Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Lost Boy by Christina Henry

18 reviews

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

---

Content Warnings

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

littletiramisu's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Gore

l_ander's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Grief

mybestfriendsarefictional's review

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Very , very enjoyable dark read. Takes the tale of Peter Pan and turns it on its head - absolutely fantastic read.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Abandonment, Child abuse, and Child death

storyorc's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Failed to follow through on the promise of nuance in the toxic friendship between Peter and Jamie but this Peter Pan beats out all the little horror movie dead girls for scariest child antagonist. The sense of dread grows and does not relent.

Pan lore purists, this is not for you. Works best as a prequel to the Disney or with only a faint memory the original.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Abandonment and Sexism

Minor: Bullying and Rape

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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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. 

---

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.

grisgrisgris's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Murder, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic friendship, and Child abuse