White Tiger by Kylie Chan

I just finished Kylie Chan’s first book of the Dark Heaven’s Trilogy, White Tiger and resurface to reality with mixed feelings. Let me start off with the good points first because the reason I’m so conflicted is that the good and the bad are so polarized.

How rare is it that readers in the West are treated to such an in depth and well researched depiction of Eastern Mythology? The amount of effort put into bringing it to life and the end result are absolutely amazing. If there are mistakes in the mythology Chan’s used, it’s completely over-lookable. When I finished reading White Tiger, I actually felt like I’d learned something, and not to sound arrogant, but I LOVE mythology and rarely feel like I’ve learned so much as seen a new portrayal of something. This was simultaneously unfamiliar, exciting and educational.

Just as thrilling was the setting. It was wonderful to read something set in such a different and exotic country, and fairly portraying the good with the bad. American metropolises are the default for stories of this vein and it was refreshing to see it all somewhere else, and not through the rose tinted lenses of an American. Nothing against America, but this was different and Chan made it work.

Also different and unique are her diverse cast of characters, both mundane and mythical. She stays true to the mythology for those that are more than mere mortals, and fleshes out all of her characters in an incredibly pleasing way. The allies are amusing and the villains are truly vile. Maybe not initially, but I personally wanted to run her bad guys through with a sword by the end.

Unfortunately I can’t say I care one way or the other about her lead character Emma Donahoe. Simply put, she’s flawless. She starts off a little overweight but quickly overcomes that with martial arts training and makes absolutely no mistakes throughout the entire book. If anyone doesn’t like her, they’re evil or nobody likes them. If she can be said to have a flaw, it’s ignorance, which brings me to the next weakness of the novel.

Secrets are kept from her for absolutely no good reason whatsoever that put her life in jeopardy. I won’t spoil what they are, but I cannot buy that Leo wouldn’t have said something given his protective and independent streaks. As soon as she’s told what’s going on around her, which is delayed too long, again for no believable reason, he should have brought this up and instead shuffles his feet.

Lastly, despite the well designed and fleshed out characters, the book is not at all character driven, which was a big disappointment for me. In fact, it’s arguable that White Tiger has no plot at all unto itself. Things, really cool things, happen to and around the characters, but not because of anything Emma does or doesn’t do. I kept seeing all these little hooks placed throughout the novel and expecting it all to suddenly come together, but it doesn’t. It’s a timeline of events featuring Emma and company, a slice of life if you will. If that’s your cup of tea, then this book is perfect for you, but I didn’t go in expecting that and so when the pieces didn’t all come together at the end I felt a little cheated.

On the whole, I’ll tentatively give this book my stamp of approval, firstly for the three amazing things Chan did right, and secondly because as soon as I catch up on my other reading I plan on checking out the sequel.