Author:
Jodi Lynn Anderson
Pages:
292
Language:
English
Year:
2012
Plot:
Tiger
Lily is about Tiger Lily from Peter Pan. It’s the story of Tiger Lily’s life,
her relationship with Peter Pan, and her relationship with Tinker Bell. The
story is set in Neverland, an island I assume near South America, where Tiger
Lily is raised by her adopted father Tik Tok, the shaman in the Sky Eater
tribe. She is a wild girl who doesn’t fit in with the other girls. She prefers
running around with the boys, even though they don’t like her much either. In
Neverland people don’t age, they get to a certain age, something extraordinary
happens to them and they just stop. Tiger Lily is 15 when the story starts and
she one day meets Peter Pan. He is feared by the rest of the island because
he’s fierce and kills pirates and other people. In Peter Tiger Lily finds
someone who appreciates her wildness and untamed personality, and they fall in
love, disrupting her life and upsetting the balance. She spends her time with
Peter and the Lost Boys even though she is meant to marry another man in the
tribe and her father is disappearing into his depression. Then Wendy Darling
arrives from England and upsets the balance of Tiger Lily’s life again. The
story is told by Tinker Bell, which is really cool, because we get to hear
hers, Tiger Lily’s and Peter’s points of view. It has a very interesting side
story of the English coming to the New World and disturbing the peace and life
of the Indians or Native Americans.
Characters:
Tiger
Lily
The main
character is Tiger Lily, who is 15 when the book starts and the adopted
daughter of the shaman. The shaman is called Tik Tok and he has sort of raised
Tiger Lily to think she can be whomever she wants. Like her Tik Tok is also
different, he likes wearing his hair long, and wearing dresses. Tiger Lily is
tough, fierce and strong, she is different from the other girls and she spends
most of her time with the boys, who only sort of tolerate her. She is stronger
and tougher than them so they find her a bit difficult to relate to. She’s also
shy, and she knows how different she is, which she finds troubling. She meets
Peter Pan and suddenly she finds someone who is her equal and who loves her for
it. Even though she’s meant to marry someone else she spends as much time as
she can with Peter. She loves him even though she has trouble expressing it to
him. She also has bad qualities, she’s a bit vindictive and she’s angry. She’s
a very believable character and she’s amazing.
Peter Pan
Peter
seems to be an English boy who has come to Neverland with the pirates, Captain
Hook and his crew, and he has sort of escaped. He leads the Lost Boys, boys he
rescues from the pirates, and terrorizes the island. He is a sort of nefarious
boy who is rumoured to be a killer, cannibal, and all other kinds of terrible
things. They also think he can fly. He is tough, he’s strong, he’s impatient,
and he is very serious about helping the boys he lives with. He is friends with
the mermaids because he seems to have something
that sort of draws everyone in and makes them want to be around him. Evidenced
by both Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell falling for him. He falls in love with Tiger
Lily, because he wants a girl to hang around with. His life is full of boys and
strange creatures. Tiger Lily is sort of his equal, they’re fast and strong and
they challenge each other. Peter is a little better at expressing his love for
Tiger Lily than she is. He also obviously wants someone who isn’t as strong as
him. When Wendy appears he likes her for her submissiveness and her adoration
of him, and her mothering. Wendy upsets Tiger Lily’s world, but she is what
Peter needs.
Tinker
Bell
Tinker
Bell is the narrator of the story. She is a faerie and she abandons her faerie
family because she finds Tiger Lily interesting and she needs to know her. It
upsets her faerie friends and family, but she stays with Tiger Lily. She seems
to assume Tiger Lily doesn’t even notice her because faeries can’t speak, they
hear thoughts, and they are the size of bugs. She loves Tiger Lily. She also
falls for Peter Pan and the book sort of explains why she acts the way she does
in Peter Pan, because she doesn’t want Tiger Lily to get hurt, so she acts like
a bitch to Wendy. She’s strong and tough and she is very protective of Tiger
Lily. When she discovers that Tiger Lily actually knows she’s there and cares
about her she seems to care even more for Tiger Lily.
What I
thought:
I really,
really liked this book. I’ve never read Peter Pan, but I really loved the
Disney movie and I’ve seen it many times. I liked Tiger Lily, she’s hard to
understand, because she’s so un-feeling. She shows very little emotion, she
sort of seems like she doesn’t care, but it’s mainly her awkwardness. Her tribe
seems to think she’s cursed, the children in her tribe finds her different and
annoying, and she’s different, like her father. And I loved Tik Tok, and I
loved the way Anderson describes the English coming over to America and ruining
the peace and calm of the world of the Indians, just slamming down on their
religion, or Gods, and oh my God the way the English treat Tik Tok. It just
made me cry. Tik Tok has basically lived his life as a different person, who
likes dressing as a woman, and who has been left alone because he’s a shaman,
and he has the respect of the village. And the Englishmen’s insistence that
everyone conform to “normality” sort of ruins him and it is heart breaking. Anyway,
I really loved this book. The way it’s told, with Tinker Bell telling the story
is really beautiful. She can hear everyone’s thoughts so she knows how Tiger
Lily and Peter feel about each other. She also constantly tries to warn them
about issues, like pirates and mermaids, but no one ever cares. And the writing
is just amazing, Tinker Bell is just so lyrical and beautiful. She’s amazing. I
loved it, I thought it was great.