From Goodreads: Before Peter Pan
belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her
hair ... Tiger Lily. When fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily meets the alluring
teenage Peter Pan deep in the forbidden woods of Neverland, the two form
a bond that's impossible to break, but also impossible to hold on to.
As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's
inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. However, when
Wendy Darling, a girl who is everything Tiger Lily is not, arrives on
the island, Tiger Lily discovers how far she is willing to go to keep
Peter with her, and in Neverland. Told from the perspective of tiny, fairy-sized Tinkerbell, Tiger Lily is the breathtaking story of budding romance, letting go and the pains of growing up.
My Rating: 4 hearts
Thoughts on the Novel: Tiger
Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson was a book I probably wouldn’t have read if it wasn’t
for the book blogging community that put it on my radar. A retelling of Peter
Pan narrated from the perspective of Tinkerbell, this story focuses largely
on Tiger Lily and features a less innocent Peter.
I really liked the idea of having
Tinkerbell be the narrator of this book because as a fairy, she could
understand the thoughtz and emotions of everybody around her. So, you got more
insight into all the characters. It also led to Tinkerbell being a more rounded
character herself instead of just being a fairy who’s in love with Peter Pan.
Other characters that I liked
included Tiger Lily, a girl struggling to hold on to her freedom while trying
to find a place for herself within her tribe, Pine Sap, the boy who accepts
Tiger Lily just the way she is, and Tik Tok, Tiger Lily’s adopted father.
Sadly, I didn’t find Peter’s story as captivating – he came off as clingy and
manipulative instead – and didn’t really feel like I got to know Wendy very
well because she entered the story so late. Poor Wendy also wasn’t portrayed in
a very favourable light, which wasn’t surprising.
What I loved about Tiger Lily though
was that it was grounded in reality. In Anderson’s
story then, Neverland is a magical island that some Englanders like Captain
Hook were able to find. As a result, you get to see how the European
travellers affected the Indigenous population. For example, the native Neverlanders worry about the aging disease brought by Englanders, which is why
the Sky Eaters agree, as a tribe, to let Phillip die.
Meanwhile, after being nursed back to health by Tiger Lily, Phillip begins
trying to get the Sky Eaters to give
up their religion and traditions and start assimilating to more European ways
of living.
A very different retelling from the
Disney version of Peter Pan, Tiger Lily was released by HarperTeen in July
2012.
Comments
About the Cover: I like the colours used.
