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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
Judy Blume strikes gold again! In Tiger Eyes, high school Davey has to deal with the grief of losing her father suddenly and a mother who is having a very hard time coping. This is an excellent book that tackles a difficult topic an unfortunate number of young people have to experience for themselves.
A lovely story about coping with death & moving on. Another Blume classic x
This was a petty good book. Though i wanted more wolf and Tiger. The ending was okay. I kinda wanted to read more.
I had never read Tiger Eyes before. It was time to fix that! Judy Blume is awesome, as always. Davey isn't my favorite of the Blume female characters, but this book is a skillfully layered exploration of how people cope with grief in different ways.
Full review forthcoming on www.slatebreakers.com.
Full review forthcoming on www.slatebreakers.com.
I needed a short audiobook this week for listening while I worked on a few projects. I'd never read a Judy Blume Book before (I know! How?!), but I've been meaning to get around to it since finding the fantastic Blume Saloon podcast.
Can't say why I never read Blume when I was a kid. Her work seems like it would have been right in my wheelhouse. I couldn't get enough of books where teens did things that teens were not supposed to do. She treats the subjects with such care and nuance, I really wish I could go back in time and check them out.
I am so impressed by Blume's writing. The book is like 200 pages long and I feel like I know the main characters just as well as any contemporary YA that's twice or three times as long. Her friend (I forget her name already) may have been a little one dimensional, but I forgive it for what the rest of the book pulls off. The writing is spare compared to even some incredibly popular and acclaimed contemporary adult fiction, but it's so effective. I don't need to read through all of a conversation. I don't need to hear the way people greet one another before they start talking about whatever it is that's important to the plot. I don't need every detail of every day. She shows us what's essential and doesn't give away so much in exposition. I get why she's a master!
Her portrayal of Davey's grief for her father felt incredibly real and even grazed the surface of themes that we have better words for and more awareness of now (PTSD, depression) that I'm not used to seeing in writing, especially YA, from this era. I can't say for a fact that everything here holds up to scrutiny. There may have been a homophobic slur thrown in a later scene, but as I was listening I couldn't really go back to make sure. It wasn't so overtly glaring, or spoken at a time that you could really say that it goes unchallenged by the books overall message.
Can't say why I never read Blume when I was a kid. Her work seems like it would have been right in my wheelhouse. I couldn't get enough of books where teens did things that teens were not supposed to do. She treats the subjects with such care and nuance, I really wish I could go back in time and check them out.
I am so impressed by Blume's writing. The book is like 200 pages long and I feel like I know the main characters just as well as any contemporary YA that's twice or three times as long. Her friend (I forget her name already) may have been a little one dimensional, but I forgive it for what the rest of the book pulls off. The writing is spare compared to even some incredibly popular and acclaimed contemporary adult fiction, but it's so effective. I don't need to read through all of a conversation. I don't need to hear the way people greet one another before they start talking about whatever it is that's important to the plot. I don't need every detail of every day. She shows us what's essential and doesn't give away so much in exposition. I get why she's a master!
Her portrayal of Davey's grief for her father felt incredibly real and even grazed the surface of themes that we have better words for and more awareness of now (PTSD, depression) that I'm not used to seeing in writing, especially YA, from this era. I can't say for a fact that everything here holds up to scrutiny. There may have been a homophobic slur thrown in a later scene, but as I was listening I couldn't really go back to make sure. It wasn't so overtly glaring, or spoken at a time that you could really say that it goes unchallenged by the books overall message.
This was a reread from several years ago. Judy Blume is such a boss. She was writing stories about women and girls, identity, sexuality, grief and teenage-hood long before anyone thought to fictionalize those experiences for a mass market audience. She wasn't the first to do it, but she was one of the first. Her stories really stand the test of time.
"Tiger Eyes" is about 15-year-old Davey and her family after her father is shot in a robbery at the family's convenience store in Atlantic City. Reeling with grief, the family moves in with her aunt and uncle in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The themes of parent loss and the striking setting of the desert are so great. In New Mexico Davey begins to process her grief and meet new people, including Wolf, a young man with grief of his own. There are some romantic undertones between Davey and Wolf, despite her being 15 when they meet and he's 20....but it never gets questionable. The characters also talk about being gay in a way that has definitely not aged well. Not offense perse, but...offensive.
Other than that, this novel deals with grief and depression in such a direct, honest and compassionate way. This and "The Thing About Jellyfish" by Ali Benjamin are my favorite books about grief thus far. "Tiger Eyes" kind of straddles that line between middle grade and YA (we sell it as YA at the store) but another great book on grief that is mature YA-adult fiction would be "My Sister's Bones" by Cathi Hanauer. All feature teenage girls coming of age and dealing with grief/trauma, sexuality and family relationships. If you're in the market for a book like that, there's my hand sell.
New Mexico and Judy Blume are the shit. -- Wynne Kontos -- Michael Scott
"Tiger Eyes" is about 15-year-old Davey and her family after her father is shot in a robbery at the family's convenience store in Atlantic City. Reeling with grief, the family moves in with her aunt and uncle in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The themes of parent loss and the striking setting of the desert are so great. In New Mexico Davey begins to process her grief and meet new people, including Wolf, a young man with grief of his own. There are some romantic undertones between Davey and Wolf, despite her being 15 when they meet and he's 20....but it never gets questionable. The characters also talk about being gay in a way that has definitely not aged well. Not offense perse, but...offensive.
Other than that, this novel deals with grief and depression in such a direct, honest and compassionate way. This and "The Thing About Jellyfish" by Ali Benjamin are my favorite books about grief thus far. "Tiger Eyes" kind of straddles that line between middle grade and YA (we sell it as YA at the store) but another great book on grief that is mature YA-adult fiction would be "My Sister's Bones" by Cathi Hanauer. All feature teenage girls coming of age and dealing with grief/trauma, sexuality and family relationships. If you're in the market for a book like that, there's my hand sell.
New Mexico and Judy Blume are the shit. -- Wynne Kontos -- Michael Scott
I read this book on the plane on the way back from Italy. BAD IDEA. I was blubbering (funny!) all the way through the flight and desperately trying to hide my tears from the tattoo laden man to my right. Needless to say, this book touched me. I have close friends who have been through this kind of thing and they all described similar feelings to those of the lead character in this book. I felt it was spot on with how grief manifests itself and didn't make the lead character unlikeable or annoying, but sweet and suffering. At her core, she still wanted to do things young girls do and she still wanted to smile, but it was difficult for her with the constant sense of loss hanging over her.
I love this book and I think a teen me would have named it her favourite.
I love this book and I think a teen me would have named it her favourite.
I really enjoyed this novel. It was recommended to me by my sister and my girlfriend, and I could understand why they thought I would like it. And for the most part I did. The novel felt very real, and it dealt with the very real difficulty of losing someone you love and trying to get closure from that and eventually move on with your life, and how different people grieve in very different ways.
I loved Davey as a character - I felt like I could relate to her the most. Her little brother was so adorable and I just wanted to hug them both. It is a super hard thing to literally have your mother pick up your life and drop you in this town where you don’t know anyone.
Speaking of Davey’s mother - she pissed me off so much. I understood why she basically shut down over the loss of her husband, but that is no excuse to disrupt your children’s lives when they’ve already been through so much, and basically check out as a mom and have two relatives take over the parenting of your children. It is your job to be there for your children, to be their rock and to show them that there is still some normalcy in their lives.
I loved Davey as a character - I felt like I could relate to her the most. Her little brother was so adorable and I just wanted to hug them both. It is a super hard thing to literally have your mother pick up your life and drop you in this town where you don’t know anyone.
Speaking of Davey’s mother - she pissed me off so much. I understood why she basically shut down over the loss of her husband, but that is no excuse to disrupt your children’s lives when they’ve already been through so much, and basically check out as a mom and have two relatives take over the parenting of your children. It is your job to be there for your children, to be their rock and to show them that there is still some normalcy in their lives.
Still my favourite Judy Blume book. Not perfect, because there are two or three un-pc moments that are disappointing even given that it was published in 1982... but overall Tiger Eyes deals with loss, change, and growing up in a way that many recent YA books haven't managed.