Scan barcode
A review by kenzee06
Tiger Eye by Marjorie Liu
1.0
I feel compelled to review this book, something I normally don't do on books that I haven't won/been given by a publisher. But this book was that bad. To be honest (and it was not for lack of trying), I couldn't finish it. The writing was annoying. Painfully annoying. There were all these ridiculous, overdone descriptions and sentences that weren't actually sentences - some weird stylistic choice I guess. For example, one chapter starts out: "Shocking, worthy of multiple aneurysms, explosions in her shrieking brain." And then there's lots of scenes like this: "Winds had swept through the night, sloughing away the smog and scent of exhaust and decay. Blue sky everywhere. Sun glinted off the glass of skyscrapers, cars, diamonds, the aluminum sines of umbrellas shading dark-eyed women, casting sparks in Dela's unprotected eyes. The world trickled light." You get my point. Maybe I could've gotten past this, if the dialogue hadn't been the complete opposite! It was clunky, almost childish, and unrealistic. Nobody talks like that! Especially if they think in the flowery way the scenes are described.
Oh and the romance...don't even get me started on that. I love paranormal romance, so I don't mind a book straying into that instead of urban fantasy as I expected this to be, but jeez. I'm not even going to say I hate instalove. Sometimes I don't mind - especially in stories with shapeshifters, anything with a mate. I get it. But this was just blah. I didn't feel any chemistry. And it was too lovey dovey right away, rather than sticking with a more realistic lust turned to love. He trusted her almost immediately after 2000 (yes, 2000) years of cruelty and slavery. I'm going to go with no on that one. And really, none of the characters are all that likable (forget realistic, I'd have settled for likable). Everybody loved the heroine - but I never figured out why. All the side characters introduced later were weird/boring/spoke like a teen boy. And then the plot. Why are 37 million separate people trying to kill this boring, hermit woman? And why is everything solved "off screen" - we were just told who the killer(s) were without any clues, etc. We don't see any of the actual detecting work, and that's just too convenient for me.
It's a shame because there were some interesting elements in the book (psychics, shapeshifters, etc). To be honest, I wish the book had been written by someone else.
Oh and the romance...don't even get me started on that. I love paranormal romance, so I don't mind a book straying into that instead of urban fantasy as I expected this to be, but jeez. I'm not even going to say I hate instalove. Sometimes I don't mind - especially in stories with shapeshifters, anything with a mate. I get it. But this was just blah. I didn't feel any chemistry. And it was too lovey dovey right away, rather than sticking with a more realistic lust turned to love. He trusted her almost immediately after 2000 (yes, 2000) years of cruelty and slavery. I'm going to go with no on that one. And really, none of the characters are all that likable (forget realistic, I'd have settled for likable). Everybody loved the heroine - but I never figured out why. All the side characters introduced later were weird/boring/spoke like a teen boy. And then the plot. Why are 37 million separate people trying to kill this boring, hermit woman? And why is everything solved "off screen" - we were just told who the killer(s) were without any clues, etc. We don't see any of the actual detecting work, and that's just too convenient for me.
It's a shame because there were some interesting elements in the book (psychics, shapeshifters, etc). To be honest, I wish the book had been written by someone else.