Young Adult Book Review – Tiger Lily

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn book cover

Tiger Lily

Title: Tiger Lily

Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson

About: Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily is a loner in the small village she lives in, the Sky Eaters, in Neverland. She meets Peter, a Lost Boy, and quickly falls under his spell. He’s brave and fearless and different from everyone she knows. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland’s inhabitants, he is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. It doesn’t take long before she is risking everything to be with him. Then she’s faced with marriage to a horrible man in her tribe, and she has to choose between the life she’s always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter. The lovers seem doomed with enemies threatening to tear them apart. But the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who’s everything Tiger Lily isn’t, is what leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

Review: Tiger Lily is a mixed book for me. On one hand, I loved the story and plot, and how it was a pretty cool mix-up of the Peter Pan story. However, I hated the ending. It stunk terribly, in my opinion, even though I probably should have known it was coming and prepared myself for it. The characters are definitely not flat, and the point of view from Tinkerbell was pretty cool. Okay, yes, it’s probably a bit more of a book a girl would enjoy rather than a boy. It certainly isn’t action-packed, but it’s a really good book for the most part.

Tiger Lily, despite her many strengths, has flaws as well. She seems pretty insecure to me and fear of showing weakness in front of others. Peter is, well, Peter. Nothing scares him, even things that should, such as the knowledge that eventually Hook, the pirate leader, would catch and kill him and the boys. Tik Tok, Tiger Lily’s adoptive father, puts a bit of a damper on my feelings of the book, as although he is a male, he wears dresses, keeps his hair long, and basically is a cross-dresser. That is definitely not something I enjoy, but he plays a minor part. Pine Sap, one of the boys from the village, is probably one of my favorite characters. He’s sweet and has a huge crush on Tiger Lily. He’s a good friend and is always there for her, even building a hut that he plans for Tiger Lily and himself someday. Moon Eye, a girl from the village, is frail and gentle. Unfortunately, Giant, Tiger Lily’s fifty-plus-year-old fiancé, has a thing for young girls and Moon Eye has to be very careful around him. Giant is an old, fat, disgusting, mean man whose mother gets Tik Tok to promise Tiger Lily in marriage to him. Wendy is one of my least favorite characters, even though she only comes in in the last few chapters of the book. If you read it, there’s a good chance you’ll understand why, but I’m not going to spoil it for you. Philip, an Englishman whose ship crashed, although I liked him in the beginning, started to annoy me after a while.

Like I said earlier, I really found it interesting that there was a 1st person point-of-view by Tinkerbell instead of Tiger Lily. ‘Tink,’ as she is often called, follows Tiger Lily and Peter around. For the most part it almost seems like it’s in 3rd person, as she doesn’t have much of a part, but occasionally she adds things to the situation such as her emotions or what she’s doing. The book is also quite well-written, with sophisticated language. There are a lot of mythical creatures as well, such as mermaids (traditional man-drowning ones, not Little Mermaid mermaids), faeries, and more. The Lost Boys seemed to each have their own unique personality. One of my favorite changes was how Hook lost his hand. Instead of a crocodile eating it (I think that’s how it goes…), he was working in a shoe factory, fell asleep, and a machine chopped it off in the shape of a shoe heel. That made me laugh, I admit it.

The fact that it was hinted that Moon Eye was sexually assaulted by Giant wasn’t so nice. It was very vague and although you got the idea that it might have happened, the author left pretty much all of it to your imagination. Also there’s the cross-dressing that really bothers me. There isn’t any swearing, as far as I can remember. The ending just stunk, though. It wasn’t violent or morbid, just really sad. Really, really sad. After I finished the book I put it down and went upstairs in a huff. Also, Smee is a bit of a creepy person. If he admires someone… he wants to strangle them. He’s one of the pirates with Hook.

Overall, although it was a pretty good plot, I won’t read it again because of the ending and other things I mentioned weren’t so great. Then again, that might just be me being stubborn. It was fun to read the first time. I suggest the age level to be maybe 13+, due to the few things I mentioned above. It’s more of a girl’s romance book than something most boys might want to read, but that’s okay. So, read it if you want, I’m not going to suggest reading it or not. It’s up to you depending on what you though of what I said above.

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Young Adult Book Review - Tiger Lily, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating


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