Tigers, Not Daughters by Samantha Mabry

 

Tigers, Not Daughters by Samantha Marby is the story of the Torres sisters. Iridian, Jessica, and Rosa are grieving the death of their sister Ana while their only parent is an abusive alcoholic. We read from each of the sister's point of view, as well as from a group of boys who regularly hang out in the house next door to the Torres home. Each deals with Ana's loss in a different way and soon it seems like maybe Ana's haunting them. 

I thought this was hard to read. I find depictions of family violence to be the kind of thing that just make me really sad. And this book also portrays the inter-generational cycle of violence when one of the daughters starts dating an abusive partner, so it just hit a little too hard for me. I'm also finding it hard to write about this book because I was so immersed in its pain.  I think it's an interesting book, the writing was solid, but I'm not much in the mental space to evaluate it properly.

(Days later and I'm still depressed when I think about this book. You have been warned.)

3/5 stars

Lines of note:

Emotions were hard for Iridian. She liked to read about them in books, but hated when they crept and settled in her own bones. They made her edgy. They made her sweat. (page 17)

She understood why everyone liked Peter. Really, she did. He was the epitome of a good egg - the kind of person who carried jumper cables in his truck and helped strangers and was patient with old people. Jessica was a terrible, terribly judgmental, rude and selfish person, and, because of that, Peter and Peter's kindness made her feel every worse about herself than she already did. (page 68-69)

Iridian held her new notebook for a moment before flipping through the crisp, blank pages. Some were stuck together. They smelled beautiful, fresh like ink and chemicals. (page 160)