Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .
Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.
Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.
With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.
Review: Jodi Lynn Anderson takes the story of Peter Pan and focuses on a character that no one pays much attention to. This story of Tiger Lily is both heart-breaking and exciting, as you discover that there is so much more to Tiger Lily than meets the eye. I fell in love with her. I wanted everything to go her way, for everything to work out in her favor. I bemoaned her inability to share her feelings with others, I was close to tears after what happened to her father, I tried to convince myself that everything would work out with Peter, and above all I wanted her to find happiness. She is a wild, free-spirited tomboy living in a community where almost everyone wants her to be more of a girl, and be more like how they think she should be. Tiger Lily must discover who she is, and figure out her relationship with her friends, her tribe, and, of course, Peter Pan. The author give back stories for some things (how Tinker Bell originally belonged to Tiger Lily, how the crocodile got the clock in his throat), and re-imagines certain characters: Captain Hook is an old man who becomes an alcoholic after his dreams of finding Neverland and staying young forever fail; Smee is a serial killer who kills those he admires, then sheds tears for them; the lost boys were captured by the pirates and then rescued by Peter Pan. I dislike Wendy, not only because of the hold she had over Peter, but also because she was one of those girls who can't imagine things not working out the way they want them to. She never thought the lost boys would be against her bossing them around, she never thought Peter and Tiger Lily could love each other, and she never thought that Peter could not love her, or love anyone other than her. The story is told from the first-person point of view of Tinker Bell. This allows the reader to get to know her, because in the movies she's a mute fleck of light, in this book she describes what she sees, and tells her thoughts. This POV also allows the reader to a deeper look into the characters because although Tink cannot speak, she can hear other people's thoughts. This is a bittersweet coming-of-age story in a land where no one ages.
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