Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Lost in the Never Woods

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

10 reviews

historyoftape's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I struggled to get into this book after having super high expectations for the premise. I'm glad I ended up picking it up again, because the story started picking up a bit just after where I'd stopped. I really enjoyed how it set up my initial suspicions, then made me question them over & over again by

giving what seemed to be clearcut answers that contradicted them, only to have them confirmed in the end

Sometimes I felt the book leaned too much into previous characterizations of Wendy and Peter, but the further on it went the more I could feel the characters becoming the author's own. The ending came about

a little contrived, the fact that all of a sudden she could just decide that now was a good time to remember what happened, but then again, she did just get information that changed what she thought she might remember so I'm not quite sure about how to feel about that

Everything after that point was well thought out, the twist was great, the ending truly bittersweet. And the epilogue was just open enough for me to start spinning my own possibilities.

also, kind of a cool parallel how as a pediatrician Wendy will be helping kids on this side of the afterlife, and Peter will take care of the ones she might not be able to save... A comfort?

One thing I found slightly unrealistic though was that none of the kids spilled the beans on Peter Pan.

The lie of there being a different kidnapper leaves them with a heap of trauma they can't really talk about-at least to their parents. I mean sure, being consistently scared by a shadow to feed it seems hard to explain, but man is that different from mere confinement.

Content Warnings

martuchi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Okay so I have to admit a few tears left my eyes during the last part. I just couldn’t stop hearing 2003 Peter Pan’s music in my ears once

the shadow was beaten and Peter started flying again

.
However, and even if Peter Pan IS my favorite children’s story, this one had a few (dumb) things I didn’t like.

The Darling family being AMERICAN!!!

Idk what Americans have that they NEED to make everything about themselves—I know that the author has Latin American roots, they’re still from the US—. I hated that.

George Darling being a very mean man throughout the entire novel.

Okay, he might not be a very kind person to be around in his canon version, yet I never ever thought that Mr. Darling was almost despicable here. Of course , he redeems himself at the end, but that doesn’t make less likable at the beginning. I would have liked more if he would be more similar to the real version: a serious man that loves his children but it’s not actually rude to them. Just very strict.

ALSO! THE NEGLECTFUL PARENTS BOTH DARLING ADULTS ARE OMG!!!

Wendy being an idiot.

She is so dumb and she falls every time, and feels guilty for absolutely everything. You understand it at first, given all the trauma she has, but then it just becomes repetitive and annoying. I liked her character regardless, though.

You should ignore my stupid criticism though, and read it! It’s amazing and I think it has more pros than flaws, to be honest. One of the main plot twists is ver y much expected but still very emotional once it actually gets revealed.

And the other one was just wow. I sure didn’t expect that.

Solid 4 stars.

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jemmy1090's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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writewithapendragon's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This book starts off mega slow but the last third or last quarter is really exquisite.

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unwise_samwise's review

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adventurous emotional 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? No

4.5

Content Warnings

cemeterygay's review

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

5.0

I need to preface this review by saying if you go into this book expecting a fun Peter Pan retelling or a similar tone to Cemetery Boys, you will be deeply disappointed. It's also not heavily focused on the fantasy element so don't expect that.

This book is a beautiful examination of grief and childhood trauma in a way that not many books are able to do. I will say it is more of a follow-up to Peter Pan than really a Peter Pan retelling.

I think Thomas does a brilliant job of portraying the emotional isolation and disconnect that can occur after facing trauma at an incredibly young age and while for some readers that may be hard to connect to, it felt painfully relatable and real to my experiences. I found Wendy's relationship with her family and her friend Jordan to be incredibly interesting. I did like seeing how different family members reacted to Wendy's brothers' disappearances and how they each dealt with grief. I think this book also dealt with the guilt that comes, whether or not you're responsible, after the loss of a loved one or someone you knew well.

I think Peter's childishness is a nice contrast to Wendy's more detached attitude and it really serves to highlight how much Wendy has changed over the years since Peter's first visit.

As per usual, Aiden Thomas's writing style is phenomenal and I think works incredibly well with this particular story. I also adored the ending and epilogue for this book which is something I can't say too often.

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invioletshadows's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

this book left me an absolute wreck, and i'm going to be thinking about it forever. i already miss wendy and peter. i think i just wanted a little more from the side characters

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bedtimesandbooks's review

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I’m going to be 100% honest with you.

The ONLY reason I picked up this book is because it was written by Aiden Thomas.

I LOVED Cemetery Boys. It is by far, one of my favorite reads this year.

I’m not a Peter Pan fan. But, I trusted Aiden and picked up this book anyways.

And as I was reading it I thought it was fine. It didn’t engage me in quite the same way that Cemetery Boys did. I know that this is a YA, and as I was reading it I definitely felt like this was made for a younger reader, which I didn’t feel like with Cemetery Boys. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m not the intended reader. A book can be good and not my cup of tea all at the same time.

But then... as I got closer to the end I stayed up WAY too late finishing this, and ended up bawling my eyes out. So yeah. Maybe it is for me? I don’t 100% know where I stand yet, but any book that makes me ugly cry AUTOMATICALLY gets stars.

I will say that if you are even remotely familiar with the Peter Pan story, then you will probably be able to easily identify some of the upcoming twists and storylines. Aiden has described this as “basically fanfic”, and I agree with that descriptions (albeit with the racist stereotypes removed which made this much better than the original story)

Also, this cover is 💯

Will I read Aiden’s next book? 100%. I can’t wait.

This one was hard to rate, but I’m going with 4 Stars

Content Warnings

wanderonwards's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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ofbooksandechos's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

I liked this but the more time passes, the less I remember what this book was about

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