Sunday, January 19, 2014

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Published July 3, 2012 by HarperCollins Children's Books
Paperback, 292 pages
Borrowed from library



Sorry guys, I can't write a good synopsis for the book so here, you can have the Goodreads one:

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.



I absolutely LOVED this book. Have you noticed yet? That this is my first five star read on The Runaway Reader? Goodness gracious guys, this book. THIS BOOK. I don't even know if I have the words to explain why Tiger Lily was so gosh darn awesome. 

Tiger Lily is often classified as a retelling of Peter Pan but for me, it's more like a reimagining or reinvention of Peter Pan. Anderson completely flips what we know about Peter Pan upside down and truly takes the characters and makes them her own. The details of the actual story are a bit fuzzy for me but I do remember how much Neverland stuck out while I was reading and in Tiger Lily, Anderson brings us back to Neverland and the experience is just as magical as it was the first time, except in a different way.

Let me go back to the start to explain this: when I first picked up Tiger Lily, I expected it to be a fun and light read. As a child, I loved the story of Peter Pan and the whole carefree nature of the Lost Boys and Neverland and as a retelling of Peter Pan, I expected Tiger Lily to be the same, to match Peter Pan in feeling. But boy, was I wrong. Because Anderson brings us a far edgier and grittier story of Neverland and while I certainly do miss the childish charm of the original Peter Pan, I can't say that Tiger Lily disappoints at ALL. 

From the characters to the world-building to the plot to the writing, everything was just absolutely SPECTACULAR. And if I still had this book, I would read it all over again. Tiger Lily sure took me on a whirlwind of a ride and even though I know this review is so inadequate when measured to the book, I hope you'll take my words to mind and go get yourself a copy of this book because it is one of the most amazing, fantastic books I've read in a long while.



Tiger Lily is an amazing book and you should all go out and get yourself a copy right now. I loved this book so much. The characters were so well-written, especially Peter Pan and the prose is gorgeous. What really impressed me in Tiger Lily though was the different dimensions of love Anderson was able to capture so accurately. She really showed the complexity of love very well. I've read and loved Anderson's Peaches but wow, Tiger Lily is on a whole other scale. Absolutely fantastic.



lovers of Peter Pan or retellings of popular fairy tales. If you want a tragic yet beautiful story about love, Tiger Lily is right up your alley. And if you want to cry, you have the right book too. JUST READ THIS BOOK REGARDLESS. READ IT RIGHT NOW.

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