I have had this book on my Goodreads to read list for-ever, so I was really excited to finally get around to reading it.
Tigerlily is an adaptation or re-telling if you like of the classic J.M Barrie tale Peter Pan.
Tigerlily book cover
This story rather than focusing on Peter is the story of Tigerlily the girl with the feather in her hair- told through the eyes of the infamous Tinkerbell.
Tinkerbell is a great narrator for the story, telling Tigerlily and Peter’s story though her own assertive and loyal eyes. Tinkerbell’s telling the story right before Wendy came to NeverLand and, this story is not of Peter’s love for Wendy but of his love for Tigerlily, Wendy comes later…
I went into this book thinking I was going to love it, so I suppose I set myself up for a bit of a fall.
Tink really is a great narrator but it’s the rest of the story that I find problematic. Because, the story is essentially a love affair between Peter and Tigerlily and, the characters were aged up which straight away lost some of the charm of the original tale for me.
(Peter, Tinkerbell and Wendy- 2003)
The whole point of Peter Pan is that he is the boy who never grows up but some how in Tigerlily all the magic of Peter and Neverland, the whole boyhood and childishness of the tale has been written away. In Tigerlily’s Neverland it’s a place were you stop ageing after the most significant moment in your life has passed so mothers can in fact look younger than their daughters and aging in referred to as a disease.
A great character, probably my favourite character in this book was the character of TickTock, Tigerlily’s adoptive father.
(Disney’s Tigerlily – 1953)
Tick Tick is described as a man who can not decide whether he is a man or a woman and has decided he will live as both. I found him an interesting and ultimately diverse character, and may have shed a tear or two for Tick Tock along the way.
Although there were good points I have to stand my by original conclusion Tigerlily is an interesting re-telling but I found that turning Peter Pan into a half starved emaciated teen struggling to survive in the harsh and ruthless Neverland took some magic out of the story.
Neverland became such a cold and callous place I began to wonder what a fairy like Tinkerbell was even doing there and, with Mr.Smee more menacing than Captain Hook I knew there was a problem.
All in all an interesting read for any Peter Pan fan but it just wasn’t for me.
The Musings of Chlo 