Yzabel / August 13, 2012

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

My rating: 3

Summary:

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.

Review:

I read the original Peter Pan story a long, long time ago (over 15 years), and so I can’t tell honestly that I remember its every little detail—therefore I can’t tell if this retelling is especially good or bad, compared to J.M. Barrie’s piece. This point notwithstanding, “Tiger Lily” was for me what I’d call an average pleasant book: neither detestable nor excellent.

I liked that the author chose to have the story told from Tinkerbell’s point of view; in itself, this was an interesting idea, and I found her character actually more likeable here than I remember having perceived it in the original tale. Besides, having the faeries be able to feel people’s thoughts and emotional states justified her comments about Tiger Lily’s and Peter’s story. Said story was touching, and never all black nor all white (especially considering the presence of darker themes like rape and suicide), which is something I prefer to clear-cut morality in my reading in general. Tiger Lily herself was strong, independent, able to face a lot of hardships, yet those very strengths in her were also what made her vulnerable, what prevented her from finding the right words to say. In fact, I found several other characters were really likeable, especially Tik Tok the shaman, and the issues his ways of living raise in terms of acceptance and difference.

On the other hand, the very choice of point of view I mentioned above may have made things a little too far-fetched at times: could Tink *really* know everything, be in the protagonists’ heads with such efficiency? There were a few moments when I found maintaining my suspension of disbelief rather… difficult. Second, while the story was touching, its pace was too slow, and dragged now and then. I also regretted the way certain events seemed to be rushed, such as what happens with Moon Eye or Tik Tok; in my opinion, they’d have deserved something better, just like the pirates would have deserved more spotlight. Finally, I want to say: where was the magic? Just like Nevereland here wasn’t the magical place I expected, save for the presence of mermaids and faeries, and the fact that the tribes’ people wouldn’t age, I felt that it lacked just that little touch that would have allowed me to really like this book, more than just ‘like’ it.