Review: Tiger Lily

Tiger Lily

Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson

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.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.

Published July 3rd 2012.

*

In this strange, sad yet hopeful tale, the real and the mythical; fact and fiction; wilderness and civilisation; first loves and new loves all collide with a resounding boom. The story is stirring and spellbinding simply because it is, at its core, Tiger Lily's story. And her story is one as unique as her name.

Set against the backdrop of Neverland-- where insect-sized fairies who can't speak English, blood-thirsty pirates, tribes and the infamous Lost Boys reside-- Tiger Lily's coming-of-age tale unfolds, starting first in the tribe called Skyeaters. There, she lives under the care of her adoptive father, Tik Tok, the tribe's shaman. 

Slowly, the story blossoms into a love story, albeit a very awkward, sweet and fragile one. Tiger Lily-- whom the tribe finds difficult to accept with her angular frame, sharp eyes and stoic reticence-- finds a home amongst the Lost Boys. From fearing the Lost Boys initially to loving them eventually, Tiger Lily melts their hearts while they too melt hers in return. 

Here's when Peter Pan appears. 

Jodi Lynn Anderson's characterization is outstanding, especially in the case of Peter and Tiger Lily. Peter is the attractive (even the fierce mermaids with shark's teeth are in love with him), proud and gangly teenager, who desperately craves for love and affirmation. And while it seems at first that Tiger Lily and him are a perfect match, there was this steady, throbbing fear in me with every page I flipped.

How their proud natures crashed, how they both tried to be stronger than the other, how Peter wanted Tiger Lily to praise him and to love him openly and passionately... But, it was in Tiger Lily's nature to be brave and strong and quiet in her love, so much that sometimes, I felt like shaking the book just for her to tell Peter that she loved him. 

Perhaps, they might have been able to work it out. But, who knows? Because there was another shadow lurking in the background, a pretty blonde shadow, demure and lovely, weak and full of praises, showering Peter with attention and working on him with her feminine wiles-- Wendy Bird.

She was everything that Tiger Lily was not. And I hated her. 

Because even though I knew of the original tale, even though I started on this book whilst knowing that there was going to be heartache, even though I knew that Peter and Wendy's fate together has been set in stone years ago in J. M. Barrie's timeless classic, this novel worked its magic on me unknowingly when I was reading it.

I was completely whirled up into the new lives of these characters, and in the end, it seemed wrong to even think about Tiger Lily never having to fall in love and experience all this with Peter.

This is a rich story, one that is deeply moving, bittersweet and will leave you wanting to re-watch the Disney movie just to take another look at the Peter, Tink and the girl with the crow feather in her hair.


Source: The library shelves

xoxo,
Sel