A review by bookshelvesandtealeaves
Heartless by H.G. Parry

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-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? Yes

3.0

I really enjoyed this take on Peter Pan!

Some of the details were heartbreaking, like Peter’s origin and Gwendolen’s fate and the details laid out for the Peter Pan story we actually know.

This one tugs on your heartstrings, too. James and Gwendolen are both such loveable characters, it’s very easy to get swept away in their story.

Two things didn’t quite work for me, though. Being only 140 pages, this whole plot felt SO rushed. I would have liked to have spent more time with James and George at sea, get to know the ways they’ve changed over the years. The other thing sort of leads on from that - I did not get the sense AT ALL that 20 years had passed. Not only to we miss any on-page development or true passing of time, but James’s dialogue felt just as juvenile at 34 as it had at 14. There was no sense of him having aged or gained any experience despite spending 20 years at sea.

Despite this, it was an easy, enjoyable read.