The word choice stood out to me sometimes and felt a little awkward here and there like it was trying too hard to be poetic or something, but there were a few quotes I really liked. The writing was good though it wasn’t my favorite. There were a few cute scenes between Peter Pan and Tiger Lily but not enough to make me really love this book. Honestly, the whole book felt a little preachy.

It felt like the plot just kind of dragged along with an ending that kind of baffled me. I personally like my retellings to have new twists otherwise what is the point of the retelling? I’m not really sure what the overall conflict even was. I also felt like there was nothing new or interesting added to this retelling of Peter Pan. It’s kind of a tired plot line to have new people come and mess everything up for the indigenous people. The plot felt very been there done that in the way that Avatar was. If you’re curious the reason some people don’t get old is because it just happens when something important happens in your life for no logical reason whatsoever. There’s also a poorly explained excuse for why some people get old and some people don’t. A few magical elements remain like fairies and mermaids but they felt very flat and unoriginal. I didn’t think it was possible to make Neverland so completely boring. Take the beautiful, imaginary world of Neverland and make it a literal place where everything is messy and covered in dirt and that is the uninteresting world where Tiger Lily is set. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell. Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings.

Tiger lily by jodi lynn anderson