's hair and comments on Ren's ability to surround himself with beautiful women. It's just a weird statement to make, is all I'm saying.
Ren comes roaring in and starts fighting Kishan, because he's talking to his love interest, I guess. Maybe he's still angry about the whole "You stole my fiancee and got us both cursed" thing.
Based on the conversation following this, it sounds like Ren is more angry about him talking to Kelsey. He yells at Kishan for showing up when he knew Ren would be gone and for touching Kelsey.
Kishan says that he wanted to see what Ren was so interested in protecting and that he's "always interested in [Ren's] women." Ha! That would almost be funny if it wasn't about Kishan, uh, talking about assaulting Kelsey.
They fight again. It's not very well-written since it's just a catalogue of what happens rather than anything punchy or exciting. I'm not trying to pretend that I'm an expert in writing fight scenes, but I can tell that this isn't how it's done:
The two rolled through the camp biting and scratching, banging against trees and slamming down on sharp rocks. Ren lashed out with a paw aimed for his brother, but he hit a tree instead, leaving deep, jagged claw marks in the thick trunk.
It's like Kelsey just disappears while all of this is happening even though it's narrated in first person. What does Kelsey think about what's happening? What's her emotional stake in the fight? Is she worried about Ren, or is she sure that he'll win the fight?
Ren seems to win, but he's pretty hurt. Kelsey bandages up his wounds to the best of her ability, but it's not like it matters since he'll be completely healed in a couple of hours. Then she goes and takes care of Kishan, who is similarly hut.
Only now does Kelsey go, oh wait, this whole fight was stupid! She tells them that only she has the right to decide who gets to touch her, which, yeah. But maybe she could have tried to break up the fight before they both got badly wounded.
She tells Kishan that they're trying to break the curse and they could use his help, since he has the other Matt Damon amulet. Then Kishan asks her what her name is, impressed (I think?) with her basically saying that he's an idiot.
They talk some more about Durga's prophecy. Kishan has the same mutant power as Ren to make people like him, and Kelsey immediately finds him charming and says that she trusts and likes him. Kishan takes her arm as they walk over to the fire, and shoots Ren a smug smirk. I think we're supposed to like, Kishan, right? Because this just makes him seem immature and kind of awful.
(I do like Kishan more than Ren, but that's only because he's written a lot differently in the second book than he is here. I'm doomed to always like the other guy in the love triangle better than the main love interest, it seems.)
Kelsey seems to have forgotten about the mutant healing factor built into the curse, and seems surprised that they'll heal quickly.
Then chapter ends with Kelsey telling Kishan about everything they've done so far. The end.
Closing Thoughts
Well, hey, that new character I've been promising finally showed up! He's terrible!
And, surprisingly, some character interaction that both develops the relationship between the characters and actually foreshadows something for once! Too bad you need to know what Ren's poem is excerpted from, and remember that it was even in the book at all by the time you get to the end of the second book for it to mean anything!
Just once. Foreshadowing for events in this book. Please. It's all I ask for.
Next time, Chapter Fifteen: The Hunt! Ren goes hunting and Kelsey thinks it's gross. It's not a very long chapter.
Apparently my comments weren't working for ages because when I changed the color of the text in my header, this also changed the color of text in the comments section (but not the posts themselves?), which is annoying and weird. Should be fixed now!
Anyway, last time Kelsey had another interminable conversation with Mr. Kadam, and then went and hung out with Ren in the middle of the jungle. And Houck didn't even take advantage of the secluded waterfall to have our lead drool over Ren. I don't know whether to think that this is very progressive or if Houck just isn't taking advantage of the scenes she sets up.
Oh yeah and then Kelsey gets smacked in the head with a rock and passes out in the water. Oh no!!!
Chapter Fourteen: Tiger, Tiger
Oh, it's fine. Ren shakes her awake.
She's got a splitting headache and the light is really bright all around her. It also looks like she inhaled a bunch of water. Ren tries to help her clear her lungs out and takes his shirt off to--
Oh, here it is!
He took off his wet shirt and folded it. Then he gently lifted me and placed it under my sore head, which hurt too much to appreciate his . . . bronzed . . . sculpted . . . muscular . . . bare chest.
I would make fun of this but I think this is the concussion talking.
Well, I guess I must be okay if I can appreciate the view, I thought. Sheesh, I'd have to be dead not to appreciate it.
But wait, you just said that your head hurt too much to appreciate it! By your own words, you have to be dead since you just said that you didn't appreciate it.
See, this is what I'm talking about. Either way would have been fine. But when you have two mutually exclusive sentences presented right next to each other that inherently contradict themselves, it's bad writing! And it's not like I would harp on this so much if it just happened once or twice, but it happens over and over again!
Turns out Ren turned into a dude and dragged her out of the water, and then just...stayed a dude until she woke up. And since he's struggling to stay human at this point, he's been just sitting there for a while not doing anything. I think it's only like this so Kelsey can act concerned for Ren, who just ~saved her life~ and nothing consequential comes of it.
Despite the fact that Kelsey was unconscious for the better part of half an hour, she says it's not a big deal and that she can just take some aspirin and she'll be fine. Half an hour of unconsciousness is a long time. It's not uncommon for concussions to result in brief unconsciousness, of up to a few minutes. If you're unconscious for longer than half an hour, it's indicative of a much more serious traumatic brain injury than a regular old concussion. Now, it's true that Kelsey wasn't unconscious for more than 30 minutes (we think--it's never directly said how long she's been out) but that's still a long time.
So I guess Kelsey has a traumatic brain injury now.
She just kind of hangs out the rest of the day because her head hurts. She feels much better the next day, which is ridiculous, since symptoms of concussions can last for up to weeks or months afterwards, and she was unconscious for an insane amount of time.
It also means that the whole "Kelsey gets knocked out and almost dies in the waterfall" thing was...pointless! No consequences from it, and the rest of the chapter continues normally with only the addition of "Kelsey's head is a bit sore now." The only thing we really got out of it was...Ren takes his shirt off. Oh yeah, and a bit of hurt/comfort fic, I guess? I guess because it's a romance story things just need to happen. Who cares about that whole "fate of the world" plot?
(I do. Or, I would, if I even knew what would happen if things didn't go perfectly for the protagonists, but I've talked about that before.)
Kelsey reads more poetry to Ren, who turns into a human so he can stick his head on her lap before she can tell him off. Humor?
She reads "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" by Shakespeare (a.k.a. Sonnet 18). And for once, it actually kind of relates to the plot or characters! Sure the whole "thy eternal summer shall not fade" bit is metaphorical, but it does refer to Ren being literally immortal. And, you know, since the poem actually relates to the characters themselves and how Kelsey feels about Ren, it's actually relevant!
I know, I'm shocked too.
Ren recites some Indian poetry to Kelsey in return:
Thy heart, indeed, I know not:
but mine, oh! cruel, love
warms by day and by night;
and all my faculties are centered on thee.
Thee, O slender maid,
love only warms;
but me he burns;
as the day-star only stifles the fragrance of the night-flower,
but quenches the very orb of the moon.
This heart of mine,
oh thou who art of all things dearest to it,
will have no object but thee.
Which certainly sounds romantic. I mean, the speaker definitely seems way more into her than she is him, but whatever. But, unlike Sonnet 18, this poem is part of a larger work, so we can look at the context!
This poem is part of the Sakuntala (or Shakuntala depending on your translation), a Sanskrit love poem adapted from the Mahabharata (which everything seems to be). The two main characters, King Dushyanta and Shakuntala fall in love and get married, and the king gives her his ring to remember him by and to gain entry to the palace. However, Shakuntala was cursed by an angry seer and was told that her love would forget all about her unless she could produce a personal token that he had given her. On her way to the palace, the ring her love had given her falls off of Shakuntala's finger, and is swallowed by a fish, so that when she gets to the palace, the king doesn't recognize her and sends her on his way. Later, a fisherman catches the fish that swallowed the ring, and brings it to the king, who remembers Shakuntala and finds her in the forest.
Again, this is actually kind of relevant! But not until the second book for spoilery reasons. Still, props to Houck for actually thinking ahead after the book.
I'm actually shocked that the two poems here are actually important.
Ren asks Kelsey if he can kiss her. Kelsey is immediately made very uncomfortable. This is supposed to be because Kelsey is your typical YA protagonist with low self esteem who can't believe that the hot love interest could possibly be interested in someone so plain and normal. But, uh, I think it goes a bit beyond that. When your protagonist responds to a romantic advance by shouting "Whoa! Red alert!" in her head, I think that's maybe a bad sign?
Also, "I'd never even considered the possibility of a relationship with him, other than friendship." Oh, so that's why you've been constantly drooling over him every time he's human?
(I know that physical attraction doesn't necessarily mean that you'd be interested in having an actual relationship with someone. But this is a YA romance novel, where these two things are always linked together. I literally can't think of a YA book where the main character's attraction to the main love interest means that they're not also interested in a relationship. Of course, this isn't the case with the other guy in a love triangle, who exists to be eye candy that usually ultimately turns out to be a good friend, but Ren isn't the other guy. He's the main love interest. He's the Edward in this scenario.)
Oh, Kelsey also refers to Ren as "virile," which is not a word that I would expect to show up in a YA romance novel where the man asks if he can kiss the lead.
She decides that she's into it despite bringing up the fact that they barely know each other and the fact that he's probably just lonely after being a tiger for over three hundred years, which is honestly a pretty good point. But then she asks what he means by "permission," which I thought was pretty clear. He's trying to be respectful for once, Kelsey! This is a good thing! Especially considering his past behavior!
I babbled, "Girls just need to be swept off their feet, and asking permission is just . . . old-fashioned. It's not spontaneous enough. It doesn't scream passion. It screams old fogy. If you have to ask, then the answer is . . . no."
So the excuse for this is that Kelsey is flustered enough by Ren asking to kiss her that she's looking for a reason to say no. So her reason is that...he respects her boundaries? He's trying not to be too forward? She just said before this that she hadn't even been considering him as a romantic partner (lol yeah right). But even if this was true, this lets her know about his intentions and lets her deal with her own feelings!
Also, not touching the whole "If you have to ask the answer is no" thing because YIKES.
(I get that this is just about a kiss, but still.)
She immediately berates herself, not because this is a stupid argument, but because she wants to kiss him. Ren apologizes for being so forward, which is dumb, because if anything asking permission to kiss someone is the opposite of forward, and what Kelsey told him to do instead is incredibly forward. More inconsistency, I guess! He mopes off into the jungle and Kelsey feels dumb.
Kelsey then says that she wishes he would ask her again even though he said he wouldn't.
YOU JUST TOLD HIM THAT ASKING IS DUMB, YOU IDIOT.
Although I guess this could still be the traumatic brain injury talking.
She quotes The Princess Bride ("As you wish") and some other movies that are much better, which just makes me wish I could watch those instead. The Princess Bride is so much better.
And now...it's time! The moment you've all been waiting for!
Love triangle time!
A big black tiger jumps into the clearing. He has golden eyes. He leaves, and Kelsey is a bit scared, but before she can move, another person walks out of the jungle! And he's hot!
The man was dressed in a black shirt and pants. He was very handsome, but in a darker, more swarthy way than Ren. His skin was antique-bronze and his hair was ink-black, longer than Ren's, but also swept back and slightly curled.
His eyes were gold with specks of copper. I tried to identify the color. I'd never seen anything like it before. They were like pirate gold--the color of gold doubloons. In fact, pirate was a good way to describe him. He looked like the kind of guy who might be found gracing the cover of a historical romance novel, playing the part of the dark lothario.
And he's wearing all black and he's edgy and hot and has gold eyes even though people don't have gold eyes in real life. (I mean, yeah, he's an immortal tiger, but Ren's eyes didn't change color.)
Kelsey immediately recognizes him as Ren's brother. He's heavier and stronger-looking than Ren is. Kelsey thinks that he must take more after their father, which is a crazy statement from someone who has seen neither of Ren's parents and has no idea what they looked like.
Kelsey tells him that she knows who and what he is. And, uh.
He stepped forward and quickly closed the gap between us. Then he cupped my chin, lifting my face for his perusal.
"And who and what do you think I am, my lovely?"
Yeah, he's definitely related to Ren. He has the same lack of respect for personal boundaries and shameless flirting with a complete stranger while stranded out in a jungle.
She describes his voice as being like "hot caramel" which lets us know that this is the other guy in the love triangle.
My favorite.
He confirms that he's Kishan, Ren's younger brother, and then plays with Kelsey's hair and comments on Ren's ability to surround himself with beautiful women. It's just a weird statement to make, is all I'm saying.
Ren comes roaring in and starts fighting Kishan, because he's talking to his love interest, I guess. Maybe he's still angry about the whole "You stole my fiancee and got us both cursed" thing.
Based on the conversation following this, it sounds like Ren is more angry about him talking to Kelsey. He yells at Kishan for showing up when he knew Ren would be gone and for touching Kelsey.
Kishan says that he wanted to see what Ren was so interested in protecting and that he's "always interested in [Ren's] women." Ha! That would almost be funny if it wasn't about Kishan, uh, talking about assaulting Kelsey.
They fight again. It's not very well-written since it's just a catalogue of what happens rather than anything punchy or exciting. I'm not trying to pretend that I'm an expert in writing fight scenes, but I can tell that this isn't how it's done:
The two rolled through the camp biting and scratching, banging against trees and slamming down on sharp rocks. Ren lashed out with a paw aimed for his brother, but he hit a tree instead, leaving deep, jagged claw marks in the thick trunk.
It's like Kelsey just disappears while all of this is happening even though it's narrated in first person. What does Kelsey think about what's happening? What's her emotional stake in the fight? Is she worried about Ren, or is she sure that he'll win the fight?
Ren seems to win, but he's pretty hurt. Kelsey bandages up his wounds to the best of her ability, but it's not like it matters since he'll be completely healed in a couple of hours. Then she goes and takes care of Kishan, who is similarly hut.
Only now does Kelsey go, oh wait, this whole fight was stupid! She tells them that only she has the right to decide who gets to touch her, which, yeah. But maybe she could have tried to break up the fight before they both got badly wounded.
She tells Kishan that they're trying to break the curse and they could use his help, since he has the other Matt Damon amulet. Then Kishan asks her what her name is, impressed (I think?) with her basically saying that he's an idiot.
They talk some more about Durga's prophecy. Kishan has the same mutant power as Ren to make people like him, and Kelsey immediately finds him charming and says that she trusts and likes him. Kishan takes her arm as they walk over to the fire, and shoots Ren a smug smirk. I think we're supposed to like, Kishan, right? Because this just makes him seem immature and kind of awful.
(I do like Kishan more than Ren, but that's only because he's written a lot differently in the second book than he is here. I'm doomed to always like the other guy in the love triangle better than the main love interest, it seems.)
Kelsey seems to have forgotten about the mutant healing factor built into the curse, and seems surprised that they'll heal quickly.
Then chapter ends with Kelsey telling Kishan about everything they've done so far. The end.
Closing Thoughts
Well, hey, that new character I've been promising finally showed up! He's terrible!
And, surprisingly, some character interaction that both develops the relationship between the characters and actually foreshadows something for once! Too bad you need to know what Ren's poem is excerpted from, and remember that it was even in the book at all by the time you get to the end of the second book for it to mean anything!
Just once. Foreshadowing for events in this book. Please. It's all I ask for.
Next time, Chapter Fifteen: The Hunt! Ren goes hunting and Kelsey thinks it's gross. It's not a very long chapter.
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