Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Lost Boy by Christina Henry

26 reviews

darkty's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Child death, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Murder, Kidnapping, Gore, Grief, Rape, Violence, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

thathiplass's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Child death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

breadwitchery's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Blood, Gore, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Animal death

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Fatphobia

someonesomebody's review

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic friendship, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, and Violence

howlsbreakfast's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is the origin story of

Captain Hook

This POV that I never would see as a kid who grew up watching Peter Pan. Like wow. It all makes sense now. Christina Henry wrote this so well. The twists?!! *chefs kiss* hella dark

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Genocide, Death, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, Child death, and Gore

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Toxic friendship

Minor: Death of parent and Domestic abuse

andromeda_1998's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I have a weak spot for Peter Pan retelling and I’ve read multiple ones I like. Lost boy is one of the good ones and a close second only to the childthief by brom. I liked that this story was more a prequel to Disney’s Peter Pan instead of a full retelling inspired by the original book. It was different and in a way more accessible. Everyone has seen the Disney classic but most people didn’t read the book. What makes lost boy one of the best retellings out there? 

Characters 
I loved Jamie as a main character. He is sweet caring, but also morally grey. I would do anything to protect his boys even if that means killing others. I like that he is softhearted but still strong. 

Worldbuilding 
Neverland is Neverland, it’s magical ik all kind of different ways and I’m
Thankful Christina Henry updated the story. She took out some of the racist elements of the story and she found a way to still stay true to the world Disney put onto screens worldwide. 

Story 
The story is set before the Disney movie, like i said multiple times before, and has a lot of darker elements. I’ve loved the way this
Books has been written so much! I recommend this book to anyone! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Violence, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, War, and Emotional abuse

desiderium_incarnate's review

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Meine Sicht auf Peter Pan wurde sehr verändert, weshalb die Originalversion viel an Leichtigkeit und Magie einbüßt. Das finde ich sehr schade. Andererseits ist es meisterhaft, wie gut dieses Buch zu der Welt passt. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Violence

starofash's review

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

lost boy is about the story of jamie, captain hook, before he joined the pirates. 
it's also about how people can twist stories and even your own memories to make you believe them, make you love them. that's exactly what peter does in this retelling. 
he's the villain. 
the story is very captivating and you can't really put the book down. 
the only three critique points i have are: firstly,  the way a queer narrative was avoided, although it had potential to be trans-inclusive or have a gay love story, secondly, the author's obsession with the phrase "xy, for xy" (is that understandable?) 
it's at least on every second page for quite a bit of the book, and after 100 pages, i really was getting fed up. 
lastly, the ending felt a little bit rushed rushed and i would've loved to explore more of jamies feelings and his rise to being captain
 nevertheless, it's a very good book and i enjoyed reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, and Misogyny

isaaah's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

[Rant review]

Peter Pan really is a brilliant villain. I'm obsessed with this concept. I loved his characterization in this book: it was deeply unsettling, frightening even, yet there were moments where I almost felt compassion for him. For the boy that is, essentially, cursed to be alone forever and does everything to not be. Who will never be able to grow past his egocentrical view of the world, will never know the happiness of a kiss, a hug, a mother. A boy who only thrives on blood and on other children worshipping him. Because essentially he -or the island- is like a god, who needs offerings to be satisified. It is deeply chilling and saddening at the same time.

Jamie's (changing) stance towards his relationship with Peter is another thing I loved. We are told he loved Peter once, but we only see him when that love already starts to turn to hate. Yet the memories of the love remain, and those can be just as strong if not stronger than the love itself. The melancholy and sadness of those memories really hit me, thinking back to the times where everything was sunshine and rainbows and finding that everything has changed for the worse. And having to look past those feelings to realize that that person you loved is not the same as you thought them to be. I found it very well conveyed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

morganish's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Full disclosure, I was in a rush and needed to read this for a book club, and could only get it on audiobook, so... 1. There might not be things I remember as clearly as if I was just reading. But 2. This was my first audiobook since... middle school!? Just, a really long time. I kind of just want to download all my thoughts about becoming a recent audiobook convert here instead of a review, but I'll do my best to focus on the actual book instead. 

Lost Boy is a Peter Pan prequel from Hook's perspective, where Peter Pan is a monstrous, manipulative sociopath. It's a really fantastic metaphor for how abuse, especially abuse of minors, works psychologically by pitting victims against each other, explored in a variety of ways that absolutely pull no punches. If you can hang with that kind of content, I can't really recommend it highly enough, and definitely sets this book at least at 4 stars for me. 

But as deeply entrenched as I was in the narrative, there's a particular plot direction somewhere vaguely in the middle of the book that really, really didn't work for me. From a queer lens in specific, it felt like a bit of an oversight how it's handled, though I'm not sure straight/cis readers will notice or think much of it. It soured a lot of the rest of the story in overall enjoyability for me personally. And then, ultimately, the ending felt like it was trying to wrap up and intersect with the canonical version of Peter Pan. This focus on intersection felt like it undermined the story's powerful themes, trying to hit a checklist of events instead of giving Lost Boy the emotional/psychological ending it deserved. For me, these two negative aspects stood out enough to take what was initially a really gripping story and put it in the category of enjoyable for the moment, but not making it into a new favorite. 

If you like retellings or tie-in stories about classic children's tales, especially if they shed a new, more adult, darker light on the original, you should seriously consider picking this up. From what I've seen so far, it succeeds at this more than any other retelling I've encountered. However if you're triggered by stories that realistically explore how abuse works, I definitely would advise proceeding with caution. And I'd also say if you have no tolerance for stories that don't consider/make space for queer interpretations of certain kinds of plot devices or storylines, this might not be the story for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, and War

Minor: Abandonment, Death of parent, and Xenophobia

Additional content warnings: *

A character who is previously believed to be another lost boy is accidentally revealed to have breasts. No acknowledgement is made either by any characters or the text itself that this person could be trans. Additionally the MC (who had been growing close to said character before the reveal) and all of the other boys instantaneously find themselves with crushes on her, the lone major female character in the text. Which I read as problematic for being both a sexist portrayal of female characters and as a weird, unnecessarily forced "no homo" decision for the book.