Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson & Taylor Swift’s Cardigan: A Peter Pan Retelling
She is not the girl he grows old with.
She is the girl who stays young forever in his memory.
Romanticizing Peter Pan is something I have done literally my entire life. So when I finally got around to reading the original Peter Pan and Wendy by J. M. Barrie and that kiss from the 2003 film adaptation doesn’t happen, I was at a loss for words. I felt blindsided by the romance that never came.
But then Tiger Lily ever so gently handed that romance back to me. Only to then rip it all away… <insert hysterical sobs>
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This book has been on my TBR for about a year now. I truly had no idea what all it entailed aside from being a retelling of Peter Pan. And since my December reading theme was all about retellings, folklore, fairy tales, etc (you get it), it was the perfect time to finally find out what the book was all about.
After reading the original Peter Pan, of course…
Tiger Lily, Cardigan, and the Peter Pan Story I Didn’t Expect
Peter Pan is not a love story (I just felt my childhood heart break). It’s a story about refusal of all kinds. Refusal to growup, refusal to belong, refusal to stay, refusal to love. Wendy doesn’t get a kiss because Peter never sees her in a romantic light. She’s only seen as a mother figure to him.
Sure, they pretend play mother and father, but there is zero romance. The book never intended to give readers a place for any yearning to grow.
But then I picked up Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson and it ever so gently wrecked me completely.
To me, Tiger Lily is the story of being someone’s favorite cardigan during the chapter of their life when they still think comfort is something they can always find again.
Why Taylor Swift’s Cardigan Perfectly Captures Tiger Lily
In this retelling, Peter Pan doesn’t stay young forever. He leaves Neverland. He leaves Tiger Lily. He chooses Wendy. He marries. He has children. He grows old. And with that, my heart hurt so deep for Tiger Lily.
Tiger Lily is not the future that Peter builds. She is the love that first built him. The one that showed him depth, loss, and the ultimate cost of choosing. She is the love that happens once in a lifetime.
Your heartbeat on the High Line
Cardigan, Taylor Swift
Once in 20 lifetimes,
Tiger Lily knows Peter. Not just the idea of him, she knows Peter more deeply than anyone, maybe even more than he knows himself. She understands his fears, his need to be adored without being tethered. She sees the boy underneath all the charade and promises. The one who is actually afraid.
When you are young they assume you know nothing
Cardigan, Taylor Swift
But I knew you
Tiger Lily sees the cracks and loves him anyway. The tragedy is not that she didn’t know better. It’s that she knew exactly who Peter was and stayed, waited, loved.
Tiger Lily represents depth and consequence, while Wendy represents possibility. Peter chases the shimmer and loses the girl who already knows where all his shadows live.
A friend to all is a friend to none
Cardigan, Taylor Swift
Chase two girls, lose the one.
Peter doesn’t end up with Tiger Lily, but she becomes a permanent part of him. She is the love that educates him. The one that follows him into aging, into cities, into quiet rooms, literally everywhere except back to the sacred woods of their childhood.
Tiger Lily never leaves him. Peter never forgets her. She becomes part of his ordinary life, the life he lives after the magic. The life he lives out with Wendy.
The Love Peter Pan Leaves Behind
Wendy receives the man Tiger Lily made possible. It’s not kissing in cars or downtown bars, Tiger Lily’s love is not loud, but it is powerful. It’s what Peter carries forward. Forever…
I knew I’d curse you for the longest time
Cardigan, Taylor Swift
Chasing shadows in the grocery line
Tiger Lily is not the girl he grows old with. She is the girl who stays young forever in his memory. That doesn’t make Wendy lesser, but it makes the story more honest about how love and lives can actually unfold. We don’t all get all the loves. We get one we live with, and others that live inside us.
It really surprised me with how gently it told that truth, and how deeply it has stayed with me since.
This story is like an old favorite cardigan you never quite put away.
You never leave me. I never forget a thing.
Tiger Lily, Jodi Lynn Anderson
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