Here is what happens when your mother dies.
It’s the brightest day of summer and it’s dark outside. It’s dark in your house, dark in your room, and dark in your heart. You feel like the darkness is going to split you apart.
That’s how it feels for Tiger. It’s always been Tiger and her mother against the world. Then, on a day like any other, Tiger’s mother dies. And now it’s Tiger, alone.
Here is how you learn to make friends with the dark.
“You are carrying so many heavy feelings. There just isn’t enough room for them all.”
And I carry so many negative thoughts about this book but there isn't enough room on this blog post for that many words.
Ahh honestly I feel bad for disliking this because it talks about a very difficult topic - a death of a parent - and it's something that should be talked about, but I don't think this is the way to do it. This book felt like one of those John Green books that takes something serious (illness or death) and makes it something poetic, something ultra smart and deep teens talk about.
I'm not saying it was all bad. There were moments where I could see Tiger's pain but most of the time, I thought the author was just shoving it in my face, instead of letting me see it for myself. It's basically what book reviewers always say - showing instead of telling. The readers aren't dumb, we can understand what the character is going through without you constantly reminding us about what happened.
Now here are some specific things I disliked:
- Tiger saying she's "girl bug" approximately 102949873 times per a chapter - I mean we get it, you're this super deep girl who uses metaphors to describe her emotions
- other teens being "deep" as well and talking about intense topics in a too serious manner - half of the time I thought to myself "no one talks like this!!!"
- unrealistic side characters - there's this too cliche popular girl Lupe, and of course dark and mysterious guy Thaddeus (who luckily didn't become a love interest because that would be just too much) who offered "great life advice"
- rushed plot lines - the friendship with Thaddeus and (SPOILERS AHEAD) the whole plotline with the stepsister felt too rushed
- the names - please tell me if I'm crazy but I thought these names were ridiculous: Tiger, Cake, Thaddeus, Crash, Lupe, Shayna
All of the things above, but especially the names and "pretencious teen talk," make it seem like the author is screaming "my book is SO QUIRKY and so NOT like other books!!"
Ahh I have to stop being so negative....
Look, once you start a rant, you just can't stop 😂 Okay okay, I'll just say one more thing and then I'm gonna stop.
This girl, Tiger, also uses hashtags to describe her emotions and/or the current situation. Which, if I'm being honest, would be hillarious if it were a different type of book but in this case, it seems weird. Maybe if it were the only "weird" thing about her, I'd understand because grief and sadness makes us do weird things. But in Tiger's case, it seems like the author wanted the "full quirky manic pixie dream girl" packet and just gave her a bunch of "interesting" stuff to "do" and make her seem "different."
Now, here's a VERY short list of things I liked:
- her friendship with Cake - AMAZING, I loved how they were honest to each other and were always supportive even though they lived completely different lives
- the support Tiger got from adults around her - her neighbours, social service agents, her friends' parents, teachers and all the adults she met while living in different group homes/ foster homes were so nice and wanted to help Tiger as much as they could
Now onto the cover judginngggg
I like the colors and I like the fonts but what I think is unnecessary is this floating hairstyle? I guess they wanted to make a silouette of a girl but it just looks out of place. Other than that it's very simplistic, which I like, and gives of "sad vibes" which also fits. I'm just lucky they didn't pull a "Kafka move" and put a girl's face with a cockroach body on the cover bc of all the bug references 😂
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