Hello Everyone,
Welcome to the Tigers, not Daughters blog tour. I am excited to talk about this book. Even before I began reading the book, I was very curious to know the exact meaning of the title because it is a reference from King Lear ( I never read it) and it’s used as an insult, hurled by Albany at Lear’s selfish and disobedient daughters. This intrigued me more as the publisher sold this book as Little Women meets The Virgin Suicides. The novel is vicious and gorgeously crafted. The story is weave through the perspectives of four sisters pull in this paranormal magical story that explores the steadfast examination of grief, depression, and sisterhood.
The story explores sisterly love as it begins with the Torres (Ana, Iridian, Jessica, and Rosa living in a small miserable town they want to be free from. When one of the Torres sisters dies the family, they struggle with each of their own grief and depression, struggling with their own torments and healing as too protect each other. A year after the loss, strange uncanny events occur that become more disturbing and haunting. As the sisters are consumed with their own grief as they struggle to understand the hauntings and meaning behind them.
I enjoy the lyrical and honest writing style. It is a short novel of a half and half drama love story with a comforting touch of magical realism. Mabry writes how deep emotional response to multifaceted inner lives of sisterhood and a great loss is.
As much as I enjoy the book, I struggle with the execution of having multiple perspectives. It felt very tight and collided with how much time you have with each character; getting to know them. There was also an unnecessary interloper that I felt less inclined to feel a connection too.
Overall, I am impressed with Tigers, Not Daughters.This is the perfect novel for readers wanting to be introduced to magical realism, and those looking for books with Shakespearean inspiration and paranormal elements.
* Trigger warnings * loss, grief, alcohol and physical abuse.*
* Thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Young Readers for an egalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.*
Enjoy!
Tigers, Not Daughters
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published March 24th 2020
Algonquin Young Readers
4/5 Stars
In a stunning follow-up to her National Book Award-longlisted novel All the Wind in the World, Samantha Mabry weaves an aching, magical novel that is one part family drama, one part ghost story, and one part love story.
"Human hearts are very complicated. They can pull a person this way, then that. They can convince someone easy thingas are hard, or cloudy things are clear."
The Torres sisters dream of escape. Escape from their needy and despotic widowed father, and from their San Antonio neighborhood, full of old San Antonio families and all the traditions and expectations that go along with them. In the summer after her senior year of high school, Ana, the oldest sister, falls to her death from her bedroom window. A year later, her three younger sisters, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa, are still consumed by grief and haunted by their sister’s memory. Their dream of leaving Southtown now seems out of reach. But then strange things start happening around the house: mysterious laughter, mysterious shadows, mysterious writing on the walls. The sisters begin to wonder if Ana really is haunting them, trying to send them a message—and what exactly she’s trying to say. In a stunning follow-up to her National Book Award–longlisted novel All the Wind in the World, Samantha Mabry weaves an aching, magical novel that is one part family drama, one part ghost story, and one part love story.
Move over, Louisa May Alcott! Samantha Mabry has written her very own magical Little Women for our times. This is no family of tamed girls but a clan of fierce and fighting young women who will draw readers into their spell. A celebration of the bonds of sisterhood and of the ways we heal by reaching beyond our losses, our brokenness and fears to the love that holds and heals.”
–Julia Alvarez, author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
“A moody and unflinching examination of the gritty, tender and impossible parts of people that make them unforgettably whole. You don’t read Samantha Mabry’s books so much as experience them. Ferocious and gorgeously crafted. I loved it.”
–Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie
“A ghostly tale of revenge and the strength of the sisterly bond…The author adeptly portrays the claustrophobia of living in a small town and being under the watch of an overbearing patriarchal figure—in fact, the male gaze is the true enemy in this novel, and it's only when the young women join forces that they're able to break free of its oppressive ties. Mabry's (All the Wind in the World, 2017, etc.) third novel has echoes of The Virgin Suicides. The protagonists are Latinx. The evocative language and deft characterization will haunt—and empower—readers.”
–Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
“Borrowing elements of magical realism and Latinx folklore, this is a story that is often uncomfortable; in its quest to explore grief, family, and the traumas inflicted by each, it lays its characters utterly and unforgettably bare.”
–Booklist (Starred Review)
“Mabry speaks gracefully to the transformative power of grief and the often messy (even violent) road to letting go.”
–Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“Little Women meets The Virgin Suicides with a magical realist twist in this evocative and lovely novel… Similar to the March sisters, the Bennets in Pride and Prejudice, and the three sisters in King Lear... Mabry’s lyrical style weaves themes of sisterhood, death, and romance along with Shakespearean inspiration and paranormal elements to create something magical. This novel is sure to appeal to fans of Mabry’s other works, and could serve as an introduction to magical realism for those unfamiliar with the genre. An engaging, heartfelt exploration of the multifaceted inner lives of teen girls and sisterhood.”
–School Library Journal (Starred Review)
“This is a quietly searing tale of sisterly love and family secrets, of a grief so big it swallows its mourners up, blotting out the future and distorting the past…Mabry’s prose continues to be elegantly simple and profoundly evocative…an appealingly unsettling infusion of ambiguous faith and unexplained miracles.”
–Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (Starred Review)
“One of the most crucial voices in young adult literature.”
–Bustle
About the Author
Samantha Mabry credits her tendency toward magical thinking to her Grandmother Garcia, who would wash money in the kitchen sink to rinse off any bad spirits. She teaches writing and Latino literature at a community college in Dallas, where she lives with her husband, a historian, and a cat named Mouse. She is the author of A Fierce and Subtle Poison and All the Wind in the World.
Author Website: samanthamabry.com
Twitter: @samanthamabry
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Signing out,
Maddi