Gr 7 Up—A year after the death of their eldest sister, the three remaining Torres girls still long to escape their
hometown and the problematic men in their lives—their father, a boyfriend, and the neighborhood boys who obsess
over them—as Ana's ghost returns. Inspired in part by Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides, this beautiful story of
the love among sisters gives the girls agency and turns the male gaze on its head.

I have been waiting for the right time to read this book since it was released. I shouldn't have waited as long as I did. I really really liked this book. This book has all the bits of magical realism that I love with the grit that comes from living a life of poverty bound by angry love. Very few books are able to capture that mostly because they don't understand it or because they are afraid to put it out there. Mabry does a good job of going there and creating an anxious need for more even as you're reading the next words on the page. Female characters discovering their strengths and understanding their weaknesses aren't always theirs but placed upon them either by others or by themselves. The triumph of this book is each sisters's individual journey takes them to a different emotional place it brings them to one physical place. Those might be vague details but they are the ones that matter. The nuts and bolts you can find in other reviews. Read this one. ( )

There are some high points in this ghost/haunting story, but overall it was not my favorite. I do like some of the characterization, particularly regarding Rosa, but overall I wasn't blown away. ( )

Dark, haunting, and ethereal - this young adult novel chronicling the Torres' sisters and the aftermath of their oldest sister's death is chilling and powerful. A year after Ana falls out her window to her death; her three sisters cope with it in different ways. Jessica the now oldest, deals with it by slowly trying to turn into Ana. She wears her clothes and makeup, tries to pick up smoking, and even dates the same boy that Ana had been sneaking off with in the night. Iridian has turned into a total recluse and barely leaves her room let alone the house. She re-reads all of Ana's old books and is trying to drown her sorrows in her writing. Rosa, the youngest tries to talk to the neighborhood animals, finding peace in nature and in church. Their father, well their father is useless; a shell of a man. A year after Ana's death - her ghost inexplicably starts inhabiting the house and the week following her "return" is one that will turn the girls lives upside down. Magical realism at its best! ( )

This is one of the best depictions of grief I've ever read. Magical realism can be so hard to nail, but Mabry does it perfectly, with language that is lyrical but tight, never over the top. Each of the four protagonists is fully fleshed out - you will never confuse one for the other, even as their experiences tangle together in a haunted web. The chapters from the boys' point of view - the boys as one unit, as an audience - are nothing short of brilliant. Long story short, Tigers, Not Daughters is a work of startling honesty and tenderness - a work of genius. ( )