tiger lily

tiger lily
jodi lynn anderson
ya/fantasy
harper teen
published 2012

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.

The minute I saw this book I knew that I would love it.  Usually, when I see I cover I love I expect it will probably not stand up to my expectations, but this time I knew because it was Peter Pan.

Peter Pan has always secretly been my favorite of Disney movies.  And not because of Peter or Wendy, but Tinker Bell & Tiger Lily.  I thought Tiger Lily was beautiful in the cartoon movie.  I wanted to know her story and I wanted Peter to love only her.  I thought Wendy was bossy and silly and didn't deserve Peter.  Tinker Bell has just always been my favorite.  Feisty and animated.  She couldn't talk, but boy did you know how she felt.  Since then Tink has had her own series of movies and it's been so fun to see that world from her eyes, but still, the silent Tink holds a place in my heart.

Jodi Lynn Anderson has done an amazing job at making the story of Peter Pan the story of Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell.  She's weaved in bits of J.M. Barrie's tale into hers and reminded us of Disney's classic, but there is no humor and this is not a children's tale.

It is dark and dangerous.  And it feels real.  She took each and every character and made them as real as they could be living on an island almost impossible to reach by ship where hardly anyone grows old.  Captain Hook is desperate to catch Peter and in Disney's story I always wondered what would really happen if he did catch him.  In Anderson's tale I knew that when he did catch him Peter would die.  He isn't a bumbling captain to a ragtag group of pirates, but a madman looking not so much for treasure as much as he just wants to kill.  Smee isn't the sweet, reluctant pirate, but a dark and dangerous serial killer.

The tale is told from Tinker Bell's perspective as she has abandoned her own people to live with Tiger Lily whom she loves and admires but doesn't think knows she exists.  Able to read human's minds through their feelings she is the perfect storyteller.  The story is dark and beautiful and heartbreaking and I loved every word of it.