Tiger Lily: A Book Review

Tiger Lily. A different way of looking at the story of Peter Pan. I know these new spins on old stories are all the rage these days; from Wicked to Maleficent everyone wants to retell the story with another perspective. However, I’m going to ask you to look past the trend and read this book. It’s a young adult book and an easy read, but if you’re like me something about it will stay with you for days.

I found this novel once while procrastinating once on the internet I read a list of great book dedications, and instantly fell in love with the dedication in the book “For the girls with messy hair and thirsty hearts”, soon the book was ordered and in the mail.

This novel focuses on the native princess Tiger Lily and her struggles in her tribe, from not being conventionally beautiful, adopted and daughter of the transgender shaman she’s a very real character that even when she is stubborn, you love her because she has the flaws you can relate to. The novel is brilliantly told through the faerie Tinker Bell, who has more depth than just being the self centered and jealous firefly from the Disney movie of our youth. Tink is instead an earthy little creature that knows her limitations but also loves fiercely. Her role in this story is mostly as an observer, small and unnoticeable for the most part, but her love of the wild haired Tiger Lily and the quick moving boyish Pan is very sincere.

I knew this was a book that would move up to a top shelf book on my case when in the beginning Tink recalls first observing Tiger Lily as a small child being bullied in her village. When one of her bullies ends up dead on a path in town with a crow sitting on her hip the children and adults in town begin to whisper the nickname crow girl at Tiger Lily, believing she had some sort of control over the black birds. Tink says,

“Whether that was true or not, I couldn’t hear deep enough into her mind to know. But one afternoon, after the children had called her crow girl and run away for fear of her, I watched her slip a raven feather into her hair. After that day, she kept it in.

From then on, I was a goner. A devoted fan.”

Me too, Tink.

Anderson not only has a way to write about the characters, but her portrayal of Neverland was pretty captivating too. I had never considered that Neverland could have easily been based on America, but the way Anderson writes about this land only occasionally visited by the “Englanders” who bring with them their ways of life, I began to imagine more and more how magical and scary this continent must have been to the ships of people coming here and seeing entire new cultures, landscapes and creatures.

I can’t sing the praises of this book enough. It was a quick, fun and heartfelt read. And I very well may end up with a line of it tattooed on my body at some point. How’s that for a book recommendation? I’m sure it’s not for everyone, but five stars from me.

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