Tiger Eyes is Judy Blume doing what she does best: writing teens as full humans with messy, complicated feelings. The premise—15-year-old Davey's father is murdered in a convenience store holdup—is brutal, and Blume doesn't soften it. This is a book about rage and numbness and the slow, uneven work of rebuilding after your world implodes.

It's not an easy read, but it's an important one. Blume respects her readers enough to show that grief doesn't follow a tidy arc, that sometimes you need a stranger (Wolf) to see you when your family can't, and that healing doesn't mean forgetting. The 4.6 Amazon rating and decades of 'this book saved me' reviews speak to its lasting power.

That said, it's not for everyone. Younger or more sensitive readers might find the trauma overwhelming. And while it's a classic, the 1980s setting and slower pacing might feel dated to some modern teens used to faster-paced YA. But for the right reader at the right time? This book does the hard, necessary work of making grief feel survivable.