Tigers, Not Daughters

Starred review from January 13, 2020
Not long after she and her sisters tried to run away during San Antonio’s Fiesta celebration, Ana Torres, 17, fell from her bedroom window and died. A year later, her largely absent father, Rafe, has descended into grief, leaving his other daughters, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa, to clean up his messes. Each sister copes differently with Ana’s death: Jessica, involved with Ana’s abusive former boyfriend, simmers with barely restrained anger; Iridian internalizes her pain and finds solace in reading and writing; and Rosa, who has an uncanny connection to the natural world and its creatures, seeks a hyena escaped from the zoo that she believes may be connected to Ana. When strange things start happening, the sisters think that Ana’s angry ghost may want something from them. Mabry (All the Wind in the World) peppers a few gut punches throughout a story largely grounded in the ordinary, and the stark contrasts highlight the eerie power of the otherworldly events. Leading up to the slightly ambiguous ending, the Latinx sisters’ multiple narratives read more like a series of vignettes than a cohesive whole. Still, Mabry speaks gracefully to the transformative power of grief and the often messy (even violent) road to letting go. Ages 14–up.

January 15, 2020
A ghostly tale of revenge and the strength of the sisterly bond. The four Torres sisters have fascinated the boys in their San Antonio neighborhood for years. Each with her own quirky personality, they all suffer from the suffocating hold their widower father has over them. While attempting to sneak out, Ana, the oldest, fatally falls from a tree. A year later, her angry spirit begins to haunt their home. The novel alternates between a first-person perspective by an unnamed narrator--one of the boys across the street--and the points of view of each sister, narrated in the third person. The chapters jump from past to present, dropping hints about what truly happened and why Ana is haunting her old home. The Torres sisters mourn in their own ways--Jessica tries to become Ana, even dating her abusive boyfriend; Iridian stays inside reading Ana's romance novels; and Rosa attends church and hopes to commune with animals. The author adeptly portrays the claustrophobia of living in a small town and being under the watch of an overbearing patriarchal figure--in fact, the male gaze is the true enemy in this novel, and it's only when the young women join forces that they're able to break free of its oppressive ties. Mabry's (All the Wind in the World, 2017, etc.) third novel has echoes of The Virgin Suicides. The protagonists are Latinx. The evocative language and deft characterization will haunt--and empower--readers. (Magical realism. 14-adult)

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Starred review from February 1, 2020

Gr 7 Up- Little Women meets The Virgin Suicides with a magical realist twist in this evocative and lovely novel. There used to be four Torres sisters: Ana, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa. Each with a strong individual personality, they captivated the boys of their San Antonio neighborhood with their beauty and ferocity. But when Ana died, falling out of her window, the sisters each reacted to their grief differently. Jessica tried to replace Ana in her old life, Iridian lost herself in books, and spiritual Rosa became preoccupied by looking for signs to explain why this happened. But their memories are tangible as well as mental, as Ana's ghost haunts them in the form of mysterious occurrences in their house. Much of the plot, told from multiple points of view, examines how the family members balance their personal challenges with their grief. Ultimately, Ana's ghost is the impetus for the surviving sisters to reconnect and find the strength to move forward, together. Similar to the March sisters, the Bennets in Pride and Prejudice, and the three sisters in King Lear (which inspired this book's title), Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa have competitive, at times jealousy-tinged, but ultimately loving relationships. Mabry's lyrical style weaves themes of sisterhood, death, and romance along with Shakespearean inspiration and paranormal elements to create something magical. VERDICT This novel is sure to appeal to fans of Mabry's other works, and could serve as an introduction to magical realism for those unfamiliar with the genre. An engaging, heartfelt exploration of the multifaceted inner lives of teen girls and sisterhood.-Ann Foster, Saskatoon Public Library, Sask.

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Starred review from March 15, 2020
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* When Ana Torres dies falling out of her bedroom window, her three younger sisters are left adrift. Trapped by the watchful eyes of their San Antonio neighborhood and the violence of their widowed father's grief, each responds in her own way. Jessica, now the oldest and propelled by rage, tries to become her sister, wearing Ana's clothes and dating the boy people say Ana was sneaking out to meet. Iridian, the middle sister, fades into herself, writing incessantly in notebooks. Rosa, the youngest, searches for signs in church and in the animals of the neighborhood. A year after Ana's death, a ghost arrives in the Torres house, bringing with it a reckoning for all three sisters and everyone in their lives. Mabry, whose All the Wind in the World (2017) was longlisted for the National Book Award, keeps her narrative tightly focused on intimate character study. Most of the action takes place over only a week, and the point of view shifts between the individual sisters and, in chapters whose style echoes Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides (1993), the collective perspective of a group of neighborhood boys. Borrowing elements of magical realism and Latinx folklore, this is a story that is often uncomfortable; in its quest to explore grief, family, and the traumas inflicted by each, it lays its characters utterly and unforgettably bare.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)