While the style and format of most of Blume's books are similar, and the theme of maturity crops up in many of them, Tiger Eyes is not closely related to any of her other works. Generally, her novels deal with personal growth and sexual maturity on the one hand and a particular social issue on the other. For example, Iggie's House is concerned with racial bigotry, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret with religious bias, It's Not the End of the World with divorce, Deenie with physical deformity, and Blubber with obesity. Tiger Eyes follows this same format, but its heroine is older and more mature than most of Blume's characters, and the writing is more masterfully crafted.

Blume has said of Tiger Eyes that it is "the most adult of my young adult books." Perhaps the quality that makes it "adult" is its concentration...