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A review by merlin_reads
Second Star by Alyssa Sheinmel
3.0
Peter Pan is one of my favorite Disney movies. I mean, I have a Peter Pan tattoo, so I'm not lying when I say I love it. A YA book that's a Peter Pan retelling? Sign me up!
Sheinmel has an interesting way of presenting these characters. Wendy is a girl looking for her missing brothers, John and Michael. Peter is a surfer boy she meets on her search. He lives with a bunch of runaway “lost” boys including one girl named Belle. Hook in this scenario is a drug dealer named Jas who pedals “star dust”. While these weren’t the characters you remembered, there were key elements that reminded you this was a retelling.
Somewhere along the way, the story fell flat for me. Peter was all over the place, Wendy seemed to just drag her feet around, there was no tangible connection between Wendy and Peter, and I just wanted him gone. I was more drawn to the Jas character. As the story’s “villain”, I felt Jas had a more interesting background. He was a mystery and I could see why Wendy was attracted to him. It was a little weird to have a love triangle in this setting of the story, but that could just be my attachment to the Disney movie. It also seemed out of place. This was a story I felt was more about Wendy’s journey to find her brothers, not which guy she would ultimately choose.
The ending was a bit of a disappointment for me, to be honest. It didn’t seem to flow correctly with the set up the author had already lain out. I was left in confusion almost as much as the characters over what had transpired. In the end, I wanted more. The writing was intriguing and the ideas original, it was just the execution that left me looking for a way out.
If only Peter…
Sheinmel has an interesting way of presenting these characters. Wendy is a girl looking for her missing brothers, John and Michael. Peter is a surfer boy she meets on her search. He lives with a bunch of runaway “lost” boys including one girl named Belle. Hook in this scenario is a drug dealer named Jas who pedals “star dust”. While these weren’t the characters you remembered, there were key elements that reminded you this was a retelling.
Somewhere along the way, the story fell flat for me. Peter was all over the place, Wendy seemed to just drag her feet around, there was no tangible connection between Wendy and Peter, and I just wanted him gone. I was more drawn to the Jas character. As the story’s “villain”, I felt Jas had a more interesting background. He was a mystery and I could see why Wendy was attracted to him. It was a little weird to have a love triangle in this setting of the story, but that could just be my attachment to the Disney movie. It also seemed out of place. This was a story I felt was more about Wendy’s journey to find her brothers, not which guy she would ultimately choose.
The ending was a bit of a disappointment for me, to be honest. It didn’t seem to flow correctly with the set up the author had already lain out. I was left in confusion almost as much as the characters over what had transpired. In the end, I wanted more. The writing was intriguing and the ideas original, it was just the execution that left me looking for a way out.
If only Peter…