Authors: Austin Chant
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retelling, LGBTQ+
Ten years ago, Peter
Pan left Neverland to grow up, leaving behind his adolescent dreams of
boyhoodand resigning himself to life as Wendy Darling. Growing up,
however, has only made him realize how inescapable his identity as a man
is.
But when he returns to Neverland, everything has changed:
the Lost Boys have become men, and the war games they once played are
now real and deadly. Even more shocking is the attraction Peter never
knew he could feel for his old rival, Captain Hook—and the realization
that he no longer knows which of them is the real villain.
Here's What I Thought:
I began the month with a decent sized TBR for September. It is now the 19th and I have yet to post another review. Don't worry! I'm chipping away at it. I just haven't gotten writing reviews as I had tested positive for COVID-19. Fortunately, I had no symptoms, but when you are in isolation for several days, you have little motivation to do anything. Also, forgive the weird picture placement... Blogger did a sucky update and will no longer allow me to revert back to the old version.
I'm going to start this review off with a confession. I have never read a book that was specifically classified as LGBTQ+. I mean, I have read books with side characters that are, but I have never read a book that it was one of the primary aspects. I mentioned earlier this month that I joined a book club site called Caravan and I will fully give the good folks there the credit for expanding my horizons and turning me on to this book. Peter Pan has always been one of my favorite fairy tales and after reading Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook, I wanted more. This book provided just that.
The main character is obviously Peter. In this retelling, Peter and Wendy are actually the same person. Wendy was transgender and as his family was not accepting, he escaped to Neverland where he could be his true self. Honestly, that caught me off guard as I missed it in the synopsis. I read "with" Wendy Darling instead of "as" Wendy Darling. A few other people missed that as well, so I didn't feel bad.
Chant's Peter is pretty typical: selfish, a tad anti-social (I'm talking real anti-social traits, not "I don't like people"), and narcissistic. But his character was inconsistent. He went back and forth between displaying these traits and seeming empathetic and caring of the Lost Boys. Now, he is ten years older, so it can be argued that he is simply growing up. I'll accept that. The inconsistencies in his character wasn't a huge issue for me.
Neverland was also a carbon copy of every other Neverland. Again, not a lot of originality. Chant tried to put a weird spin on it with his description of fairies. In his Neverland, fairies are insect like creatures complete with antennae, many eyes, fur, and everything. Um... I have always been under the impression that fairies were beautiful creatures. Even in Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter world, fairies are described as grotesquely beautiful. I'm ok with that. But insects?
So, the set up was fairly unoriginal. Peter Pan returns to Neverland and resumes his war with Captain Hook and finds the Lost Boys relatively the same, but a little older with a new leader, Ernest, who is the opposite to Peter in pretty much every way. Peter does have flash backs to his life as Wendy that was slightly interesting, but overall, I was unimpressed with the staging of events. I'm still trying to figure out what the point of Ernest was. It's hinted at that he escaped to Neverland because he was gay and he eventually feelings for Peter, but, as the book is only 164 pages and we already know that the love interest is Hook, this is never really explored even from the dreaded love triangle aspect.
We do get some POVs from Hook, and you quickly find out that he gay and finds himself attracted to Peter. It takes quite a while for Peter to have this realization for himself. Eventually, Hook and Peter find themselves trapped together in a cave and they need each other to survive. This is when Chant really starts to make Neverland his own. It was Hook's revelations with Peter that the Neverland lore was finally expanded on. Without going into a lot of details, Hook reveals to Peter that Neverland is real place, but many aspects of it are what Peter and Hook desired for themselves. It's basically a paradise to lose yourself in to escape the real world.
Well, we can't just ride off into the sunset with Peter and Hook realizing their feelings, right? That would be boring. Of course there is a blow up, rejection, and a very heartfelt and loving make-up. It's a cliche love story, but I loved it. I am not big into romances, but I think Chant was able to spin a tale with such real chemistry that I was totally enthralled with the romance of Peter Pan and James Hook.
Overall, I think that the book was fairly unoriginal in initial setup, but Chant eventually does find his groove and is able to make this world his own. By doing so, he was able to produce a love story that I didn't even know that I wanted, let alone needed. I was set on giving this book a two star rating, but the last half saved it and now I am happily giving this book a solid four stars. My biggest issues were with the slow build to an original story, lack of character development for Ernest that still just seems like someone that is completely out of place--like the kid that gets invited to a birthday party because the whole class gets invited,--and the odd depiction of fairies. Unfortunately, this book is out of print and is not available on Kindle or Nook. I came across an e-pub of it, so if you want to give it a go, you may have to do some digging to find it.
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