Tiger is intensely close with her single mom, even if she bristles at times against her mom's overprotective tendencies. When her mother dies suddenly, Tiger is left absolutely bereft, struggling to find her way in the absence of her most foundational relationship. At times, the first-person narrative is almost claustrophobic in its intimacy, making for a painful but powerful evocation of grief and loss. (c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In another standout realistic fiction novel that tackles trauma and grief, Glasgow (Girl in Pieces, 2016) introduces 16-year-old Tiger (née Grace) Tolliver, whose simple, sheltered life in Mesa Luna, Arizona, is turned upside down when her single mother passes away suddenly from an aneurysm. In the midst of her guilt over her vitriolic last words to her mother, Tiger is placed into foster care and is confronted with the harsh realities many children go through in the system. Tiger's frank voice leads readers through her complicated grieving process, which includes never taking off the second-hand dress for the school dance her mother picked out for her right before she passed. While the ending meanders, Glasgow skillfully depicts different ways grief can manifest in a realistic, empathetic manner. The voice of Tiger's girl-bug becomes a particularly effective narrative device after Tiger notes, You'll look alive on the outside but be dead on the inside, flicking your wings and watching everyone through the jar. Tiger's distinctive, haunting voice will be hard to forget.--Caitlin Kling Copyright 2019 Booklist

Sixteen-year-old Tiger Tolliver's struggles are relatively minorshe's stuck in secondhand threads and lusts after her biology partneruntil her overprotective but loving mother unexpectedly dies.For more than 200 pages, readers endure with Tiger the two weeks that follow her mother's death. A minor with no known living relatives, Tiger becomes a ward of the state of Arizona, sharing foster homes with kids who have been abused and abandoned. She finds herself responsible for the logistics of death, such as the funeral planning and ordering death certificates. Tiger obsesses over the last words she screamed to her mom, "Why can't you ever just fucking leave me alone?" and refuses to take off the outmoded dress that was the last thing her mother ever bought her. The onslaught of grief and regret is so intimate that at times the novel feels claustrophobic, as if there is no escape. Which, of course, for Tiger, there isn't. There's only surrender to her new normal. A few glimmers of hope appear in the form of friendships and kindnesses, but this narrative is chiefly a first-person experience of the void left behind when the most important person in a young woman's life is suddenly gone. It's visceral and traumatic, pulsing with ache. Tiger is white, and many secondary characters are black and Latinx.A gritty, raw account of surviving tragedy one minute at a time. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gr 9 Up--Sixteen-year-old Tiger likes to hang out with her best friend Cake and be lovingly smothered by her overprotective, secretive single mother. But when her mother dies suddenly from a brain aneurysm, Tiger's life is upended in a single moment. She descends into unrelenting grief as she enters the foster care system. Secrets emerge slowly, including an unknown older half-sister with issues of her own. Jorjeana Marie does a standout job narrating, skillfully drawing listeners into the story and immersing them in the emotional intensity of Tiger's grief and the bleakness of the foster care system. The isolation Tiger feels despite others' attempts to help her is heartbreakingly portrayed, as well as the glimmers of hope that weave their way into the story. The audio concludes with a thoughtful note, read by the author, about the "Grand Canyon--sized void" people feel when they lose a loved one. VERDICT This is not a light listen, but it's perfect for teens who love darkly tragic and poignant audiobooks.--Julie Paladino, formerly with East Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, NC