Friday, October 19, 2012

Book Review: Tiger Lily by Jodie Lynn Anderson




Title: Tiger Lily
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
# Of Pages: 304
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: July 3, 2012
Source: Library
Level: Young Adult
Rating: 2 Hearts





Synopsis

(From Amazon.com)

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.


My Verdict

As much as I like to think I enjoy fairy tale retellings, the truth is I’ve yet to really fall in love with any I’ve read so far. I guess it’s the idea of them I like the most.

Tiger Lily is a new twist on the classic tale of Peter Pan. I was excited for this story, as most re-tellings are of princess stories like Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast.

As someone who’s never actually read the original story, the only thing I have to go off of is the Disney movie =) As most of you probably know, Tiger Lily isn’t in that version of the story. While I was excited to read the story from a new point-of-view, I didn’t think I could actually hope for someone besides Wendy to end up with Peter, but by the end of it I did.

The story was told by Tinker-Bell as a sort of all-knowing Narrator. I haven’t read a book from the perspective of a narrator in awhile and I found it kind of awkward and distant. As much as I didn’t feel connected to Tiger Lily, I still found myself rooting for her and wanting things to work out with her and Peter, even though I knew they couldn’t.

I thought Neverland was supposed to be this wonderful place where kids never grew up, fairies went around sprinkling fairy dust, and mermaids occupied the lagoon. This version of Neverland, however, was painted a lot darker. It was a land that held many known and unknown dangers. Tiger Lily and her tribe were only allowed to go to certain parts of the island for the rest were deemed too dangerous, with unknown beasts lurking in the dark. They even made Peter out to be this horrible person that everyone should fear.

As for the characters, can I just say there were a lot of really crazy character names in this book?! Ex. Pine Sap, Moon Eye, Giant, Aunt Agda, Magnolia Bud.

  • Tiger Lily was hard to understand at times, her actions were out of the blue and I wasn’t able to understand why she was doing what she was because we couldn’t get inside her head.
  • Peter was very distant, I felt like we never got to see what he was really thinking or how he truly felt until the very end.
  • Tik Tok (Tiger Lily’s father) was a character I felt was thrown into the mix just to add something mainstream to the story line. He wore dresses and took pride in doing up his hair in braids and other styles. It just didn’t seem to fit naturally with the story to me.
  • Pine Sap was definitely my favorite character. He and Tiger Lily have been friends for years, and he would do anything for her. He endured so much from his family and tribe beating him down but he always put up with it unbelievably well and still remained so sweet.  I really wanted Tiger Lily to fall in love with him instead of Peter! (But I guess there would have been no story that way huh?)
Overall, Tiger Lily was a quirky, strange, yet entertaining read. 

4 comments:

  1. I've been looking forward to reading this book for a while, but I keep seeing mixed reviews. Like you, I've yet to read a retelling that blows me away, but I hope I like this one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've seen a lot of mixed reviews for this one too. Who knows, you could be one of the people who really loves it! I hope it doesn't let you down =)

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