This was another birthday book. Having just read ‘The Mermaid’ by Christina Henry, I was excited to dive into another retelling of a classic story.

Synopsis (as found on back of book) is as follows:

There is one version of my story that everyone knows. And then there is the truth. Once I loved a boy called Peter Pan.

Peter brought me to his island because there were no rules and no grownups to make us mind. He brought boys from the Other Place to join in the fun, but Peter’s idea of fun is sharper than a pirate’s sword. He wants always to be that shining sun that we all revolve around. He’ll do anything to be that sun. Peter promised we would all be young and happy forever. Peter will say I’m a villain, that I wronged him, that I never was his friend.

Peter Lies.

Ability to read – I actually found this super difficult to get into. It wasn’t an easy read for me. It was a lot darker than I was expecting it to be and the language and style of the book were difficult for me to process. I stuck with it though and managed to read the book till the end.

Characterisation – I thought all the characters proved to have strong voices and that the characters were fully fleshed out. I think Christina Henry wrote Peter Pan to a T, he was written exactly how I would have imagined a more gritty, darker Peter to be. Jamie was a force to be reckoned with. His character goes through many changes and at the beginning I wasn’t sure if I was going to like him but reading through the story helped me see the other sides of Jamie and made me realise what a powerful character he was.

Visualisation – My ability to visualise was hindered somewhat by how difficult I found getting into the book to be. I was still able to visualise what was happening around me but it wasn’t as clear or vivid as other imaginations. The book didn’t necessarily let me travel within its pages and allow me to leave the real world but it didn’t bore me either. The visual picture I got in my head was enough to keep me reading to discover more.

Uniqueness – I haven’t read a retelling of Peter Pan before, so that in itself was unique. It was interesting to see a character closely interact with Peter and have it not be Wendy. I thought the dynamic between the characters was really interesting to read about and gave many layers to all character’s involved.

Problems – It’s not a problem per say but I find myself sitting on the fence in terms of this book. I’ve had a run of great literature that has made me feel many things and that has transported me into different worlds that I was disappointed and frustrated that this didn’t garner the same results. It is a perfectly good book and I so wanted to like it more than I did. Because I had difficulty reading it, I got frustrated and bored more easily and that definitely impacted the way I read and my opinion of the book. It is still a great book but I don’t think I’ll be keeping it on my shelf.

Hannah xoxo