Surviving Tiger Lily by Mandy Nachampassack-Maloney

The plot gradually ropes in all the familiar characters in new ways, and it was the mystery of what was happening to Neverland, more than anything else, that kept me turning pages. In a sea of retellings, Surviving Tiger Lily is a fresh take, and I really love the direction Nachampassack-Maloney goes with her story. It’s strong in plot and storytelling, and the world-building is more elaborate and original than we usually get from adaptations, which by nature often rely on a world and characters we’re already familiar with. What a first line, right? I gravitate toward Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland retellings, and I wouldn’t discourage anyone interested in the former category from picking this up. Trigger warnings: character death (on-page), child/sibling death, violence, severe injury/illness, some animal torture, alcoholism, grief. I received a free e-ARC from the author through NetGalley. Somehow, it all ties in to Captain Hook, Peter Pan, and the traitorous fairy, Tinker Bell, and Tiger Lily will have to risk losing everything if she’s going to avenge her sister and save her people and her home. Neverland was once a timeless place, but people are now aging and dying more rapidly than ever before. Tiger Lily sets out to track it across the forest, deserts, and beaches of Neverland, but the closer she gets, the more she realizes that there’s more at work here than one animal. The Neversabre is the ultimate predator, but it doesn’t usually attack people. Mourning the death of her younger sister, Ashtara, Tiger Lily vows to avenge her by hunting the creature that killed her.

'The day I laid my baby sister to rest was the day I started hunting Peter Pan.

Surviving Tiger Lily by Mandy Nachampassack-Maloney