Scan barcode
A review by couldbestephen
Wish of the White Tiger by Joseph Harkreader
2.0
We have got to discuss the difference between writing a world that is inspired by a different culture and writing a world that *is* that culture but is handled terribly. This confusing retelling of the Aladdin story amateurishly stumbles through a bizarre amount of cultures without establishing a strong world of its own. I rated this book 1.5 stars and would not recommend.
Baihu (Aladdin) is a palace guard thrown into a cosmic battle when he tries to escape sexual slavery. He stumbles across Div (Jasmine), Div’s familiar Tiki (Rahja), and a golden lamp containing a purple genie, Lian. The group must work together to overcome Mohan (Jafar), an evil sultan who wants to conquer the Dreamland.
When I started the book, I forgot Wish of the White Tiger was marketed as adult romantacy and thought I was reading a middle-grade fantasy. The world-building is childishly simple and explained through some unforgivably clunky exposition. The writing style is repetitive (get used to the phrases “jasmine aura” and honey eyes” when Div is being described) to the point of being distracting. Then you hit the explicit sex scenes, curse words, and weak attempts at writing “violent” action and are reminded this is supposed to be an adult novel.
The pacing of this novel is... not good. The story constantly interrupts itself by yanking Baihu out of his world and into the “spirit world” for him to keep learning about his “chi” power. Seriously. The number of times we’re tossed back and forth between realms is nuts. You know what else is nuts? How poorly the characters were written. Everyone is a one-dimensional character who rarely displays more than the 3 personality traits given to them. The genie flips between caring for the main characters and not trusting them, Baihu is such a flat, boring character it hurts and Tiki... is a guy? I don’t know man, this was not a good novel.
Now... we’ve got to talk about the strange amount of cultures Harkreader steals from. Aladdin is a Persian/Arabian/Indian story, so you would think that those are the cultures that Harkreader would focus on, right? Nope. Baihu is Chinese-coded; his name is Chinese, he wields “chi” like a weapon/magical power, he taps into the power of a white tiger god. Div and the kingdom he is from is Indian. Lian, the genie, has a Chinese name but is a mix of Arabian/Indian interpretations of Jinn. The bad guy has an army of undead samurai (that show up once), which are from Japan. They fight Wendingo’s, which are from Native American lore. They fight the Grim Reaper, who takes on the 14-13th century Germanic appearance. GREECE AND IT’S PANTHEON ARE JUST HERE. GREECE IS REFERENCED. ALONG WITH THE ENTIRE INDIAN PANTHEON OF GODS. AND HINDUISM. IS THIS OUR WORLD OR HARKREADER’S ORIGINAL CREATION? It started feeling offensive near the end, because this wasn’t a world inspired by the culture of 1001, this was a poor reskinning of real-life cultures.
If you are making a world inspired by actual cultures, you need to be careful of what you’re taking. RF Kuang’s The Poppy War Trilogy takes real history and culture and makes something original and interesting. Catherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale is so clearly inspired by Russian culture but again, still gives it an original twist. Harkreader gives up on creating an original world halfway through the novel and just regurgitates actual mythos and uses actual religions instead of building his own. This novel was definitely a letdown in many ways, from the childish/amateur writing, to the lazy and offensive world-building.
Baihu (Aladdin) is a palace guard thrown into a cosmic battle when he tries to escape sexual slavery. He stumbles across Div (Jasmine), Div’s familiar Tiki (Rahja), and a golden lamp containing a purple genie, Lian. The group must work together to overcome Mohan (Jafar), an evil sultan who wants to conquer the Dreamland.
When I started the book, I forgot Wish of the White Tiger was marketed as adult romantacy and thought I was reading a middle-grade fantasy. The world-building is childishly simple and explained through some unforgivably clunky exposition. The writing style is repetitive (get used to the phrases “jasmine aura” and honey eyes” when Div is being described) to the point of being distracting. Then you hit the explicit sex scenes, curse words, and weak attempts at writing “violent” action and are reminded this is supposed to be an adult novel.
The pacing of this novel is... not good. The story constantly interrupts itself by yanking Baihu out of his world and into the “spirit world” for him to keep learning about his “chi” power. Seriously. The number of times we’re tossed back and forth between realms is nuts. You know what else is nuts? How poorly the characters were written. Everyone is a one-dimensional character who rarely displays more than the 3 personality traits given to them. The genie flips between caring for the main characters and not trusting them, Baihu is such a flat, boring character it hurts and Tiki... is a guy? I don’t know man, this was not a good novel.
Now... we’ve got to talk about the strange amount of cultures Harkreader steals from. Aladdin is a Persian/Arabian/Indian story, so you would think that those are the cultures that Harkreader would focus on, right? Nope. Baihu is Chinese-coded; his name is Chinese, he wields “chi” like a weapon/magical power, he taps into the power of a white tiger god. Div and the kingdom he is from is Indian. Lian, the genie, has a Chinese name but is a mix of Arabian/Indian interpretations of Jinn. The bad guy has an army of undead samurai (that show up once), which are from Japan. They fight Wendingo’s, which are from Native American lore. They fight the Grim Reaper, who takes on the 14-13th century Germanic appearance. GREECE AND IT’S PANTHEON ARE JUST HERE. GREECE IS REFERENCED. ALONG WITH THE ENTIRE INDIAN PANTHEON OF GODS. AND HINDUISM. IS THIS OUR WORLD OR HARKREADER’S ORIGINAL CREATION? It started feeling offensive near the end, because this wasn’t a world inspired by the culture of 1001, this was a poor reskinning of real-life cultures.
If you are making a world inspired by actual cultures, you need to be careful of what you’re taking. RF Kuang’s The Poppy War Trilogy takes real history and culture and makes something original and interesting. Catherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale is so clearly inspired by Russian culture but again, still gives it an original twist. Harkreader gives up on creating an original world halfway through the novel and just regurgitates actual mythos and uses actual religions instead of building his own. This novel was definitely a letdown in many ways, from the childish/amateur writing, to the lazy and offensive world-building.