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A review by skylarkblue1
Saving Neverland by Abi Elphinstone
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
tense
fast-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
3.5
Representations: https://trello.com/c/TuhIV9XG/97-saving-neverland-by-abi-elphinstone
Oooh this was an interesting one. Super neat take on peter pan, but some strange choices that really took the whole book down a notch.
Instead of being just a retelling or a reimagining, for some reason the original story seems to be.. canon? It's brought up a lot, the original story, and the details within it, to give context but to me it felt like it was just pushing a lot of the world building and character arc of peter specifically onto the original story instead - and making this book feel a bit "less". You both do and don't need to read the original story, and considering the author's note/acknowledgements that feels like it's defeating the point.
The pacing of the story also felt off, it was incredibly fast paced and there was a ton of telling and not much showing, especially at the start and end. It skips over so much and a lot of events are just summed up in a single sentence. This book absolutely needed to be at least a duology, so many amazing sounding events in it and nowhere close to enough time for each! Even the main event of the book, the huge adventure, is only over a single day!
Pacing also of the asthma representation also felt a tad odd. Scruff came into the story very very little, and when he did the vast majority of his time specified around his asthma only. I mean it was pretty nice, showing the importance and such, but I just wanted so much more from his character. We're told so much about him, but shown very little overall.
Characters I quite enjoyed though, except for peter pan kinda aha... He was just standard peter pan without much change at all. Kinda mostly is just the exact same in his mannerisms, traits and even some scenes I could picture damn clearly especially from the 2003 live action film (which is, my favourite version of peter pan by *far* honestly lol). I loved the kids though, especially pickle oh my god pickle was amazing xD Reminded me so much of Sunny from series of unfortunate events and I honestly want more characters of this type haha!!
After getting to the authors note and acknowledgements though, suddenly so much became clear. Apparently Puffin asked Abi if she could write a "modern reimagining of peter pan" and they wanted a first draft done in the same year she was moving 3 times and having a baby??? I really think this book would have come out a lot more polished if she was given proper time to work on it because I absolutely love the adventure and plot lines in it! I would love to see a longer time with the cast especially.
Oooh this was an interesting one. Super neat take on peter pan, but some strange choices that really took the whole book down a notch.
Instead of being just a retelling or a reimagining, for some reason the original story seems to be.. canon? It's brought up a lot, the original story, and the details within it, to give context but to me it felt like it was just pushing a lot of the world building and character arc of peter specifically onto the original story instead - and making this book feel a bit "less". You both do and don't need to read the original story, and considering the author's note/acknowledgements that feels like it's defeating the point.
The pacing of the story also felt off, it was incredibly fast paced and there was a ton of telling and not much showing, especially at the start and end. It skips over so much and a lot of events are just summed up in a single sentence. This book absolutely needed to be at least a duology, so many amazing sounding events in it and nowhere close to enough time for each! Even the main event of the book, the huge adventure, is only over a single day!
Pacing also of the asthma representation also felt a tad odd. Scruff came into the story very very little, and when he did the vast majority of his time specified around his asthma only. I mean it was pretty nice, showing the importance and such, but I just wanted so much more from his character. We're told so much about him, but shown very little overall.
Characters I quite enjoyed though, except for peter pan kinda aha... He was just standard peter pan without much change at all. Kinda mostly is just the exact same in his mannerisms, traits and even some scenes I could picture damn clearly especially from the 2003 live action film (which is, my favourite version of peter pan by *far* honestly lol). I loved the kids though, especially pickle oh my god pickle was amazing xD Reminded me so much of Sunny from series of unfortunate events and I honestly want more characters of this type haha!!
After getting to the authors note and acknowledgements though, suddenly so much became clear. Apparently Puffin asked Abi if she could write a "modern reimagining of peter pan" and they wanted a first draft done in the same year she was moving 3 times and having a baby??? I really think this book would have come out a lot more polished if she was given proper time to work on it because I absolutely love the adventure and plot lines in it! I would love to see a longer time with the cast especially.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness
Detailed descriptions of asthma and asthma attacks, depiction of a form of young carer, anxiety.