Tiger Lily in Around the Year in 52 Books

Oct 08, 2018 oliviasbooks rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: love-story-romance, love-triangle, young-adult-fiction, swapped-or-given-away, mermaids-underwater-breathers, retellings-continuations, faeries-elves-pixies, historical-fantasy, beautiful-writing, cry-a-little

'I'm not a stranger to your love of lost causes, dear one. But you have to be careful who you meet,' he said, stroking a pipe thoughtfully.' You can't unmeet them.'

*** Review definitely contains spoilers. Continue at your own risk. *** This beautifully narrated retelling of Peter Pan is almost unbearably sad and I don't know whether I will be up to rereading it someday in the future or not.

Both the setting and the plot surprised and impressed me immensely: Apart from the mute faery, whose point 'I'm not a stranger to your love of lost causes, dear one. But you have to be careful who you meet,' he said, stroking a pipe thoughtfully.' You can't unmeet them.'

*** Review definitely contains spoilers. Continue at your own risk. *** This beautifully narrated retelling of Peter Pan is almost unbearably sad and I don't know whether I will be up to rereading it someday in the future or not.

Both the setting and the plot surprised and impressed me immensely: Apart from the mute faery, whose point-of-view the reader follows, and a few evil, mischief plotting mermaids the novel sports no magical or fantastic elements at all.

Reading it is like having a heavily romanticised, pinkishly dreamy story about Native Americans happily lollygagging in their wigwams with the occasional, sexy, but appreciative European cowboy-person popping into their lives in order to woe a young, open-minded maiden, ripped out of your shallow hands to see it replaced by a serious novel filled to the brim with the harsh, but often whitewashed truth: Cocksure, greedy settlers falling like a swarm of hungry locusts into smoothly functioning communities, measuring everything with their inner scale of market value, forcing their dubious sets of moral and self-beneficial chunks of their religion, especially their concept of sin and shame, on their unsuspecting hosts, while smiling their superior, benevolent smiles and spreading illnesses, envy, mistrust and unrest around them around as effectively as possible.

In Tiger Lily's Sky Eater village life isn't perfect. There are people who are mean and who like to take what they want with force. But all in all they care for each other, they accept people who are different or choose to live as transgender, they have worked out a truce with a group of pirates and with other native communities and they do not age. They think it might be better to ignore the group of Lost Boys, former pirate ship slaves turned feral and independent. But one fateful day Tiger Lily, who has been promised to the wrong sort of boy, starts to nurse a shipwrecked, middle-aged Englander back to health.

From that point onwards everything goes downhill. (view spoiler)
True to its realistic onset the ending makes do without dozens of Disney fairies dancing like drugged maniacs and farting glitter while every worthy human gets to be deliriously happy. But it was actually a less depressing ending than I had expected.

Therefore I allow myself to ponder about its protagonists, antagonists and messages a little longer and even leave a door of my mind open to a possible return to a tragically mapped and chartered Neverland. It probably helped that I never was especially fond of Barrie's original Peter and his excitingly adventurous, but fickle and complicated character. When I examine my heart, I have to admit that his fate did not interest me particularly, when starting the book, and it did not move me when closing it. But what happened to the three Ts, Tiger Lily, Tik Tok and Tink, made me hopeful and gloomy and wistful and heartachy. ...more

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Jul 17, 2015 Hitzuji rated it it was amazing

En todas las adaptaciones que he leído (y que conozco) de Peter Pan, siempre es contada centrandoce en Peter o en Wendy.

Pero Tiger Lily es diferente, para empezar, como el título lo indica, es la historia de Tigrilla o Tigridia (como la llamaron en la versión en español), contada desde el punto del hada Campanita (Tinker Bell). Es un personaje que apenas y sale en los libros y que únicamente sirve como base de una aventura más, pero en este libro podemos ver más sobre ella.

La forma en la que la En todas las adaptaciones que he leído (y que conozco) de Peter Pan, siempre es contada centrandoce en Peter o en Wendy.

Pero Tiger Lily es diferente, para empezar, como el título lo indica, es la historia de Tigrilla o Tigridia (como la llamaron en la versión en español), contada desde el punto del hada Campanita (Tinker Bell). Es un personaje que apenas y sale en los libros y que únicamente sirve como base de una aventura más, pero en este libro podemos ver más sobre ella.

La forma en la que la autora adaptó todos los elementos de la isla de Nunca Jamás, todos los elementos mágicos y no mágicos, es sumamente sensacional. Por alguna razón los habitantes de esa isla no es que no envejezcan, sino que hay un punto en su crecimiento en el que se detienen, así tienes hijos más "grandes" que sus padres, por decir un ejemplo.

Peter Pan y los chicos perdidos son una historia para asustar a los niños en las tribus indias, un grupo de salvajes crueles y caníbales, o al menos eso es lo que creen. Eso para empezar fue algo que al leerlo me sorprendió. Claro que luego empiezas a ver la verdad.

Lo que más me gustó
- Que aunque es una adaptación con los personajes que amamos y conocemos, es muy distinta y original.
- La forma en la que está narrada la historia.
- Los personajes. Es mi representación favorita de Peter Pan, diría que incluso me gusta más que el Peter original.
- El cambio en los personajes, se siente muy natural y aunque no es muy marcado se percibe.
- Cómo metió los elementos mágicos y aún así hacerlo real.

Lo que menos me gustó
- Sentir tanta desesperación y angustia por las cosas que pasaban, pero eso en realidad es algo bueno, porque es por lo bien escrito que está.

SPOILER DE OTRA COSA QUE ME GUSTÓ

- Cómo manejó el final. He de decir que tenía la esperanza de que quedaran juntos, pero cómo describió todo el proceso y el hecho de que ambos lograron amar a alguien más y ser felices, sin olvidarse y sin dejarse de querer. Me hizo llorar mucho, pero me encantó.

...more

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Jan 04, 2016 Jessica (BookRockGoddess) Bolton rated it liked it

Shelves: ebook, 100-in-2016

I enjoyed this book a lot but I didn't think it was as good as everyone said it was. So I really couldn't rated it all that high because I didn't feel that it lived up to the hype. ...more

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May 03, 2012 Nikki rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction, ebook, fantasy, ya, own-kindle, 2013

I heard a great many things about Tiger Lily and I was looking forward to reading it. However, I failed to realize how much my absolute lack of interest in Peter Pan tales would impact me. I never cared for Peter Pan as a child and haven't gained care as an adult. I would recommend that you have at least a neutral stance towards Peter Pan if you are going to read this, although actually liking Peter Pan may be better. (Some reviewers, however, seem to hate it more if they had a special attachmen I heard a great many things about Tiger Lily and I was looking forward to reading it. However, I failed to realize how much my absolute lack of interest in Peter Pan tales would impact me. I never cared for Peter Pan as a child and haven't gained care as an adult. I would recommend that you have at least a neutral stance towards Peter Pan if you are going to read this, although actually liking Peter Pan may be better. (Some reviewers, however, seem to hate it more if they had a special attachment to characters from childhood.)

I found the narration by Tink to be distracting, especially due to the fact that we never get to truly know any of the characters (not even Tink herself since she is so caught up in the others). This would have been better told from Tiger Lily's perspective, I may have been able to actually enjoy it more had that been the case. As it stands, I could not come to care for the characters or anything that happened to them.

Tiger Lily is supposed to be a strong female character but she rather easily succumbs to Peter Pan, a character I absolutely cannot understand caring about. I also will note that this Peter Pan is nothing like the one I remember disliking from childhood, can you imagine THAT Peter Pan having a girlfriend? Ha. But that didn't really bother me as I didn't like either version of Peter Pan, although this one is preferable to the annoying one from childhood. Overall, I could not come to believe in the relationship or supposed love Tiger Lily or Peter Pan had for each other, especially considering Tiger Lily's ridiculous "death" plan near the end of the novel.

I also did not care for the portrayal of Tiger Lily's tribe, it felt as though Anderson was attempting to correct the bigotry from the original Peter Pan but she instead simply lessened and disguised it. I also hated that the Christian man who came into the village preached and so easily changed the people's opinions on their god/gods. I do not think this at all added to the book and only proved to infuriate me regarding what missionaries ridiculously did for hundreds of years. I also found it insulting that Anderson depicted that the individuals were so easily convinced that they disregarded their traditions and way of being so terribly easily.

Overall the story of Tiger Lily did not appeal to me and I disagreed with a number of Anderson's choices. Recommended to Peter Pan fans. ...more

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Feb 25, 2019 Hinda Rochel rated it really liked it

A wonderful fairy tale, beautifully told. I enjoy fairy tales and their retellings. This one was gold. Wild and adventurous, with love and pain. A keeper.

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