Reviews tagging 'Death'

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

77 reviews

kerrygibbons's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

1 rainbow 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Child death, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Car accident, Confinement, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Stalking, Bullying, and Addiction

The themes of this book are dark and involve children going missing, emotional abuse, and

child death

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Car accident, Gun violence, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Violence, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Addiction

Minor: Stalking and Chronic illness

the6thstorm_hawk's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Child death, Alcohol, and Death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Car accident

emileemaree's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Grief, and Kidnapping

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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

3.75

Wendy’s life was upended years ago when she and her brothers went missing in the woods, and only she returned (with no memory of what occurred). I enjoyed this Peter Pan-inspired story. It didn’t wow me, but I enjoyed the experience. Wendy’s complicated relationship with Peter, and Peter’s complicated relationship with stories were compelling enough to keep me reading. The ending feels both like a little much and very satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Alcohol, Child death, Medical content, Death, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Grief, and Kidnapping

Parents lost in grief, missing siblings, missing children, trauma

estellec13's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Grief, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Murder, Blood, Body horror, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Car accident

curlyewe's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Kidnapping, Child death, Death, and Gun violence

stormeno's review

emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death and Gun violence

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

3.5

Pretty decent book. Enjoyed this Peter Pan retelling even thought I'm not a big fan of Peter Pan in general. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Alcohol, Child death, Grief, and Kidnapping

sarah_shelf's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.5

I really wanted to like this book. I’ve adored Aiden Thomas’ other books and was so excited when I realized his next book was a fairytale retelling. It’s always been one of my favorite genres, and reading the Peter and the Starcatchers series got me into the genre, so I was happy to dive into another Peter Pan story. However, I was bored throughout so much of this book. The beginning and the end, especially, were entertaining but the middle just seemed to drag on. 

I started losing interest somewhere around the time Wendy confronted Peter in the hunting shack and confirmed he was in fact trying to help the missing kids not hurt them. After that, so much of the novel was just Wendy trying to hide her activities from her family and friends because no one would believe her (which makes sense but also just got more annoying every time she brought it up and delivered a new lie) or her and Peter wandering around the town and woods with no real idea of how to help. 

I will admit, the last few chapters were entertaining and fun. I suspected part of the plot twist, but didn’t quite grasp the scope of it until the big reveal. And while the lack of communication that exacerbated the reveal was annoying, I was so happy to see some out there theories make it into this version’s lore. However, I can’t help thinking so much of the novel was unnecessary to reach that point. Yes, technically all the development between Peter and Wendy was required for the climax of the story, but again it was all just so slow. It doesn’t fit into the supposed deadline and terrible consequences everyone will face if they fail to find the kids and stop their kidnapper. The ending, and it really was a fantastic ending in my eyes, can’t make up for my lackluster opinion of the rest of the novel.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Blood, Child death, Death, and Injury/Injury detail