review: tiger lily

TIGER LILY
Jodi Lynn Anderson
Harper Collin's Children's Books
(review copy sent by publisher)

Tiger Lily is to Peter Pan what Wicked was to The Wizard of Oz. I'm wary of calling it a retelling, though technically that's what it is, because this isn't the Peter-and-Wendy story we all know. Nope, this is Tiger Lily's story and though it overlaps with the original it's also markedly different. Because this is the love story between Tiger Lily and Peter Pan. It's narrated by everybody's favorite mysterious fairy, Tinker Bell, and incorporates many of the events from the original, but at the end of the day it's very much Tiger Lily's story.

And in many ways, I loved it. This Tiger Lily is sharp and smart and desperate and unruly. She's all but incapable of "playing it cool" or acting like she cares less than she does, and she finds it difficult to be the demure lady that the rest of her tribe expects her to be. She falls for Peter despite being promised in marriage to an older man in the tribe and despite the fact that Peter and his Lost Boys are legendary for their brutality and ruthlessness. However, the Lost Boys that she meets are much different than the ones she's been described. They're boys; they're messy and loud and friendly and more human than she was expecting. And Tiger Lily quickly falls in with them -- with their games and their underground home and she fits into the dynamic so completely. But of course it can't be as simple as Tiger Lily and Peter falling in love, of Tiger Lily finding a place she belongs and people she belongs with. There has to be some trouble and Tiger Lily delivers it in spades. From Giant (the man Tiger Lily's supposed to marry), to Tiger Lily's cross-dressing father, to the Englisher who's causing trouble in the tribe and in Neverland, there's more than enough friction between everybody, and more than enough obstacles in the way of Tiger Lily and Peter.

Many of the most important plot points happen pretty late in the story (as is sort of a trademark of Jodi Lynn Anderson's slow, meandering writing style) and I don't want to spoil them except to say that there are some surprising things here. Some horribly sad things that change, in little ways, the trajectory of the story. But it's okay. Because as sad as Tiger Lily is, it's also not, which sounds confusing. But really, like all the best YA novels, there's an unmistakable lining of hope and happiness in this one.

However, Tiger Lily does change some fairly important parts of the original tale, beginning with the fact that in this version Tiger Lily isn't an indian princess, but instead the daughter of the tribe's medicine man. That's a fairly small change though; there are much larger deviations from the original story, and if this weren't such a beautiful story the changes from the original story might have been a deal breaker for me. But, for the most part, Anderson pulls it off. And while this book builds slowly once it hits its stride, it really hits its stride. While the book wasn't perfect, my mostly-minor complaints are pretty spoilerific and for the most part I loved it. It's a heart-tugging, angst-ridden love story with a complex and feisty heroine at the center. So great.

Love and Peaches and Troubles

I'd managed to forget much of the events in Love and Peaches between the first time I read it and this reread. I still remembered the stuff about Murphy's dad and Birdie and Enrico's broken engagement, but a lot of Leeda's story had been forgotten.

There are thing in this series I don't like. As with most series, things don't end up exactly the way I wanted them to and while I loved how Leeda ended up and was surprised but happy about Birdie's ending, her breakup with Enrico made me sad and Murphy's ending was one I really didn't care for, probably because her and Rex were just one of those pairings I just never really "got." This book was very much about coming to terms with the past and facing the future -- each of the girl's stories highlighted this in some way. Birdie with the orchard. Leeda with her grandmom's letters. Murphy with Rex and the identity of her dad. And all three girls finding a place they fit and finding a way to be happy.

It strikes me that in large ways this series as a whole is really, really sad. Full of impossible relationships, family tension, and characters who think they know what they want but don't even really know who they are. Things end nicely, but in a way that doesn't altogether seem to fit with the rest of the series. I still love this series. It's one of my favorites, so full of beautiful, lush writing, huge emotions, and well-developed characters that I relate to in different ways.

Here's a quote that pretty well sums up much of the problems in the book(s):

What worried her [Leeda], sometimes, was that she had never been able to capture the feeling of being completely real. (Love and Peaches, pg. 106)

The Mixed Experience of Rereading The Secrets of Peaches

There are a few spoilery thing in this post. So just be aware.


In rereading The Secrets of Peaches, it took quite a while for me to fall into the story and be reminded of just why it is that I love this whole series so much. This book, at least in the first half-ish, moves much faster than the first book and Anderson's incredibly lush writing takes a backseat during this time as so much happens with Birdie's family and her relationship with Enrico, Leeda and her mother, and Murphy's boyfriend (Rex) and plans to escape to NYU. I was frustrated quite a bit with Murphy and Leeda during this installment and was very glad when things started falling into place once again, falling into the familiar rhythms that I loved from the first book. Still, The Secrets of Peaches is very much a book about things falling apart -- Murphy and her plans, Murphy and Leeda, Birdie's family, Leeda herself -- than it is about things being put back together. And I feel like the only way to talk about this book is to maybe just list the things I liked and didn't like:

Murphy - LIKE. But I got annoyed with her even though I understood why she made the decisions she made. She's pretty manipulative here, and even if it was sort of a defense mechanism so she wouldn't end up (more) hurt, it still really bugged me. I love that Birdie called her out on how cruel she can be.

Leeda - UM. I like Leeda. I love Leeda. Everything with her mom is so harsh and painful in this book. Leeda's whole Ice Queen routine got old though, and like with Murphy I just wanted her to show that she had feelings.

Birdie - LIKE. Birdie is just the best in this book. I just love her.

Murphy and Rex - DIDN'T LIKE. I don't really remember what I thought of these two the first time I read the books, but this time around I just found myself so not caring. Rex is the sort of bland character that I just can't muster up much feeling for. He's supposed to be this really great guy and in some ways he is, but mostly he's just like BLAH and his relationship with Murphy being portrayed as true love never really hit home with me.

Leeda and her mother - LIKE. As much as I hate Leeda's mom, their storyline in this book was all but perfect.

Birdie and Enrico - LIKE. Honestly, it wasn't until a good way through the book -- when Birdie goes to visit Enrico and his family in Mexico -- that I realized how much I love these two. They're quietly perfect for each other.

This is a quiet book and it's part of a quiet series, but the emotions and decisions within it are so huge and so real. I think reading it now I have a different perspective than I did the first time I read it, even though it was only four years ago. I think I see more easily how immature these characters act at certain points during the story and even though it makes sense I still found myself wanting them to just fix things already. For a huge part of the book Leeda and Murphy are fighting and I kept wanting to yell at Leeda to just talk to Murphy and stop avoiding her, but at the same time their stand-offish fight was so real and heartbreaking that even when I didn't like how they were acting, it made sense to me in a weird sort of way. It might not be how I would act (or at least, not how I'd want to act), but I understood why they would.

There was nothing [in the notebook] about the times that Murphy and Leeda hadn't liked each other, when they had still been mostly strangers. There was nothing about the times they had wounded each other or broken each other's hearts. (The Secrets of Peaches, pg. 156)

The Beauty of Peaches

Since my May reread is the entire Peaches series by Jodi Lynn Anderson, I've decided to do a post for each book. I've just finished the first in the series, Peaches, and it strikes me that for years I've been comparing these books to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and while there are some obvious similarities, there are also some pretty glaring differences that I forgot about. First of all Peaches isn't a summer book. I mean, it is, but it's also not. The story begins at the start of spring and winds its way all the way to the end of that summer. Second, and most importantly, the three girls at the center of Peaches aren't the sort of friends that the Sisterhood is. They don't begin as friends, but as (mostly) strangers. This first book is the story of them finding each other, finding that special sort of friendship that they'd been missing their whole lives, and also of beginning to figure out who they are. Growing up. Coming into themselves a bit. And though the girls fit neatly into labeled boxes -- the slacker, the rich girl, and the quiet one -- they are bigger and more complex than those labels right from the beginning. Their personalities are not nearly as simple or clear-cut as a summary of the book would have you believe. Additionally, Anderson's writing style is absolutely beautiful. The way she tells the story, the way her words work together, is like the perfect Southern drawl or the perfect long summer day. It's lazy, wandering, and just brilliant.

And I don't know what there is to say about this book. It's so layered and so wonderful. This is a book so completely ripe with setting and reading it again just pulled me right back in. To the Darlington Peach Orchard, to Leeda, Birdie, and Murphy, to the wandering descriptions and slow-burning epiphanies that sprinkle the pages. I've highlighted quite a bit in this book, but a couple of passages in particular offer the best of this book.

This quote takes place (minor spoiler) as Murphy is watching Birdie Darlington try to start fires in order keep the peach trees in the struggling orchard alive through the coming frost:

Murphy knew there was no use searching herself for the cynicism that would make it seem distant and dark instead of raw and terrible. Birdie was trying to save her home single-handedly, and there was no way she could. (pg. 99) 

And this is just one of my absolute favorite lines:

And the rain sounded like it was washing the whole world away. (pg. 283)

Top 10: Series

I promised more top 10 lists, didn't I? Well, starting from the top I'm going to be tackling the topics over at Random Ramblings Top Ten Picks meme. (When I come up with more of my own topics, I'll post those, too. I'm such a sucker for top 10 lists.)

1. Baby-Sitters Club, by Ann M. Martin. It's not the most consistent, not the best writing, not the best anything, but it is one of my great literary loves. It was the first series I was hooked on that wasn't somehow, in some way, related to school. These were my trashy novels (ha!), the books my mother disapproved of, the characters I couldn't quite believe and still loved. The BSC was my obsession and, like so many of my obsessions, I haven't quite gotten over it yet.
2. Luxe, by Anna Godberson. Despite the fact that the last book in the series, SPLENDOR, was the single most disappointing book of my young life, I love this series. It's incredible. Though it's been compared numerous times to Gossip Girl, there's a certain flair here, a spark that only comes with really, really great books. There are lines in these novels that struck such a chord with me when I read them and continue to hit close to home long after. The characters here, their lives and choices and how the story unfolds is just amazing.
3. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, by Ann Brashares. Come on. It's sort of iconic, right?
4. Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket. One of the most inventive, imaginative series out there. This is the type of series that the first time you discover it, the first time you read the books, is pure magic and though it never seems quite the same in subsequent readings, that magic, wonderful feeling stays. The feeling of discovering something amazing, something completely different.
5. Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins. MOCKINGJAY might just be the best YA novel I've ever read and on the whole I loved the entire journey from heart-aching beginning to the painful end. Collins is a master of world-building and setting, and as a result this is one of the best series out there.
6. Suite Scarlett, by Maureen Johnson. Though this series isn't over yet, the books are definitely some of the most hilarious and crazyawesome that I've come across. It helps, of course, to have Spencer Martin (love!) as a main character, but it helps even more that Johnson's trademark internet-humor is here and even if the rest of the series was crap (it isn't) that alone would probably carry it.
7. Peaches, by Jodi Lynn Anderson. Less well-known than the traveling pants series, this is another story of friendship, love, and heartbreak. And though it's lower on the list, in a lot of ways I prefer it. The characters have less epic storylines, but the setting is so incredible, the character's growth is so real, and it's such a gem of a series that it's a bit sad it never got the large readership it deserved.
8. The Naughty List, by Suzanne Young. Another series that isn't finished yet, this is a funny, cute, cute series. Spies, cheerleaders, and skeezy boyfriends make for a winning series here. Seriously, reading these books is like eating a piece of pie. MADE OF RAINBOWS AND SUNSHINE.
9. Uglies trilogy, by Scott Westerfeld. One of the first dystopian series I read, it's an incredible and futuristic read. The characters are sharp, the world-building is sharper, and nothing here feels lacking.
10. Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer. Yes, seriously. Because as much as the last book sucked and as much as I hated Edward and thought his relationship with Bella was completely abusive, I loved the emotions of this book. And, yes, I loved Bella.