Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Title: Tiger Lily

Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson

Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books

Publishing Date: July 3, 2012

Pages/Format: 292, Hardcover

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.

Initial Reaction of Book in One Word: Love.

Pre-Tiger-Lily, Peter Pan was never my favorite anything—book, tale, movie, character, etc. While Pan still isn’t my favorite post-Tiger-Lily, I find myself wanting to take part in everything and anything that has to do with him: watching all the movies, reading the original book, even watching those movies about Tinkerbell. Tiger Lily wasn’t what I had expected it to be. But I’m pretty sure I loved it.

Jodi Lynn Anderson is a storyteller. Anyone can tell a story, and all books are stories. However, most books I read aren’t written like a story, as if someone was sitting in front of a fire and telling you some fable from the past. Jodi Lynn Anderson weaves words into a story, mixing first and third person point of view without making it very confusing, and puts Tinkerbell next in line to share at story time.

The characters were wonderful, even if they were antagonists (though several characters that were good could be considered the antagonist). Hook was, well, Hook, but more like a drunk with a bad temper. I liked him, and I thought he was different than other fictional Hooks. (But he still wants Pan.) I loved the Lost Boys and how each had their different inputs—Tibs was my favorite. I’m still unsure of why they had a baby, though. Peter Pan was all things awkward and bipolar—he doesn’t even finish things when he starts making them. His moods constantly changed, but he was still so interesting. While I believe he was attractive, he’s one of those rare male characters in YA books that you want a love/hate relationship with. Tiger Lily herself isn’t all that snazzy—extremely carefree and careless, not very feminine, unsure of how to act around Peter, and he around her. They were both flawed characters, but they worked and I loved it. Their romance was so odd and awkward, but I still rooted for them. Then Wendy showed up. UGH. In all other things that have to do with Peter Pan, I want Peter and Wendy together and get mad when they aren’t. Now Wendy’s in Neverland and I just hate her and am annoyed by her and want her to go away and maybe die. Stupid Wendy.

As I mentioned earlier, Jodi Lynn Anderson is a storyteller; I want her to write more books like Tiger Lily and I will read them all. For days after reading it I was searching for books like it—either for a similar story or because I liked how the story itself was told, which was so different than everything else out there. I only have a few complaints. There were some times when the writing style—not the storytelling—just bugged me for some reason. And sometimes the point of view lost me, and other times I just wanted more. It wasn’t perfect—nothing is—but it was pretty darn good. I think that was it for the negatives.

And the ending. Oh, the ending. I’m a stickler for endings—I want things to go my way and any other way is wrong. I hated the ending in this book. I also loved the ending. (Weird, right?) It did not go how I wanted it to, but at the same time it was satisfactory. In fact, I cried. With the type of person Tiger Lily is, I didn’t think I’d cry. But I did. And when I finished the book I just had this feeling, this feeling of wanting more yet not, thinking all about this book, and loving it. This book was just lovely.

I finished this book awhile ago and I still catch myself thinking about it--I think it's one of those books that will stay with you forever. If you haven’t read Tiger Lily, please do—I can’t believe I waited this long to read it myself. If you’re not sure about reading it, let me tell you this: You don’t want to grow up. And you'll find the book—and a phenomenal story—by taking the third star to the right and going on ‘til morning.

Sometimes in a review I include quotes that stuck out to me from the book, and Tiger Lily had a couple.

"...You have to be careful who you meet...You can't unmeet them." (11)

"I'm not myself," she offered guiltily. She softened around Tik Tok, and when she did she was, for those rare moments, girlish. He smiled. "You can never say that. You're just a piece of yourself right now that you don't like." (69)

Did I like it? Absolutely.

Did I love it? YES.

Would I reread it? Most definitely. (Do I watch Disney movies all the time? YES.)

Would I purchase it? I'm upset that I don't own it right this second.

Would I recommend it? Mhm.