Tiger Lily - Jodi Lynn Anderson

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Publisher: Harper Collin's Children's Books
Publication Date: July 3, 2012
Source/Format: Gifted by Rachel || Hardcover

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 Goodreads)

Tiger Lily was beautiful. It was evocative, and creative, taking characters and settings from the original Peter Pan and reworking them into this entirely brand new story. While I certainly expected to enjoy it, I could not have predicted how intense my emotional reaction to the book would be. 

There are two things that immediately stand out to me about this book: (1) it is the story of Tiger Lily and (2) it is told by Tinkerbell. 

It’s interesting that the author chose to focus on Tiger Lily, as she was not one of the main characters from the original. But by choosing to focus on someone who was previously out of focus, the author managed to come up with something brand new. Tiger Lily certainly has a personality fraught with complexity – she’s different from the girls in her village, and her feelings and desires make that abundantly clear. At the same time, she shares a history and a life with the tribe, and struggles to piece that all together as she continues to grow. No longer is Tiger Lily just a random cardboard character in my mind; she’s transformed into a real girl with real issues. 

I wasn’t completely connected to Tiger Lily though, mostly because we only get to learn all these things about her from Tinkerbell’s perspective. Tinkerbell is the true storyteller, and that’s another risky, but interesting choice from the author. I’ll admit that I was never very fond of Tinkerbell in the original, but after reading this book, I found that I actually really liked her! The author manages to portray her in a way that allows me to see how much she really cares about the others – Tiger Lily, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys most of all. The fact that I could see how her decisions were made out of selflessness and a desire to protect the ones she had chosen to love softened my feelings towards her. While the Tinkerbell in this book certainly doesn’t sound as glamorous as the one in the original, I like her much better because I can understand her behavior and the (possible) feelings behind it. 

Aside from these two incredible characters, the author tells a compelling tale that I could not put down once I started. The thing about this book is that it may find its roots in a classic, but it manages to incorporate a story with situations that anyone would be able to relate to. Tiger Lily (and Tinkerbell) experiences the wonder of first love, but also encounters the painful reality of heartbreak. When it comes to her tribe, she experiences the struggle to balance the old traditions and new influences. 

The experience of first love and first heartbreak is one that we can all relate to, and it’s done so well in this story. I felt the flutters when the attraction began, swooned over the sweeter things Peter did or said to Tiger Lily and just about keeled over in despair when things went awry. I was so invested in rooting for them that, despite knowing what would happen, I still turned every page expecting things were going to change. 

Tiger Lily may not have made me cry, but it certainly left me pensive and thoughtful for days. It simply moved me with its story of love and loss. Beautiful prose, real characters and relatable situations – this book is certainly a winner, and I would (as so many already have) highly recommend it. 

 This review was posted as part of It Takes Two.

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