I just finished the book. As soon as I heard the premise, I was “hooked” and ordered it immediately. When it finally came, I finished it in two days. I just couldn’t put it down!
For the most part, I had a great time reading it. I’m glad it was a buy rather than a library check out, because I already see myself re-reading it many times in the future. It’s one of those books where things will clearly hit differently on re-reads.
Despite becoming addicted, I did have a few criticisms. It was good, but it wasn’t flawless. So this post is my overall thoughts on it.
# The Good
**CHARACTERS**
>**Jamie**
The characters are very endearing. I’ve always loved the concept of Hook being the first lost boy, so Jamie definitely scratched that itch. And his charisma makes it clear why he would be chosen to be Captain of the pirates when he got older. Even as a child, he’s a natural born leader.
And he’s not just a good leader, but a caring friend and loved one too. He starts off as a brother-figure for Charlie, and grows into a brother/father figure in the end. Nod eventually grows older than him, but still admires Jamie despite the gap in age. Sally cares about him, not wanting to follow Jamie as a leader or as a role model, but wanting to be his equal and protect him too. I like how these relationships were written.
It’s actually funny because at first I rolled my eyes at the Sally x Jamie romance. Because *of course* the first Lost Girl would fall in love with one of the boys (YAWN 🥱). But overtime their dynamic grew on me and I understood what it represented. Jamie’s friendship with Peter was his attachment to childhood, whereas his blossoming relationship with Sally symbolized his growing acceptance to adulthood.
*(This is also why Sally is the last death before Jamie is cursed to never grow any older. He has lost his attachment to youth by falling out of love with Pan, and has now lost his attachment to older adulthood/elderhood by losing Sally.)*
>**Peter**
Prior to reading, I thought Henry would write Peter as a 1-dimensional villain. And he is villainous! He lies as easy as he breathes and he’s a diabolically selfish person.
But at his core is the fear of being alone. Because its the only thing that can permanently hurt him, the fear is intense and explosive. It’s why he abducts boys and became obsessed with Jamie. He doesn’t bat an eye at death, but will go nuclear on everyone and everything at the mere possibility of being alone.
This analysis by user odd8ball on Tumblr worded it well:
>*”…Peter is the villain. But in my eyes he’s more a result of the root problem. Neverland itself made Peter the way he is to feed it blood, Peter longs for a friend but can’t understand why that friend might have a problem with the other boys’ deaths or injuries if it means keeping both of them alive. \[…\]*
>
>*”The tragedy of Peter is \[that\] he was made too human to really be content alone, but too mythical to really make human connection for very long. He is capable of being nice but his main priority is fun, and he is too unfamiliar with misery to really sympathize.”*
(I’ll link their full analysis in the comment section.)
Peter craves *human* connection, but he does not crave *communal* connection. He does not actually need an entire horde of Lost Boys, he only needs one, and the rest are all cannon fodder. He literally says so himself. He only brings others to Neverland so they can be useful blood bags to keep him and Jamie alive forever, whether they’re friends or enemies.
Peter’s character was both all the more interesting and all the more terrifying because he isn’t a mindless villain whose only goal is chaotic fun. He does everything he does for love (at least what he perceives as love) and will do anything he can to keep Jamie with him “forever always.”
**TONAL SHIFT**
One of the most well written aspects of the book is how things are flipped into monstrous versions of themselves.
>**Being Special**
In the beginning, Jamie secretly pities/mocks the other Lost Boys for believing they’re special. He says it several times. They each think they have a unique relationship with Peter, but he prides himself because he believes he’s the only one that actually does. I thought Henry would write Jamie realizing that none of them are special in Peter’s eyes and are only toys. That even Jamie himself doesn’t matter. That’s how I *thought* the disillusionment would unfold.
But instead, Jamie is proven correct in the most horrifying of ways. Peter views all of the other children as nothing but *food* for the island, while Jamie is the only one he will do anything in his power to keep around. To Peter, Jamie IS special, to the point where he’ll kill all of Jamie’s friends, loved ones, hurt and curse Jamie himself, just to ensure they stay together forever.
Jamie’s disillusionment isn’t because he realizes he means *nothing* to Peter, it’s because he realizes he means *everything*.
>**Entrapment**
It’s believed that no one can leave the island without Peter’s assistance. Although Jamie’s traveled between the island and the Other Place (our world) several times, he’s never done it without Peter, has felt no desire to try, and hasn’t ever shown anyone else the location of the portal until its too late. (Learned Helplessness™️) One of the only rules on the island is that no one goes back to the Other Place. Once you’re on the island, you stay forever even it means your death bed.
What was an interesting turn around is that Jamie, secretly but without malice, begins to do the same to the pirates.
It’s a brief mention in the final pages. Once Jamie’s cursed to never leave the island, any attempts he makes and anyone with him during so, fail. So when Jamie joins the pirates, he essentially traps them with him. The pirates are described as having no idea why they can’t leave all of a sudden, and they never figure out its because of Jamie. Nod suspects it, but supposedly Jamie never confesses.
But he doesn’t leave their crew to allow the pirates to escape either.
It’s not clear whether he doesn’t leave because he wants to use their resources to take down Peter, whether subconsciously he knows being alone with Peter and the Lost Boys would truly drive him insane, or etc. But the fact is that Jamie *knows* his presence is keeping the pirates on Neverland forever, and instead of leaving their crew and allowing them freedom, he stays on their ship, keeping them there alongside him.
It’s an interesting switch, and it’s fun trying to interpret what Henry meant when she wrote it. That Jamie would begin unintentionally trapping people on Neverland like how Pan does.
**NEVERLAND**
Another aspect I liked was how *mundane* the island seemed to be. At first.
There are magical elements of course. The island itself for one. The portal to the Other Place, the Many-Eyed, the disappearing blood during Battle, flying, etc.
But for most of the book, no one knows Peter can fly. No one knows about the existence of fairies. The Lost Boys survive by the skin of their teeth, develop medicine using scraps and limited knowledge, and we never actually spend time with the mermaids. They’re referenced, but the story is from Jamie’s POV and he never has interest in them, so neither does the overall narrative.
The island starts out as a relatively “ordinary” place, but it reveals how “extraordinary” it is, it’s unsettling rather than awe-inspiring.
* The island keeps you young if you wish for it too. But the way it keeps you *alive* is that blood must be shed. The more the better.
* Peter can fly, but he’s selfishly kept it a secret. Then once he does reveal it, he uses it to harass, to attack, or to laugh at other’s misery from a safe distance.
* Fairies exist, but they’re discovered too late. Their home gets burned to ash and their species rendered nearly extinct all besides Tinkerbell (who wasn’t part of the carnage because she was helping Peter cause mayhem.)
The island is somewhat normal at first, and as the truth of its abnormalities get exposed, it doesn’t feel magical, it feels depressing. The place Jamie considered home for centuries has become a stranger to him by the end of the book. The writing here was superbly done.
# The In Between
>**Jamie and Perfection**
As I said earlier, I do genuinely love Jamie and think he’s a great protagonist. That said, I felt some of the writing behind him was spotty.
For one, he came off as a bit of a Gary Stu. He is perfect at everything, the best fighter, the most popular, he gets the girl, etc.
He has flaws, his anger issues, but they only come out at “justifiable” moments. Against Nibs, who is a one dimensional bully and who everyone else hates too. And against Peter, who does horrible things first. His anger issues never flair up around characters unprovoked, for example Sally or Nod or Charlie. Alongside this, his anger is the only flaw he seems to have. He’s just too perfect.
And as described, he’s the best fighter on the island. Charlie asks how many times Jamie’s been Battle Champion and I winced when he said every single time.
*HOWEVER*, the more I thought about how “perfect” Jamie was, the more I realized Henry’s intentions.
Jamie IS perfect, or at least pretty close to it. But despite being amazing, he fails.
* He IS the best fighter.
* But he realizes too late that all the boys he’s beaten bloody, all the pirates he’s killed, and even him bashing Nibs’ brains out with a rock, all contributed to the island and Peter’s strength. As the best fighter and as Battle Champion, he was unintentionally Neverland’s #1 provider.
* He IS the most popular. All the boys wholeheartedly love him.
* But he realizes too late that this played a part in their demise. Nod explains it best, the only reason all the boys stayed by Peter’s side is because Jamie did. They loved Jamie and so they saw Peter through Jamie’s eyes. This is why the second Jamie falls *out* of love with Peter, it’s a trickle down effect of them following suit.
* Upon learning this, Jamie is wracked with guilt and self loathing. By acting as a bridge between Peter and the boys, he’s unintentionally served as a conduit for their fates. And by acting as Peter’s enabler, he’s taught the boys what they should forgive Peter for too. Although they’re all children, it feels very reminiscent of an abusive spouse, and the partner that is both victim and enabler when it comes to their children.
* He DOES get the girl. Besides Peter and Charlie, all the boys fret over Sally and Nod develops a crush. But in the end, her and Jamie choose each other.
* But this is also what dooms her. Because of her relationship with Jamie, Sally gets one of the most gruesome deaths and is eaten alive by a crocodile. Her and Jamie don’t get to say goodbyes or even see each other in her final moments. She dies with Peter laughing over her corpse.
Jamie IS perfect, but this seems to hurt him more than it actually helps. This is why I have this point here in the “In between” section, as I can see both sides of it. Overall, it’s pretty brilliant writing despite sometimes coming off as excessive.
# The Bad
>**Charlie**
For the most part, Charlie was written adorably and he does have an interesting character arc himself. No longer is he the boy that hides his face in Jamie’s chest when scared, but by the end wants to stay and fight, and help in anyway he can.
My issue with Charlie’s writing didn’t take root until the end.
For majority of the book, Charlie prefers Jamie over Peter. This preference is one of the driving forces behind Peter’s hatred. The boys can care about one another, but they must value Peter above all else. Charlie does not. He instead grows more disapproving of Peter as more boys die.
So when all it takes for Charlie to change sides and fawn over Peter like no tomorrow, is to be gifted a toy fairy, it feels… *bizarre*. Because that’s all it takes. A toy. And then Charlie switches sides in the blink of an eye.
He stops hanging out with the others and only follows Peter around. He starts dressing like him, talking like him, and “ooh and aah”-ing at everything Peter says and does. It even gets to the point where Charlie begins insulting Jamie, calling him boring and dull whenever he disagrees with Peter.
This switch was SO abrupt and out of nowhere. Just remembering it I’m still taken aback. Nor did I really have time to adjust because Peter betrays Charlie almost instantly.
Honestly, this felt like one of those scenes where a writer came up with it before putting pen to paper, and then once the writing process began, they realize too late they don’t know how to make it fit into their story anymore, so they cram it in, in hopes that no one will notice the jagged edges.
I wish the change of Charlie’s “alliance switch” had been smoother.
* Maybe instead of being so antagonistic towards Peter, Charlie is just afraid of him. So when Peter starts being nice, he doesn’t seem so scary to Charlie anymore?
* Or maybe Peter says he’ll stop hurting others and being “mean” if Charlie becomes his friend, manipulating him to stay close.
* Or maybe Charlie never befriends him at all and Peter just kidnaps him.
I don’t know, but I do think anything would’ve been better than the abrupt transition of Charlie hating Peter – to loving Peter – to immediately hating him again anyways. The speed at which it happens (spanning about 3 pages) made it feel kind’ve pointless. (I’m referring specifically to Charlie’s alliance switch, not the massacres that happen as a result.)
>**Everyone Else**
This is one of the biggest problems I had with the characters.
While the relationships were endearing, and I do acknowledge that the story is mainly about Jamie and Peter, the extent to which everyone else is pushed into the background feels like a disservice.
A lot of people die. Pirates, Lost Boys, etc. But I only care about them because of how their deaths affected Jamie (if it did). We hardly get to know anyone else on a personal level besides Peter, Jamie, Charlie, and a bit of Sally and Nod.
It’s explained that sometimes when a Lost Boy grows too old, he’s exiled from the group and must go to the pirates in order to survive. We learn this, and yet there’s never any incident in which the boys encounter a former friend as a pirate. The only pirate we see a character talk to is Red Tom, who Jamie kills without hesitation and without remorse. We have no idea if Red Tom used to be a former Lost Boy or not. We don’t know who, if any, of the current pirates are ex-Lost Boys.
This piece of world building is mentioned and then never brought up again. Well, I suppose besides Jamie and Nod at the end. I guess all it amounted to was foreshadowing for their fates. I do think a lot more could’ve been done with the concept though.
Pirates aside, there’s a horrific moment where 6 or 7 boys are killed at once due to a cannon ball. The scene is graphic and Jamie goes into a blind rage seeing it happen. You feel bad for the boys because of how gruesome the death was, and because of how much it hurt Jamie, but you do not actually feel the boys’ absence once they’re gone. The story didn’t explore them beforehand. I know one of them was Slightly, but the ONLY reason I remember that is because the name is from the original Barrie novel. I could not tell you any of the other boys’ names that were killed in that cannon ball blast.
I think all the deaths would’ve been a lot more impactful if we actually got to know more of the characters, and could feel the weight of their absence once gone.
**Bonus: PACING / WORLD BUILDING**
I think a longer, slower paced book could’ve helped not only develop the background characters more, but also expand the world building.
(You know a book is good when you’re upset there isn’t more LOL)
>**From Jamie to Captain Hook**
Alongside the Lost Boys, I had expected there to be more content about the pirates given that this is a Captain Hook origin story. But we barely get anything about the pirates. Jamie, Nod, and Charlie have zero trouble joining them, we don’t know any of their shipmates or crew once they do, we don’t know who is the captain once Jamie joins and who he succeeds once he becomes Captain Hook. Nothing.
Once the three of them join the pirates, that’s it. “Jamie becomes Captain Hook” is really all we get about them.
>**Tiger Lily**
There’s zero mentions of Tiger Lily’s tribe. I guess they come to the island sometime after the finale and before the Darlings, but it did feel odd that they weren’t mentioned even once. Not even at the end, when there’s a time skip and Peter has recruited an entire new flock of boys and Jamie becomes pirate captain. I do wish there was at least a hint of the tribe’s existence or arrival.
>**The Crocodile Story**
Early on, Peter sits everyone down to go over a tale about a crocodile and a small child/duckling. The point of the story is to frighten Charlie, serve as a warning to Jamie, and thematically it represents their entire situation. Peter is the crocodile, who waits for a very long time for his chance, Jamie is actually the small child/duckling who the crocodile drags into the depths with him forever, and the weeping mother is the ghost of everyone else that’s impacted. (It can also symbolize Jamie and Peter as well, who at varying points, mourn the early days of their friendship when ignorance was bliss.)
So while I do think the crocodile story is a good concept, spending 5 or 6 *ENTIRE* pages to tell it felt like overkill. This was the one section of the book where I was zoning out.
Overall, the book would’ve benefited from either a more balanced pace or more chapters. Because although it was the standard 300+ pages, going on for much longer would’ve allowed more time for the characters, especially those in the background, to be properly fleshed out and their deaths have more emotional impact.
# Conclusion
All in all, I had a really good time with this book and I’m really happy I got it. I already plan to reread it later in time. Although I mostly loved it, I did feel there were elements that could’ve been better written or more fleshed out.
It wasn’t a perfect story, but it was still incredible and is definitely one of my favorites now.
by strawbebb