“Tiger Lily” by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Have you ever seen one of those hotel art show sales?  The pictures are lovely – the brushstrokes are all in the correct place.  But the paintings don’t move you.  They are pretty to look at, but that is about it.  That’s because art needs to transcend the medium.  It can’t just be “well done.”  It has to make you think, challenge you, engage you.  So it is with this book, which is perfectly well written, with nary a flaw, but not fabulous.  Ironically, I read this at a time when the third season of “Once Upon a Time” (OUAT) premiered and both the book and TV show have plots revolving around re-envisioning the Peter Pan story.  OUAT does it better.  In Anderson’s book, magic is virtually wiped out with the minor exception of “Tink,” a faerie who is the narrator of the story, and the odd fact that people who live on the island of Neverland don’t age past a certain point in their lives.  There is irony, too, in the narration given that faeries in this world are mute.  Tinkerbell weaves a love story between Tiger Lily and Peter, but it is a doomed tale, as we all know of one critical missing element there.  The novel is dark.  Hook is an old, weakened alcoholic; Smee is a serial killer; Tiger Lily’s intended husband is a rapist … etc.  I found myself aching for the book to simply be over.  With the magic and cheeriness and hope removed from it, this famous story is nothing but ugliness and despair.  There is also the question of whose story this is and what the book is really about.  From the eponymous title, one assumes that it is a familiar story told from Tiger Lily’s point of view.  But it is also is Tink’s tale.  Both characters fall in love, and both grow and change throughout the book – and don’t change to some degree, which leaves them in Neverland as others move on.  But it’s not a love story, either.  It’s mostly a diatribe describing the European subjugation of native peoples.  The whole thing is simply bleak.  By way of contrast, OUAT has made the Peter Pan story very dark (Peter is an absolute terror) but retains a heart of belief … the more you believe in magic, the more good is on your side and triumph is possible.  The one outstanding part of “Tiger Lily” is the prominent role of a transgender character … but, of course, that doesn’t end well, either.  Sorry for the fans out there, but I give this one a big “two thumbs down.”  In my quest to find any kind of faerie story I like, the score is now four-zip.  Anyone out there who has read a worthy tale of the little ones, do let me know.