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booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This shines both as a retelling and as an original story. Peter Pan is an interesting starting point for retellings because he and his story (at minimum) offer opportunities to either play up the wonder of childhood and the adventure offered by the island or to explore the darkness in having a place filled with fear and violence but little protection which generally requires magic to leave. This is unabashedly of the second ilk and there the story is the strongest. It's a book about kids slowly losing their innocence and breaking more and more until the grief and disillusion force them to literally grow up as they stop believing in the person who promised to let them play forever. That promise carried within it poison, a threat from the beginning as "can" play forever twisted into "must", and every wave of glorious games brings with it pain and death. Play isn't play if you never get to stop, and games don't stay fun when there's always the same winner. I love Jamie as a narrator, his voice strikes just the right balance of sounding jaded with enough room to lose even more innocence before the story is through.
I have two major criticisms but neither of them were enough to make me dislike the book as a whole. The rest of this review will contain minor spoilers, but the spoiler-free version of my critique is twofold: Firstly, I think the way the loss of hands is handled changes the original (animal attack) backstory from one of misfortune to one of malice. It stinks of ableism in a way that makes me uneasy, but I don't have the perspective to know for sure if it's a problem or just kind of odd. Secondly, it misses the mark in its attempt at fulfilling the time-honored Peter Pan retelling tradition of playing with gender in interesting ways. The way it chose was jarring and ultimately boring.
Read LOST BOY for a story where growing up feels like breaking by inches, and everyone Jamie tries to protect becomes another way to hurt him.
The idea that the person who would eventually become Captain Hook
There's a lot of cool ways to explore concepts of gender in a Peter Pan story, especially one which has the title of "Lost Boy" so prominently displayed.
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Murder, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism and Death of parent
Minor: Rape
CW for major character death (graphic).juliezantopoulos's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Physical abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Bullying, and Child abuse
amanda_t's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: Animal death and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Domestic abuse
panic_at_the_bookshelf's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Sexual assault
chrissyssoul's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
However, Jamie soon (well soon after the book begins) starts to realize Peter's idea of "fun" may not be what it seems.
Peter is a dark version of what it would be like to truly be a child forever. He has just enough life experience and intellectual development to know how and why to do things, but has not grown enough emotionally to care what the repercussions are for his actions (or he is just a sociopath).
"All children, but one, grow up." - J.M. Barrie
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Blood, Child death, and Death
Minor: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Kidnapping
keen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Blood, Death, Violence, Child death, and Grief
Moderate: Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Kidnapping