Book Review #69: Tigerheart by Peter David

Hello Dear Reader!

Welcome to my first book review in a while! This one is on a traditionally published book that features a unique twist on the classic Peter Pan story. The biggest twist would be that the main character isn’t Peter! But before I get into that, here’s the back-cover summary (from Goodreads)

Paul Dear is a good and clever boy, doted on by a father who fills his son’s head with tall tales, thrilling legends, and talk of fairy-folk, and by a mother who indulges these fantastic stories and tempers them with common sense. But Paul is special in ways that even his adoring parents could never have imagined. For by day, in London’s Kensington Gardens, he walks and talks with the pixies and sprites and other magical creatures that dwell among the living–but are unseen by most. And at night in his room, a boy much like himself, yet not, beckons to Paul from the mirror to come adventuring. It’s a happy life for Paul, made all the more so by the birth of his baby sister.

But everything changes when tragedy strikes, and Paul concludes that there’s only one course of action he can take to dispel the darkness and make things right again. And like countless heroes before him, he knows that he must risk everything to save the day.

Thus begins a quest that will lead Paul down the city’s bustling streets, to a curio shop where a magical ally awaits him, and launches him into the starry skies, bound for a realm where anything is possible. Far from home, he will run with fierce Indian warriors, cross swords with fearsome pirates, befriend a magnificent white tiger, and soar beside an extraordinary, ageless boy who reigns in a boundless world of imagination.

Time for the review!

As I mentioned earlier, this book doesn’t follow the story of Peter Pan, who has been renamed The Boy, but of Paul Darling as he transitions from a happy life with his parents to a rather miserable one after the death of his little sister and the separation of his parents. After coming to the conclusion that his mother, who has become a shadow of herself since the death of her daughter, would return to her former self if she were to have a daughter, he sets himself on a mission to find a baby girl to become his new sister and the new daughter of the Darling family.

A smart and compassionate boy, Paul is level-headed and does his best to think and react reasonably to the people and environment around him. He likes giving people and various magical creatures the benefit of the doubt, and it was a pleasure seeing him mature from a scared boy to a brave lad worthy of the name Tigerheart.

Surrounding Paul is a familiar cast of characters who have been renamed. There is of course The Boy. Then, there is Gwenny who is this story’s version of Wendy, the lost boys, the Indians, and Fiddlefix, who is this version’s Tinkerbell. I absolutely loved how the villains were handled in this retelling of Peter Pan. Instead of a singular pirate villain, we get a sibling duo! Captain Hack, who is Captain Hook but with an axe on his arm, and his sister Captain Slash served as very clever and rather evil villains of this story, and I absolutely loved their dynamic and roles in this story.

The majority of the book takes place in the Anyplace, which is basically Neverland. It was just as magical and full of mysticism as the Neverland I remember in my childhood and then some! There is also a bit of added lore to what the Anyplace is, and I enjoyed reading about it. It applied just enough logic to how it exists and came to be, and exploring it all made me feel like a child again.

I absolutely loved this retelling, as it pays homage to the original Peter Pan story while also being its own original thing. I loved how it focuses on Paul and has The Boy as more of an important side character. It touches a lot on what it’s like being a child versus being an adult and how growing up can be both a good and bad thing. It has plenty of charm, and it had me feeling a lot of nostalgia the entire time I was reading it. There was also a really big reveal at the end that I wasn’t expecting, which I appreciate!

Though I absolutely loved the story and characters of Tigerheart, there was one thing that poked at me during my time with it. This story is basically told from the narrator’s point of view, and the story is treated like a stage play. As such, there are random times throughout the story where the narrator will go on, albeit relevant, tangents and deviate from the main storyline. I found myself sitting on the fence about this, as there were times where the tangents lasted longer than I liked. At the same time, though, it brought a different kind of engagement with the story. It’s definitely a hit-and-miss kind of storytelling choice, and I know if I was still I kid, I would’ve absolutely loved it.

So, Tigerheart rating:

4.5/5 and highly recommend if you like retellings of classic stories. This one was full of action with scenes that pulled on the heartstrings a little bit, and it definitely took me back to my childhood.

Thanks for reading!