Tiger Lily
By Jodi Lynn Anderson
ISBN #: 9780062114617
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Valerie
Spoiler Alert!
Synopsis:
Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .
Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn’t believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.
Peter is unlike anyone she’s ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland’s inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she’s always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.
With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it’s the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who’s everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn’t grow up. (Goodreads)
Review:
Tiger Lily is intense. It’s a short little book that causes you to feel a whirlwind of emotions in a shorter amount of time. It is honestly the happiest and the saddest book ever written. It actually made me cry, and I never cry from reading. Tiger Lily is one of those books that you know are probably going to be sad, but you still keep on reading. When you finally get to the sad part, even if you’ve been expecting it, it makes you cry. I actually flipped to the end as I was reading it to see if it would be sad or not. I knew it would be, and I still cried at the end! That takes some seriously great writing.
Tiger Lily is simply unique. You don’t really hear about retellings of Peter Pan every day, especially not Tiger Lily’s story through Tink’s narration. I couldn’t believe how nice it turned out to be; usually books with unique plots tend to fall a little short of my expectation. This wasn’t the case with Tiger Lily. It was perfect in every way except for the final ending. It was a magical little book, and it actually made me cry! You don’t get that a lot.
Tiger Lily as a person is one of those fearless girls. She’s so strong and brave; it’s almost hard to relate to her. However, as the story progresses, you realize strong or not, she’s still just a girl falling in love for the first time. I really love Tiger Lily. She’s just that amazing with her calm attitude and her harsh looks. It’s hard to finally get her, but when you do, you really learn to love her. I love her development as a character. As the story progresses, Tiger Lily learns to smile again and be a little more lovelier. It’s such a beautiful progression.
As for Peter, I don’t know exactly how to say it. He’s such a great boy, but as a person, I feel as if he betrayed me. He plays a huge part in the sad ending, and that’s made me hate him a little. Peter’s so mysterious and charming and all, but he still doesn’t have my heart. He had Tiger Lily’s, and then he gave it away. I’m so mad with him that I really can’t rationally think. He makes my heart race, but he’s not someone I would want to be with anymore.
As for Wendy, I really do want to injure her. Wendy isn’t that cute little girl from the Disney movie; she’s a wretched monster in a girl’s body. I hate how she always gets the boy in the end. I hate her so much, probably even more than I hate Peter. She makes me want to punch something over and over again. If it weren’t for her, I would be getting my idea of a happy ending. Thanks a lot, Wendy. Just go ahead and ruin things between Tiger Lily and Peter. Go ahead and be a terrible person.
Don’t read this book if you want a happy ending. Well, I guess the ending isn’t too bad. It’s just not the ideal ending. Tiger Lily doesn’t get what she expected; she gets a consolation prize. When I first finished the book, I was fuming! It’s not okay for the epic girl to lose the boy, but then she gets the guy who really matters. I don’t know if I’m okay with that, but at least Tiger Lily is.
So sad. So sad. So sad. You don’t get much better than crying from a novel.
