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cosmicpages's review against another edition
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Young Readers for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. A big thank you for the invitation to participate in the blog tour for Tigers, Not Daughters as well!
Tigers, Not Daughters is a beautifully powerful story that centers on the love and loss among the four Torres sisters: Ana, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa. After a tragic night in which Ana falls to her death from her bedroom window, the younger sisters must each deal with their grief in their own ways. Jessica tries to gather the broken pieces of the family and take on the role of caregiver to everyone, including their less than helpful father. Iridian withdraws into her novels and her writing, haunted by the guilt of her last conversation with Ana. Rosa wanders the town looking for any little creature in need of her help, following the clues she believes will bring her back to Ana's soul in the form of an escaped zoo animal.
With a dash of magical realism in the form of Ana's ghost, this novel takes a dark twisted turn as you learn more throughout the story of what led to the sisters attempting to run away and Ana's eventual untimely death. With Ana haunting their home, the sisters believe at first that Ana wants them leave and live separate lives, but in the end they learn that all Ana ever wanted was to keep them together and safe.
The side characters definitely push this novel into the 4 star range for me. Peter especially. What a sweetheart! I was rooting for a Peter/Jessica relationship from the very first scene we see them in. I'm so happy that in the end Jessica was finally free from John the abusive s***head boyfriend of hers.
The major themes I've taken away from this novel is that of love, family bonds, grief in its many forms, and the strength that young women can have among tragedy. This fast-paced unforgettable read is amazing and I'd highly recommend it to everyone!
Tigers, Not Daughters is a beautifully powerful story that centers on the love and loss among the four Torres sisters: Ana, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa. After a tragic night in which Ana falls to her death from her bedroom window, the younger sisters must each deal with their grief in their own ways. Jessica tries to gather the broken pieces of the family and take on the role of caregiver to everyone, including their less than helpful father. Iridian withdraws into her novels and her writing, haunted by the guilt of her last conversation with Ana. Rosa wanders the town looking for any little creature in need of her help, following the clues she believes will bring her back to Ana's soul in the form of an escaped zoo animal.
With a dash of magical realism in the form of Ana's ghost, this novel takes a dark twisted turn as you learn more throughout the story of what led to the sisters attempting to run away and Ana's eventual untimely death. With Ana haunting their home, the sisters believe at first that Ana wants them leave and live separate lives, but in the end they learn that all Ana ever wanted was to keep them together and safe.
The side characters definitely push this novel into the 4 star range for me. Peter especially. What a sweetheart! I was rooting for a Peter/Jessica relationship from the very first scene we see them in. I'm so happy that in the end Jessica was finally free from John the abusive s***head boyfriend of hers.
The major themes I've taken away from this novel is that of love, family bonds, grief in its many forms, and the strength that young women can have among tragedy. This fast-paced unforgettable read is amazing and I'd highly recommend it to everyone!
soqhie29's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
helterskelliter's review against another edition
4.0
“Was it possible for a house to be abandoned and still have four people living in it?” (101)
The Torres sisters haven’t been okay since their eldest sister, Ana, died a year ago. She was pushed or she fell or she jumped from her bedroom window. No one’s quite sure exactly what happened to Ana, beautiful and brave Ana who always had one eye on her sisters and the other towards the sky. Loving and longing.
Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa desperately miss their sister. They miss the sister who tried to help them escape from their abusive father, the sister who never backed down from their father’s anger, the sister who probably they never really knew. How could she have left them on their own? How could they not protect her?
Jessica mourns the sister she always wanted to emulate, wearing Ana’s clothes and dating her former boyfriend. Iridian regrets that last words she spit at her older sister, ashamed and sorry for the things she doesn’t believe could ever be forgiven even if Ana were still alive. Rosa longs to find the ghost of Ana, to receive and honor her sister’s dying wish for them all.
This is an unexpectedly moving story about processing grief and working through guilt, emotions that trauma can complicate and distort into shame and regret. The Torres sisters are haunted by not just their sister but by all the choices they never made and by the choices taken from them. Ana’s sad and unknowable hurt becomes this ache for each sister that manifests in different ways.
As each sister comes to terms with Ana’s death and with the trauma of her life, they must face their own hurts they’ve hidden away from themselves and each other. It’s only be working together that they will be able to overcome their pain and let Ana go.
Really eerie and mysterious, this book is a great choice for someone who likes a haunting with purpose. Or, for someone who believes that the scariest ghosts are the hurts we let grow in ourselves.
Definitely recommend!
The Torres sisters haven’t been okay since their eldest sister, Ana, died a year ago. She was pushed or she fell or she jumped from her bedroom window. No one’s quite sure exactly what happened to Ana, beautiful and brave Ana who always had one eye on her sisters and the other towards the sky. Loving and longing.
Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa desperately miss their sister. They miss the sister who tried to help them escape from their abusive father, the sister who never backed down from their father’s anger, the sister who probably they never really knew. How could she have left them on their own? How could they not protect her?
Jessica mourns the sister she always wanted to emulate, wearing Ana’s clothes and dating her former boyfriend. Iridian regrets that last words she spit at her older sister, ashamed and sorry for the things she doesn’t believe could ever be forgiven even if Ana were still alive. Rosa longs to find the ghost of Ana, to receive and honor her sister’s dying wish for them all.
This is an unexpectedly moving story about processing grief and working through guilt, emotions that trauma can complicate and distort into shame and regret. The Torres sisters are haunted by not just their sister but by all the choices they never made and by the choices taken from them. Ana’s sad and unknowable hurt becomes this ache for each sister that manifests in different ways.
As each sister comes to terms with Ana’s death and with the trauma of her life, they must face their own hurts they’ve hidden away from themselves and each other. It’s only be working together that they will be able to overcome their pain and let Ana go.
Really eerie and mysterious, this book is a great choice for someone who likes a haunting with purpose. Or, for someone who believes that the scariest ghosts are the hurts we let grow in ourselves.
Definitely recommend!
cafeyre's review against another edition
4.0
A strong story about sisterly love that lost their way after they lost one of them. They grow apart and drown in their own problems. In the first part of the book, we can get to know them separately. Jessica cannot accept that her favorite big sister is gone, she feels angry all the time and tries to live the life her sister lived. She takes her room, wears her clothes, even starts dating her ex-boyfriend just to feel closer to her sister. Iridian is a strange character. She seems to be far away from reality. She lives in her own world of words and doesn’t leave her house even if she seems to hate it. Rosa is a soft and nature-loving person who spends most of the time to look for answers. Their lives go on until the ghost of their lost sister appears in their house. She makes their life even harder than it is already and they cannot understand what the message is she trying to send.
The book is very dark, so it leaves goosebumps on your skin while reading it. It contains a subject like abuse behavior, deep depression, and addictions. The book would be very boring if it wouldn’t contain the fragment of the haunted house. However, the part that was the best in the books was how special were all the sisters. They saw the world in a completely another way than most people do. I think that the book was mostly led by Jessica and we didn’t get to know Iridian and Rosa as much as her, but the author gave us enough to understand their personalities and portion of the story.
The ending of the book was unexpected and amazing. I feel like an author was leading us into thinking that together with the story, lives of girls will be more and more miserable but thankfully the plot changed and gave them what they really deserved.
In the book, we met two characters that were destroying Torres sisters’ lives: their father and Josh (Jessica’s boyfriend). Sometimes I felt bad for their father because it must be so hard to lose a wife and then also a daughter but as the book goes, I understood that he was one of the villains, not a victim. The way he treated his daughters and ruined their lives was unacceptable, but the worst thing that really moved me was the way he treated Iridian. However, Josh isn’t any better. He’s abusing and controlling Jessica every time he gets close to her. I couldn’t understand how she could just stand and let him do what he wanted with her. I think that it’s the part that shows how deeply depressed she was that she didn’t even care what is happening to her.
Thankfully, besides all of this, we also meet a character that brings hope to our hearts. Peter is a guy that works with Jessica at the pharmacy. He’s clearly trying to help her to get through all of what happens in her life from the beginning and she also sees it. Peter is a sweet boy that wants to be a superhero that will save a girl that he’s in love with. Even if at the beginning he can’t even make her talk to him, they become much closer with the time Jessica realizes that it’s the time to change the way she lives.
I would like to thank Netgalley, Algonquin Young Readers, and Algonquin Young Readers for providing me a copy of this book. I enjoyed this book a lot and I’m happy to share it to other book lovers.
The book is very dark, so it leaves goosebumps on your skin while reading it. It contains a subject like abuse behavior, deep depression, and addictions. The book would be very boring if it wouldn’t contain the fragment of the haunted house. However, the part that was the best in the books was how special were all the sisters. They saw the world in a completely another way than most people do. I think that the book was mostly led by Jessica and we didn’t get to know Iridian and Rosa as much as her, but the author gave us enough to understand their personalities and portion of the story.
The ending of the book was unexpected and amazing. I feel like an author was leading us into thinking that together with the story, lives of girls will be more and more miserable but thankfully the plot changed and gave them what they really deserved.
In the book, we met two characters that were destroying Torres sisters’ lives: their father and Josh (Jessica’s boyfriend). Sometimes I felt bad for their father because it must be so hard to lose a wife and then also a daughter but as the book goes, I understood that he was one of the villains, not a victim. The way he treated his daughters and ruined their lives was unacceptable, but the worst thing that really moved me was the way he treated Iridian. However, Josh isn’t any better. He’s abusing and controlling Jessica every time he gets close to her. I couldn’t understand how she could just stand and let him do what he wanted with her. I think that it’s the part that shows how deeply depressed she was that she didn’t even care what is happening to her.
Thankfully, besides all of this, we also meet a character that brings hope to our hearts. Peter is a guy that works with Jessica at the pharmacy. He’s clearly trying to help her to get through all of what happens in her life from the beginning and she also sees it. Peter is a sweet boy that wants to be a superhero that will save a girl that he’s in love with. Even if at the beginning he can’t even make her talk to him, they become much closer with the time Jessica realizes that it’s the time to change the way she lives.
I would like to thank Netgalley, Algonquin Young Readers, and Algonquin Young Readers for providing me a copy of this book. I enjoyed this book a lot and I’m happy to share it to other book lovers.
tess1209's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
angelsbookstaloves's review against another edition
2.0
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Okay, so, where to start? Well. I thought this was fantastic. I loved the narrator, his voice was very clear and I could understand everything he was saying, even at 3x speed! I ended up listening to this in one sitting because I was very interested to see where the story would go.
I was very intrigued by the plot and thought the writing style was pretty good! I loved that it was a quite a quick read and there wasn't any parts that I felt slowed it down.
The only reason I ended up rating it 4 stars instead of five was because; one, I'm starting to use CAWPILE to rate books now. And two, there was one scene in the book that did make me quite uncomfortable.
But other than that, this book was absolutely amazing and I really enjoyed it! I can't wait to see what happens in book two.
I want to say thank you to Libro.fm for accepting me into their ALC Program!
Author: Samantha Mabry (IG: @samantha_mabry_tx) (Twitter: @samanthamabry)
Narrator: Luis Moreno
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers (Twitter: @algonquinYR) (IG: @algonquinyr)
#librofm @librofm
Release Date: March 24, 2020
Get the book:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1616208961/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_i_jT8DEbYNJP1VZ
Barnes & Noble: https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/tigers-not-daughters-samantha-mabry/1132107962?ean=9781616208967
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Tigers-Not-Daughters-Samantha-Mabry/9781616208967?ref=grid-view&qid=1584909384504&sr=1-2
Indiebound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781616208967
Okay, so, where to start? Well. I thought this was fantastic. I loved the narrator, his voice was very clear and I could understand everything he was saying, even at 3x speed! I ended up listening to this in one sitting because I was very interested to see where the story would go.
I was very intrigued by the plot and thought the writing style was pretty good! I loved that it was a quite a quick read and there wasn't any parts that I felt slowed it down.
The only reason I ended up rating it 4 stars instead of five was because; one, I'm starting to use CAWPILE to rate books now. And two, there was one scene in the book that did make me quite uncomfortable.
But other than that, this book was absolutely amazing and I really enjoyed it! I can't wait to see what happens in book two.
I want to say thank you to Libro.fm for accepting me into their ALC Program!
Author: Samantha Mabry (IG: @samantha_mabry_tx) (Twitter: @samanthamabry)
Narrator: Luis Moreno
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers (Twitter: @algonquinYR) (IG: @algonquinyr)
#librofm @librofm
Release Date: March 24, 2020
Get the book:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1616208961/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_i_jT8DEbYNJP1VZ
Barnes & Noble: https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/tigers-not-daughters-samantha-mabry/1132107962?ean=9781616208967
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Tigers-Not-Daughters-Samantha-Mabry/9781616208967?ref=grid-view&qid=1584909384504&sr=1-2
Indiebound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781616208967
kblincoln's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars, actually.
For all the writing and narrative as good as any of Oprah's Book Club picks, and the alluding to King Lear with a decrepit father surrounded by lost and vibrant daughters (not to mention a nifty "greek chorus" trope of boys across the Torres' street observing the family), and the author's dance along the edge of magical realism without slipping to far down one side of reality vs fantasy, this one didn't grip me as it should have.
Part of what didn't work for me might have been the short chapters, the fragmented time sense at the start of the book, and anger at the pitiful frailty of the grieving father, his constant choice to be passive and demeaning towards his daughters. And that, in itself, might not be a fair review since his character affected me so much, it speaks more to the power of the writing than my dissatisfaction.
It might also be that the girls, almost all of them, despite this deeply cracked and faulty man as their role model, turned to men to help: whether it was dream, magical Rosa looking for her hyena holding genial Walter Mata's hand in church, or fierce Jessica, trying desperately to be her dead sister exposing herself to abuse and then turning to another boy to fight her abuser until she could gain the courage herself, or Iridian, running to the house of the greek chorus of boys when frightened by a ghost.
So maybe after all this story did grip me, maybe because it was so uncomfortable that I couldn't read it for more than a little at a time. Ana's absence, the death of their beloved older sister, is such a gaping wound in the lives of each sister, that it is hard to bide with them for too long. Only Rosa, the sister most open to the numinous, to the possible return of Ana in her various forms, is bearable for her willingness to act, to live, to *fight* for her sisters.
Stylistically and at a prose-level, this book is beautiful. As a too harsh mirror of human frailty, it's uncomfortable. Your mileage may vary.
For all the writing and narrative as good as any of Oprah's Book Club picks, and the alluding to King Lear with a decrepit father surrounded by lost and vibrant daughters (not to mention a nifty "greek chorus" trope of boys across the Torres' street observing the family), and the author's dance along the edge of magical realism without slipping to far down one side of reality vs fantasy, this one didn't grip me as it should have.
Part of what didn't work for me might have been the short chapters, the fragmented time sense at the start of the book, and anger at the pitiful frailty of the grieving father, his constant choice to be passive and demeaning towards his daughters. And that, in itself, might not be a fair review since his character affected me so much, it speaks more to the power of the writing than my dissatisfaction.
It might also be that the girls, almost all of them, despite this deeply cracked and faulty man as their role model, turned to men to help: whether it was dream, magical Rosa looking for her hyena holding genial Walter Mata's hand in church, or fierce Jessica, trying desperately to be her dead sister exposing herself to abuse and then turning to another boy to fight her abuser until she could gain the courage herself, or Iridian, running to the house of the greek chorus of boys when frightened by a ghost.
So maybe after all this story did grip me, maybe because it was so uncomfortable that I couldn't read it for more than a little at a time. Ana's absence, the death of their beloved older sister, is such a gaping wound in the lives of each sister, that it is hard to bide with them for too long. Only Rosa, the sister most open to the numinous, to the possible return of Ana in her various forms, is bearable for her willingness to act, to live, to *fight* for her sisters.
Stylistically and at a prose-level, this book is beautiful. As a too harsh mirror of human frailty, it's uncomfortable. Your mileage may vary.
samantaned's review against another edition
3.0
RATING: 3.25/5 stars
A solid 3 star read. Nothing too exceptional that blew me away, but still a very solid story of sisterhood and family grief. What drew me to this book was the title, King Lear being one of my favourite Shakespeare's works, and this book definitely delivered what I was looking for with this title.
A solid 3 star read. Nothing too exceptional that blew me away, but still a very solid story of sisterhood and family grief. What drew me to this book was the title, King Lear being one of my favourite Shakespeare's works, and this book definitely delivered what I was looking for with this title.
theseblankpages's review against another edition
4.0
A very lyrical read centred around the tragic lives of four sisters.
I've seen people compare it to "little women" and I can definitely see the resemblance. Both follow four sisters trying to navigate their difficult lives, but in 'Tigers, Not Daughters' one of them is a living ghost.
I've seen people compare it to "little women" and I can definitely see the resemblance. Both follow four sisters trying to navigate their difficult lives, but in 'Tigers, Not Daughters' one of them is a living ghost.