wp-1584906350189.jpgToday I have a review of Tigers, Not Daughters by Samantha Mabry. Thank you to Algonquin Books for the invitation to the blog tour!

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 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.

My Thoughts:

I both read and listened to this beautiful book, and a big shout out to Libro.fm. for the gifted audio. It’s a fantastic narration.

The Torres family is complicated. Growing up in San Antonio, these four sisters lose their mother and resent their emotionless father. They experience tragedy again when one of the sisters, Ana, falls from her bedroom window and dies. She was trying to escape the home and her dad’s rules. As the girls and their father grieve, their lives become even more full of resentment and risk taking.

Samantha Mabry does an incredible job of helping the reader feel the emotions of these teen sisters. She also conveys the complexity in family dynamics. Mr. Torres was not a bad man and perhaps not an overall poor father, but he wasn’t exactly what these girls needed in their father either. It pulled on all my heartstrings and was thought-provoking.

Overall, Tigers, Not Daughters is an exceptionally-written, emotional young adult novel that will appeal to the YA and adult crowd alike. I cherished reading it and cannot wait to read more from the author.

I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

About the Author:

samantha was born four days before the death of john lennon. she grew up in dallas, playing bass guitar along to vinyl records in her bedroom after school, writing fan letters to rock stars, doodling song lyrics into notebooks, and reading big, big books.

she spends as much time as possible in the west texas desert.

A FIERCE AND SUBTLE POISON (Algonquin Young Readers, spring 2016) is her first novel.

Have you read Tigers, Not Daughters, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR