Tiger’s Curse

Kelsey Hayes takes a temporary summer job at a traveling circus in Oregon before she starts community college. She’s assigned to work with the circus’s tiger, among other things. Ordinary work, such as feeding the tiger and making sure its cage is clean. However, the more time Kelsey spends with Ren The Tiger, the more things become extraordinary.

Newsday describes Colleen Houck’s novel as “One part Rick Riordan, two parts Twilight …”. Tiger’s Curse does draw heavily on mythology, although instead of Greek or Roman, Houck uses Indian — specifically Hindu — mythology as her plot device to move the adventure forward.

The mythology of the Hindu goddess Durga can be a lot of information for a reader to take in, but that doesn’t mean it’s inaccessibly boring. Most of it actually comes from poetry that the characters themselves have translated from Hindi into English. Poetry is a nice sort of theme throughout the book, as Houck also alludes to works such as Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.

The comparison to The Twilight Saga, however, doesn’t make as much sense. In The Twilight Saga, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen can’t stay away from each other, and at one point, if this reader remembers correctly, Edward suggests that it is dangerous for them to do so.

Like Bella, Kelsey has self-esteem issues. It is because of these issues that Kelsey tries to push Ren away. For some reason, she thinks she’s not good enough for an Indian prince. She doesn’t understand why Ren would choose to be with her when he could have a a girlfriend who’s a supermodel.

The irony in Kelsey’s statement is obvious. If she truly wasn’t intimidated by Ren, she wouldn’t be fighting her feelings for him throughout the entire book. She would be able to explore those feelings and see where they take her, no matter if she ended up being hurt or not.

Plot and characters aside, Houck’s writing style leaves something to be desired. She uses a lot of exclamation points that seem unnecessary and out of place. Which, in turn, can be a distraction from an otherwise compelling story.