Tigers, Not Daughters tells the story of four sisters, one of whom tragically passed away a year prior to the setting of this story. The three remaining sisters are left trying to pick up the pieces of their lives in any way they can, and unfortunately having to deal with their overly dependent and somewhat absent father along the way.

The ghost of their deceased sister starts to appear and the girls think she is trying to get them to leave their house and their father. But they find out that their sister may want something else for them.

Tigers, Not Daughters deals with grief and the different ways it presents itself in people. These girls are so broken and they learn that they really need to lean on each other in order to heal. Highly recommend for anyone looking for an emotional, somewhat heavy read!

Overall, I found myself unable to put this book down. It compelled me to finish it as soon as I started reading. This book is best going in not knowing much and I honestly stand by that. The writing was well paced allowing the story to progress with ease. The transition between the point of views was done well and flawlessly. The plot felt like a glimpse in someones live. It felt as if I was a spectre watching everything happen. The characters were well rounded and tangible. They felt as if they could people who I knew. My only critique is that it felt like too much of a glimpse. I would have loved for there to be more. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to read a contemporary that is more on the darker side of things and that borderlines magic realism/ paranormal. Thank you so much to Algonquin Young Readers for providing me with a copy of this book to review.

This book was FANTASTIC even with it's hard hitting elements. It's a story of love and grief tangled into one emotional story with a supernatural twist. I loved the dynamic between Torres sisters and how genuine it felt. There's something about books with an unimaginable tragedy that ultimately ends up bringing people together that just wins my heart. The Torres sisters all have their own distinct personalities and have a major rift between them after the death of their oldest sister, but by the end become an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. I couldn't help but fly through this in one sitting because I was so caught up in the story.

Definitely looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Happy Publication Day!!
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Thank you @netgalley and Algonquin Young Readers for giving me an arc in exchange for a honest review. Publication date March 24th 2020.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ four stars
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If you are ever in the mood for a short tale about sisterhood, love, loss, grief and perseverance - look no further. I cried so many times reading this, it was ridiculous! Tigers, Not Daughters might be the first “hard-hitting” contemporary that I would actually recommend to people. Mabry tacked the subject of grief with so much grace, even though she broke my heart, the reading experience was beautiful.
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The ending fell a little flat for me, so I settled with four stars.
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Title: Tigers Not Daughters
Author: Samantha Mabry
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5

There are four Torres sisters: the oldest, Ana, is determined to live life her way. Jessica, flouts convention and puts walls around her heart. Iridian clings to words. And Rosa is free spirited and drawn to the wild. The girls live with their father, a widower who relishes his control of every aspect of their lives, but after Anna falls to her death from her bedroom window at the age of eighteen, the family splinters.

Jessica, now the oldest, tries to keep her family together while subsuming as much of Ana as possible into her own life. Iridian withdraws from the world. And Rosa becomes obsessed with an urban myth. But when mysterious things start happening around the Torres house, the girls start to wonder if Ana is haunting them. And if she is, what is she trying to tell them?

Tigers Not Daughters was a little hard for me to get into, but I’m glad I did. I didn’t like all the characters—Jessica in particular seemed particularly selfish and not in the least self-aware—but it was wonderful to see them come into their identities as sisters and family and women who could stand on their own two feet. I’ve seen this touted as a cultural lodestone, but, honestly, I’ve read much more vibrant novels on the Latin-American culture. It was secondary at best in this novel, with the focus being on the girls themselves.

Samantha Mabry credits her tendency toward magical thinking to her Grandmother Garcia, who would wash money in the kitchen sink to rinse off any bad spirits. She teaches writing and Latino literature at a community college in Dallas, where she lives with her husband, a historian, and a cat named Mouse. She is the author of A Fierce and Subtle Poison and All the Wind in the World. Visit her online at samanthamabry.com or on Twitter: @samanthamabry.

(Galley courtesy of Algonquin Young Readers in exchange for an honest review.)

Tigers, Not Daughters was a surprising read.
It surprised me with how well it was written. The writing flowed well, it was paced just to my liking, and it was captivating from the beginning. The style in this book is perfectly suited with the storyline as it balances it out by keeping things short and sweet, and with that keeping your attention.
It also surprised me with how dark and heartbreaking it got at times, and I think that is mostly due to how well the characters are developed. I couldn’t help but empathize and feel connected to them, though the circumstances aren’t something I’m familiar with, not even remotely. But the characters and their emotions are brought so well on the page, they are so vivid that they feel so realistic, despite the fact that this story touches on the fantasy/magical realism genre.
The only thing I can note as something I wish was better was the ending. It’s quite a satisfying one, but it did leave me with a few questions, as not everything is answered throughout the text. I hope that the sequel that is scheduled for next year will answer those.
I recommend Tigers, Not Daughters. I feel like it’s an experience that fans of YA/Contemporary Fantasy should give a chance to.

I tore through this book with feverish delight. It is an act of grief, of destructive beauty, of a love beyond death. Mabry’s prose is as haunting as a sister who should be there and is not. Each of the Torres sisters is perfectly and imperfectly rendered. Unique in their grief, hating and loving and willing to fight each other as much as their willing to fight or each other.

This book was deeply personal to me. I am the oldest of six sisters. I know the precarious balance between love and loathing, and how sometimes hard things bring you together and sometimes they rip you apart. But no matter how things tear, they can be sewn up and made stronger than ever.

Book review time! This month, I opted for something a bit more slice of life meets magical realism meets ghost story than I normally go for. I just wanted something a little different and this fit in with that. It’s called Tigers, Not Daughters and is by Samantha Mabry. It was released on the 24th from Algonquin Young Readers. As usual, I must thank the publisher and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s get on with it.

Tigers, Not Daughters follows the remaining Torres sisters (Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa) as they struggle to cope with life after their oldest sister’s (Ana) death. Jessica tries to become Ana. Iridian hides herself deep within books and writing. And Rosa attempts to make sense of everything through her connections with animals. Throw in a useless drunk of a father, nosy teenage boys who want to be heroes but only make things worse, an abusive boyfriend, and a ghost just to make the sisters’ lives more difficult. Teenage angst and sisterhood. What more does a story need?

I admit I was a little on the fence about this story plot-wise. There’s a slow build before the magic and ghost story kick in, so I wasn’t grabbed in the way I’m used to with YA fantasy type books. But I’m glad I kept with it. And it’s a short book (less than 300 pages), so the wait for weird wasn’t really that long. It gave the characters a chance to shine on their own before everything else could distract from them. I enjoyed how the weirdness kind of crept in around the edges before you even realized it was there.

As far as the characters go, we get to see most of the story from Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa’s views with a few interjections from the boys across the street. Each viewpoint is distinctive and beautiful in its own way. I didn’t even have to check the chapter headings to know whose head I was in, which is rare. It’s really hard to find characters who are similar yet different enough to stand apart from each other. I especially love Rosa, the kind and loving youngest sister who doesn’t even know what jealousy feels like until she experiences it for the first time, but who also kicks ass when she needs to. She’s the best.

The writing is absolutely gorgeous. There’s a lovely sense of poetry that flows through this book. I think that’s what kept me reading in the beginning. I’m glad it did. It makes for easy reading as well as interesting images.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed Tigers, Not Daughters. It was a wonderful glimpse into grief and family dynamics and the bonds of sisters. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for more stories by Samantha Mabry.

Overall, I gave it four out of five stars. Why did I take away one? Because I finished the book a few days ago and am already forgetting parts of it, which means I probably won’t remember it at all in six months. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means it wasn’t memorable for me. But I still totally recommend it if you like magical realism and ghost stories about teenage girls.

I was thrilled to be offered the chance to take part in this blog tour with Algonquin Young Readers, and I’m so glad I jumped on board, because I love TIGERS, NOT DAUGHTERS! This book is loosely based on KING LEAR, which has always been my favorite of Shakespeare’s plays. (It’s been years and years since I’ve read it, though, so don’t feel like you have to know anything about it before reading this book.) Ms. Mabry says this of the title and how she got the idea for this book:

>>“TIGERS, NOT DAUGHTERS is a phrase from Shakespeare’s KING LEAR. In the play, it’s used as an insult, hurled by Albany at Lear’s selfish and disobedient daughters. When I recently heard that phrase spit out with such venom during a production, it struck me—how could I write a story in which this wasn’t an insult, but, in a way, praise? I’ve always been of the mind that some parents frankly deserve to be disobeyed, and I’m sure many young people would agree.”<<

I was immediately on board with the idea that being a “tiger” didn’t have to be an insult; instead, it could be a strength. Why shouldn’t young women be allowed to show their claws? Especially when their father is an often-drunk despot who keeps them tethered to him by playing on their sense of responsibility to him, even as he shows no responsibility toward them.

What I love so much about this book, as slim as it is, is that we get to see such growth in each of the three Torres sisters, as they gradually make their way to becoming those tigers of the title. Each starts with their own particular weakness, whether it be Jessica’s boyfriend, John; Iridian’s fear of leaving her house and exposing any part of herself to others; or Rosa’s gentle, quiet, and kind nature that has people thinking of her as only ever gentle, quiet, and kind. Throw in some magical realism and a visit from the ghost of their dead sister one year after her accident (falling to her death from her bedroom window while trying to escape) and you have an incredible story. By the end, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa have all figured out how to grow and show their claws, each in their own way conquering their weaknesses and fears. My favorite quote from the book is from Jessica and sums up that growth (seriously, if I were not months away from turning 45 I would have this tattooed somewhere I could see it every day):

>>“An angry girl is allowed to be angry.” (p. 220 of ARC)<<

I wrote down a series of words immediately upon finishing the book that pretty well sum up my thoughts: lyrical, fierce, gorgeous, feminist, sublime. I hope these adjectives will convince you to pick up this beautiful story of sisterhood and of owning one’s inner tiger. Be fierce, be strong, be angry--let the Torres sisters be an inspiration to you.

RATING: 5 stars!

**Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher for purposes of this blog tour. This review is voluntary on my part and reflects my honest rating and review of the book.

Tigers, not Daughters by Samantha Mabry is a story about four sisters. When the oldest sister dies by falling from her window, the three remaining sisters all experience grief in their own way. Things take a turn when their sister’s ghost keeps showing up trying to tell them something.

Tigers, not Daughter is a dark and creepy story. The writing is lyrical and captivating. Your interest is captured from the first page and sustaines throughout the story. The premise is interesting, playing around with magical realism. The characters are fleshed out and unique in their own way. Rosa being my personal favorite.

Unfortunately the ending fell a bit flat for me. It felt rushed and there are too many questions left unanswered.

After their mother died, shortly after birthing Rosa, life in the Torres household changed. It got so bad that all four girls tried to run away. When the eldest sister, Ana, dies from a fall just two months later, things go from bad to worse. Their sorry excuse for a father really falls apart after the loss of his favorite daughter. Then weird things start to happen; Ana is haunting her family.
A tale of the power of sisterhood. The story mostly alternates between the points of view of each of the sisters. Each sister is a unique individual and each has their own special talent. The characters are so well drawn. You really feel their pain as they navigate through their grief and adolescence. I really felt bad for Irdian when she was so savagely bullied by her peers. It’s no wonder she reacted the way she did. To top it all off, Ana scares the bejesus out of her. The reader is taken along for the ride as the three surviving sisters try to figure out why Ana’s ghost is haunting them. It’s an unusual coming-of-age story, one I very much enjoyed.

Alternating between characters POV and jumping from past to present, Tigers Not Daughters by Samantha Mabry is a fast pace, character driven story that explores domestic violence, grief, depression and family bonds. ⁣
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Set in San Antonio, TX, the four Torres sisters: Ana, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa, are desperate to escape their stifling family life. Not one to be suffocated, Ana, the eldest, decides to run away, but ends up falling to her death from her bedroom window. With their overbearing father, Rafe, descending into depression, the remaining sisters are left to pick up the pieces and cope with their loss.⁣
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One year later, things are looking bleak for everyone. As you read, you discover that Ana was the favorite and each sister deals with her death differently, but Jessica, who tries to become Ana — by dating her abusive boyfriend — is what kept me flipping the pages. Iridian doesn’t leave the house and Rosa, the youngest, senses that Ana isn't entirely gone. She tries to find a connection— when a hyena goes missing from the zoo on the anniversary of Ana's death.⁣
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Keeping this short, Mabry created a powerful story by blending elements of magical realism, grieving and family bonds. Her descriptive writing really had me sleeping with the lights on. I really would have loved more of a back story on each sister prior to Ana’s death. I ultimately gave this book a 3.5/5 star. If paranormal/ magical realism books pique your curiosity, then I would recommend your try this one.⁣

This is not what I was expecting.

We’ve got a darker combination of a modern Little Women and Virgin Suicides going on. Four sisters who just want to escape their own hell, but can’t. Then Ana dies and everything changes.

At first it screamed as a Virgin Suicides knock off with the perspective of the boys and them always getting in the way. Then it became more Little Women with following along with the Torres sisters.

That’s what I enjoyed. Two stories I actually liked reading way back when.

However, there’s a lot to unpack from Tigers, Not Daughters. There’s an absent yet somewhat abusive father, a sister who is so withdrawn from the world, another in an abusive relationship, and the youngest who tries to keep everything together.

Each chapter is told from a different sister’s perspective and I really wish it was executed differently because I just didn’t feel like it was a different sister every time a chapter changed. The sisters went through so much but it was downplayed with an one dimensional feel.

There’s also supposedly a paranormal element of Ana coming back as a ghost, but it’s so muted and barely part of the story until the end and even then it was just there. It kind of came out of nowhere and didn’t really fit into place.

Not a lot happens throughout the book, so it got exceptionally boring. It was just a day to day life of the sisters before and then after Ana dies. At times I was ready to just DNF from boredom but also from the male characters in there story. John and Rafi — the girls’ father — mostly.

I didn’t hate Tigers, Not Daughters . . . I just wish it did more for me. I love the sister dynamic and them sticking together no matter what, especially Rose when it came time to stand up to their father — John, too. But that’s it.

You guys? I have a confession to make. I have been in a MAJOR book slump, basically since February. I think I read two books last month and this month isn’t shaping up to look much better. Work has been stressful, life has been stressful, and my brain just won’t let me sit and focus on one thing for very long these days.

That is, until I picked up Tigers, Not Daughters. This book completely sucked me in and didn’t let go and before I knew it, I had actually read a book for the first time in weeks.

Tigers, Not Daughters follows the Torres family — four daughters and their father — who live in San Antonio. When the eldest daughter dies in a tragic accident, the rest of the sisters are left trying to figure out how to survive, recover, and reconnect. It starts out as a story about grief and morphs into a beautifully told ghost story, where we learn more about each sister and their lives in the year since Ana died.

The book is written using three different omniscient third person POVs, meaning that while we technically get POV chapters for each sister, the story isn’t told from their first person perspectives. This writing style made the sisters seem even more distant and almost mystical, but in a good way. In fact, the writing style was what I loved most about this book. The writing was lyrical and beautiful. I loved different things about each sister and how the author slowly revealed different things about each of them.

It’s also important to note that not a single one of these characters is perfect, and I loved that as well. They all have different flaws and regrets and make bad choices sometimes. They hurt each other without meaning to and act basically like real sisters do. Parts of this story are painful and dark, but never overwhelming, which I appreciated.

Overall, I highly recommend this novel. Mabry has written a dark ghost story that manages to feel hopeful more than it really should. She balances the dark with moments of hope and joy and new beginnings. I ended up really loving each sister and cheering for them throughout the story. I really hope you pick this one up! Please note though, that trigger warnings include relationship abuse, emotional abuse, and death of an animal.

TW: Death of a loved one, death of a sibling, death, blood, depression, grief, vomiting, absentee parent, death of a parent, death of an animal
Rep: Hearing Impaired Side character, latinx cast

I received an ARC via Netgalley for this blog tour hosted by Algonquin Young Readers

"Human hearts are very complicated. They can pull a person this way, then that. They can convince someone easy thingas are hard, or cloudy things are clear."

I've had this ARC for a while and I knew it was a March ARC. I keep forgetting about it until yesterday, where I was like 'oh snap' at 10 pm at night. And than I was like, you know I'll just read the book tomorrow' because who knows my sense of priorities anymore. I have an ARC coming the 24th and I haven't even reviewed the first book.

This book is like Little Women, but with paranormal activity and Latinx characters. Everything that I almost like, besides Little Women. Don't kill me, but I have never read Little Women. I've tried too a few times-but it's something that I'll probably never end up reading. I liked the cartoon of it, and never paid attention of the movie.

I was instantly hooked by the first chapter! I wasn't sure what to expect with how weird the perspective was and who exactly was telling the story. It really confused me quite a bit of times when it happened. It would switch from the girl's POV to a 'We' meaning from the boy's POV that they lived next too. It was a little confusing. I kinda wish why it was neccesary like that, but it didn't really hinder my enjoyment from this novel.

This book was such a quick read and I appreciated that. Anything under 300 pages is a quick read for me, and me being in 400 pages-it was a nice change for that. With just under 300 pages, I was never bored. I was curious on the story and how the magical realism played apart in this novel. 

I always liked magical realism in books; frankly because there really isn't enough about them. Ana, the ghost, is trying to communicate with her sisters and the way it happens-it's usually by the hyena-the one that matches her spirit.

I don't know why, but I couldn't really connect with the characters too much. I liked them a lot, but there was something about them that was missing. There a few things that stood out to me, but I kinda wanted to know a little more about their personality and history.

There were also things that weren't really clear in the book; that sort of thing hindered my enjoyment. I was curious on what happened to their dad since he wasn't in the novel too much, the John thing and why he seemed to be important. Those types of things that are really minor, but I can't help having questions about.

Wow! Tigers, Not Daughters is such a fast paced and gripping story! I honestly finished this in one day. And let’s not forget about the beautiful cover!!

The story focuses on the four Torres girls and a neglecting father. When one of the daughters died, the house for the other sisters turns into claustrophobic hell. Each one deals with their sisters death in a different way. The oldest becomes the bread winner of the household and caretaker of her alcoholic, grieving father. The second one is a romance writer and always carries her death sisters’ books with her. The youngest is an animal lover and wanderer who looks like their long dead mother. Each one has a unique and weird personality and that’s what grabbed my attention the most!

There are also magical realism intertwined with each of the sisters own way of coping and grieving. I found this part to be interesting and powerful. There were some parts were I was a bit disturbed, specifically with the actions of the oldest Torres daughter. Also, mad because of the lack of action of some of the male characters. There are chapters of the story that are of a male point of view. I honestly don’t see the importance of that. I guess it gives an outsider’s point of view, but can be unreliable and unnecessary. At the end, most of the male characters caused more harm to the Torres sisters.

Overall, this is not just a story of grieving daughters, it’s much more that. After everything that the girls have gone through, their bond as sisters is unbreakable. It is a powerful and intriguing story! Thank you to Netgalley for the copy!

Lots of sensitive material: death, teenage promiscuity, domestic violence, alcoholism. But all in a pg light, yeah it is there and life is messy but it’s not over the top or rated R. This was an ok book. It had some really slow parts, but the last 3rd really picked up. I’m not sure I cared for the story arc, there are a lot of unanswered questions. But it was ok.

Modern day Little Woman with magical realism and paranormal elements. I always enjoy a story about sisterhood. This one will definitely hit you in the feels and keep you thinking long after you close the book.

We Start off with all four Torres sisters trying to escape their hellhole home...away from their awful father. The Torres sisters consist of Anna, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa. With no direction taking them anywhere, the Torres sisters decide to escape in the middle of the night and thanks to their nosey neighbors they were caught. A couple of months later Ana falls to her death from her window.

The family falls completely apart. Everyone stricken with grief...dealing with Ana's death in their own destructive ways. Jessica is the only one whose really providing for the family, while at the same time dealing with her own grief issues and a abusive boyfriend. Iridian loves to write and just be alone with her thoughts, and Rosa is focusing on the more spiritual side of things...including a loose Hyena in town who she thinks could be Ana reincarnated. But, there's something no-one was counting on..strange supernatural things have been happening in the Torres home since Ana's death. Mysterious writings on the wall, mysterious shadows, and mysterious laughter. The Torres sisters think that it's Ana trying to communicate with them. Even possibly try to run them out of the home they've known so they can finally be free of their fathers tyrannical behavior.

Tigers, not daughters was so beautifully written. Amazing prose. Mary makes you feel the words with every sentence written. The book makes you really realize how much grief changes a person. To what extents they go through to fight the demons. I've been seeing 'Tigers, Not Daughters' to 'Little Women'. I've never read 'Little Women' but, I will definitely put it on my TBR list. Thank You to NetGalley and Algonquin Young Readers for providing me with a physical copy of an ARC in a exchange for a honest review.

Tigers, Not Daughters comes out March 24, 2020.

First a big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a free Advanced Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I’d also like to thank them for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour.

From the first page, it’s clear that nothing is perfect in the Torres family. We meet the sisters as they are attempting to sneak away from their father and leave home, their destinations unknown. Each girl manages to make it out of the house and they even make it to the train station, but unfortunately they don’t get away. Thanks to meddling neighbor boys and their mother, their father Rafe catches them and forces them back home. We don’t actually know why they are trying to leave, all we know is that they’re unhappy. We learn from the neighbor boys that two months after their failed escape, Ana falls to her death from her bedroom window.

The story picks up a year after Ana’s death, her sister and father still stuck in their grief. Jessica is stuck taking care of their father while working a dead end job and dealing with an abusive boyfriend; Iridian hates her father and allows Ana’s old romance books and her own words to swallow her up; and Rosa believes she has what it takes to help the lost spirit of animals, including a local hyena that happens to be on the loose. In the midst of all of this, strange happenings are occurring in their home leaving them, and the neighbor boys, to believe that Ana’s ghost is haunting them all. Rafe, their father, can’t seem to bring himself out of the rut he is in. He’s constantly grieving or drunk, owes money to the wrong people, and it’s clear that his daughters can’t depend on him. Honestly, he’s been in a perpetual state of grief since their mother died years ago and things have only gotten worse.

I won’t give away plot details other than what’s above, but essentially Tigers, Not Daughters tells the story of what happens to a family lost in grief and attempting to navigate their way out of it. This story is very character driven, each character getting their own POVs and chapters, including the nosey neighbor boys. Each character is distinctive, which I really enjoyed. None of the sisters seemed to run together, which I think can happen sometimes with an ensemble cast like this one. The inclusion of the nosey neighbors and their fascination with the girls actually reminded me of The Virgin Suicides. I’ve also seen a lot of people draw comparisons to King Lear and Little Women as well.

I will say that this was some very heavy content in these pages. How can it not be when we’re watching each character grieve in their own way. If you aren’t sure if you can handle that sort of subject matter, then be cautious when starting this journey. I’ll admit it was a bit intense while I was reading it. There’s also a constant switching of the POV. I didn’t mind it so much, but I know that it’s not something that everyone enjoys. While this story may not necessarily be for everyone, I do think it has a lot to offer. This may not be the ghost story that you’re expecting, but itself definitely an interesting story about family, loss, and grief.

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