Happy Friday lovelies!
This was such a magical beautifully written coming-of-age story.
My Thoughts
Lyrical and magical. A compulsively readable tale of grief, growing up, and moving forward. Samantha Mabry’s stunning storytelling brought the Torres sisters to life on the pages of this book. This is the story of four sisters and how they cope after one of them dies. Jessica is strong, angry, and has the weight of the world on her shoulders. Iridian it’s quiet and timid, she’d rather be at home with her books then out in the real world. Rosa is sweet and caring with an unusual bond with the animals. All three sisters miss their oldest sister Anna terribly. Anna fell to her death crawling out her bedroom windows as the girls tried to escape their oppressive home life. When the sisters start to hear voices, see writing on the wall, and sense a presence in the room, they wonder what their sister Anna is trying to tell them. How do you keep living when your world falls apart?
Such a gorgeous story with so much heart and the perfect touch of magic. These girls do not live an easy life. Their mother has died and their father is useless. The story is real and raw and perhaps a little bleak, but there is always that little trace of hope. The audiobook is narrated by Luis Moreno and she brought the perfect unique voice to each of the sisters. The story is told from the perspectives of each of the sisters, and I really liked getting to know each of them. Rosa was definitely my favorite sister from the very beginning, but I have to say Jessica definitely grew on me through out the course of the book. This truly was the perfect blend of coming of age and magical realism.
This book in emojis 👭 👭 🐶 ✍🏻 💄 🎼
***Big thank you to Algonquin and libro.fm FM for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***
About the Book
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 eldest, falls to her death from her bedroom window. A year later, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa, are still consumed by grief and haunted by Ana’s memory when strange things start happening around the house: mysterious laughter, mysterious shadows, mysterious writing on the walls. Is Ana really haunting her sisters and trying to send them a message? And what exactly is she trying to say?
“Tigers, Not Daughters is a phrase from Shakespeare’sKing Lear,” says Mabry, author of three young adult novels now, and a community college writing and Latino literature teacher in Dallas. “In the play, it’s used as an insult, hurled by Albany at Lear’s selfish and disobedient daughters. When I recently heard that phrase spit out with such venom during a production, it struck me—how could I write a story in which this wasn’t an insult, but, in a way, praise? I’ve always been of the mind that some parents frankly deserve to be disobeyed, and I’m sure many young people would agree. And I’ve always been interested in tinkering with various sources of inspiration, such as stories that explore Latinx identity and the various forms of assimilation. I’ve very loosely based the dynamic of the Torres sisters on my mother’s often complicated relationship with her sisters, and on their experience of being a mostly English-speaking Mexican-American family with roots near the US-Mexico border.”
Part family drama, part ghost story, and part love story,TIGERS, NOT DAUGHTERS is a stunning follow-up to All the Wind in the World, firmly establishing Mabry as a novelist not-to-be-missed.
Advance Praise for TIGERS, NOT DAUGHTERS
“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)
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