Book Review: Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas
Following your favorite Peter Pan characters, this classic retelling is all you could hope for as an adult. I’m so glad I got the chance to review Lost in the Never Woods if only for the romance between Peter and Wendy.
Book Information
Wendy Darling has spent the last five years trying to figure out what happened to her brothers, John and Michael. They all went missing, but only Wendy came back six months later with no memory of what had happened. Now, when children start going missing again, Wendy meets Peter, a boy who is oddly familiar but still a stranger. Peter needs Wendy’s help to find all the missing children, and Wendy knows that if she finds them, she’ll find her brothers. Peter and Wendy must work together to find out what happened to her brothers and save all the missing children before it’s too late.
Review | Heidi Dischler
This was a book I almost passed up. I had scheduled a hold for it at my local library and when I received this book, I realized it was a retelling. I’m normally not a retelling kind of girl, so I had the return button up and ready. I’m so glad I didn’t actually return it.
I loved this book. As I child, I had a major crush on Peter Pan and the stories that had him in it. This novel was no different, except it may have made me love him a little bit more. Aiden Thomas does a wonderful job at bringing Peter and Wendy’s characters to life, and more importantly, crafting a story around these two characters that we know and love in an expert way.
The plot of this novel was plausible and gave enough detail to flesh out the magic of Neverland and Peter’s shadow to keep everything entertaining. I’m not exactly sure why people had mixed reviews about it. I know Peter and Wendy got sidetracked (a lot), but it was still well-written nonetheless.
Spoilers ahead.
Okay, so I liked the ending. I really did. I just didn’t like how everything wrapped up. Please, please don’t read further if you don’t want the story to be spoiled for you.
In my heart, I knew that Michael and John were dead. I just didn’t know how it happened, and it was so heartbreaking to find out. It sucked. Bad. It hurt my heart so much even though the amount of time they are spent as actual characters was very very small. I’m not saying that this ending makes it any less amazing as a novel, (authors should be able to choose how their work ends because sometimes the endings just feel right). All I’m saying is that it hurt. I think, though, if they would’ve been trapped in Peter’s shadow’s fear lair for five years, it would have hurt just as much to see how much it impacted them mentally.
Overall, I really really loved this book. It had magic, happiness, love, fear, hope, and all of the things that make Peter Pan amazing. It is the type of book that makes you reminisce on your childhood and makes you understand just how important that innocence was.
Source: Overdrive Audiobook from Public Library
