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Heirs of Neverland Books: Dust & Shadow by Kara Swanson

The Heirs of Neverland duology by Kara Swanson is a fairly recent addition to the list of Peter Pan retellings out there, and while there are many older takes on the story I’m itching to review, I thought it best to go ahead and get my thoughts down on this one while they’re fresh in my mind. Because this is a review of multiple books in a mini-series, there really isn’t a good way around revealing some major plot points, so be forewarned that the summary WILL CONTAIN MAJOR SPOILERS. If you don’t want to read any spoilers but would still like my overall take on the books, please skip down to the “What I Liked” section.

Summary/Overview:

Rather than being a straightforward retelling of Peter Pan, the Heirs of Neverland books are a sort of sequel mini-series, taking place in modern times, a generation or two after the main events of the book. (Not to worry, though, my fellow Hook fans--our favorite captain is still alive and well...though admittedly we don’t get much of an explanation as to how.)

The main character of the two books is a girl named Claire. She and her twin brother, Connor, grew up in the foster system. Connor, who loved Peter Pan stories growing up as a sort of escape, went missing years ago. Most people have long given up on finding Connor, but Claire believes he’s still out there and spends years trying to find him because he’s the only real family she has, and she has a hard time fitting in. She has what the doctors have called an unknown skin disorder (because they can’t find any good medical explanation)… When she is feeling something strongly, her skin sort of…flakes off into little dust particles. And this sort of extreme skin flaking isn’t just embarrassing...it can actually be dangerous for those around her when she’s upset because those “angry” dust particles burn. Much like Elsa in Frozen, Claire fears the damage she may do and learns to conceal her more tumultuous emotions.

Meanwhile, while Claire is looking for Connor, Peter is looking for Claire. Peter has come to the real world and gotten stuck there long enough to grow up a bit. Neverland is a mess, and he thinks Claire may be the key to fixing it. What Claire doesn’t know (and only finds out slowly through Peter and others) is that she and Connor were born on Neverland and have magic in their veins. Hook—who has also been living in the real world for awhile and has teamed up with many former Lost Boys who started growing up in Peter’s absence—also knows about Claire and had been seeking her out for his own means, which aren’t readily apparent to begin with. But he ends up promising to take her to Connor, and she ultimately ends up trusting him more than Peter and uses her pixie dust to fly the ship to the island.

What she doesn’t realize is that Connor is the REASON Neverland is so messed up, his negative emotions slowly poisoning the island. Peter, Claire, and Connor all have an equally strong bond with the island that can affect the health/weather of the island, etc. But Connor wants all the power for himself and has teamed up with Hook and a mysterious woman named Paige. It becomes clearer as the story goes on that Hook isn’t entirely on board with what Connor and Paige are up to. He’s honestly a bit afraid of Connor’s powers and what they are doing to the island and seems to recognize that what they’re trying to do is going too far. He seems to have genuinely gotten attached to the boys and recognizes in Claire something he once saw in Paige that has since become dark and twisted.

We eventually learn that Paige is actually Peter’s sister…but he doesn’t initially remember her because of how the island works. She helped him create the island when they were both children who ran away from home after their mother died and their father became abusive and neglectful. Hook was one of the oldest and first Lost Boys. He and Paige started to grow up when they began to fall in love with each other, but Peter wasn’t happy that his two closest friends were leaving him. A fight broke out that ultimately resulted in the hand loss and Hook being tossed into the water. Paige, knowing he wasn’t a great swimmer, dove in after him and managed to save him…but she herself drowned in the process. The island brought her back to life, but because its magic is what’s keeping her alive, she can’t leave. Anytime she goes too far away, she starts to drown again. So she was stuck there without Peter even remembering who she was and with Hook probably assuming she was dead for a long time. She wanted to use Connor to take over Neverland and help her rewrite the “rules” so she could leave and finally be free. But needless to say, things don’t go according to plan. Peter has grown up enough to be selfless and take responsibility for his past mistakes, and with some help from Claire and Peter, Connor is able to let go of the darkness within him that Paige has taken and turned into a literal monster. Hook finally comes around to their side when Paige is clearly out of control and just won’t give up. He realizes, sadly, that the part of her he loved is pretty much gone and that Peter has changed and matured. He makes a final attempt to smooth things over and offers that she can stay with him on the Roger and they can start over, even if they’re stuck on the island…at least they’d be together. But she’s too far gone and ultimately chooses to leave the island one way or another, presumably dying in the process. The island is restored. Claire and Connor are able to stay on the island and finally have a place where they feel like they belong and have a family. Peter, too, stays on the island with Claire, who he has been falling in love with, and periodically continues to bring the children who need it most to the island…but is more responsible and less selfish now. The previous Lost Boys seem to go in a few different ways…Tootles stays with Tiger Lily, who he has fallen in love with, and most of the others seem to stick around as well but are on good terms with both Hook and Peter, who are now at peace with one another. 

What I Liked:

The message--or rather messages--of these books are deep, especially for YA novels. Emotional/mental pain is explored with genuineness and compassion in a way that few authors manage. All of the characters are messed up in some way from past traumas and hurts, though how they manage that pain and how their responses affect the people around them differ greatly. Peter tries to forget anything bad ever happened and so, for a long time, never matures and ends up forgetting some important people in his life and good things along with the bad. Claire tries to shut out her negative emotions, terrified that she will hurt someone if she allows herself to feel everything, and hurts herself more than anyone in the process. Connor allows his pain to entirely consume him and anyone who gets in his way. Paige grows so bitter and comes to love wallowing in her pain so much that she won’t allow even the one person she loves to drag her out of it...and destroys herself in the process. And Hook allows himself to do terrible things in the name of love for someone who he can’t see cares more about herself than him. It’s a story of loss, redemption, forgiveness, and healing. And the author doesn’t gloss over things. Not everyone is saved, even when others attempt to make amends...and those who do come out better in the end only do so after great sacrifice and confronting their own personal darkness. Some characters die and stay dead. Some require extensive emotional healing that only time, patience, and love will fix. Magic isn’t a cure-all even in a world where flying and eternal youth are possible. It isn’t always pretty, but there is a lot of truth to it.

What I Didn’t Like:

The first book in the series, Dust, starts out a bit slow. We don’t actually reach Neverland until the second book, and it was hard for me to really feel like I was reading a Peter Pan story when all the characters were in the present-day real world. Claire’s “dust” is about the only magical thing we get, and it’s hard not to want to hurry things along so we can get to the island. It’s necessary for the storyline, I suppose, as the author has to take the time to properly introduce us to her original characters...but I did start to lost interest a bit at times. 

As with many leading lady OC’s in young adult fiction, Claire can sometimes come across as a bit of a Mary Sue. For most of the first book, she seems to only see her own flaws...but by the end of the second book, she is clearly a hero--the bringer of light in the midst of darkness and the only girl to ever really make Peter want to grow up. That said, she does have moments of weakness, and she is arguably her own worst enemy. Not the best original character, but also not the worst. 

My only other real complaint is that I miss some of the original characters. Wendy and her brothers don’t show up in the story--not even in flashbacks--and Tink is dead by the time we meet Peter in the first book. Mr. Smee and the pirate crew are nowhere to be seen. The crocodile does show up briefly but has no major interactions with Hook...and Hook himself, though intriguing and complex in the moments we DO get with him, doesn’t get as much “screen time” as I would have liked. 

Would I recommend it?

Despite the fact that it took awhile for me to get into and was a bit OC heavy for my taste, I would still recommend this book series. It’s clear the author is a deep thinker willing to tackle some heavy issues...and she does so with grace, humility, and honesty. On the surface, this mini-series may just be a Peter Pan-themed story about a girl finding herself and her place in the world, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a story about pain and how our response to it can break not only ourselves but those around us. It’s a story about forgiveness and growth and how sometimes even when we try to reconcile with others, they choose to walk away. And it’s a story about healing in all its messy, difficult beauty. 

Overall Rating:

3.5/5 stars

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Legend of the Pan (Book 2: Peter) by Christian Michael

I’m always looking for new Peter Pan material to review, so when I first heard about the Legend of the Pan series a few months ago, I was super excited. Strangely, when I began looking into purchasing a copy of the first book for myself, I discovered that the first book released is actually the second book in the series. (Book One: Advent, a sort of prequel, isn’t set to be released until winter 2021.) As I discovered, the book order isn’t the only strange or disturbing thing about this series. Buckle up, because this was a wild one! 

(As always, this review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. For those who don’t want to know too many details, you may want to stop and skip over the summary section and go directly to “What I Liked.”)

Summary/Overview:

Hoo boy... Where to even begin with this? Unlike many retellings, this book was rife with OC’s and new lands without any connection to previous interpretations of Peter Pan. While I applaud the author for his creativity, it did make the storyline a bit difficult for me to follow at times. There was A LOT going on.

The story starts off with a bang as we are dropped into the middle of a magical battle at sea between warring factions of Pangea (not to be confused with Earth’s prehistoric Pangea)--a realm of dwarfs, elves, fairies, and humans with innate magical abilities. William Bailey--Peter’s father, Lord of Eden, and current bearer of the “mantle of the Pan”--is fighting to keep the mantle from falling into the hands of the mind-controlling witch Athyka and her superiors, who want to unite all the countries of Pangea under a single ruler. The mantle, which gives the bearer the ability to understand all living things, extended life, and an extra magical boost, is typically passed from one ruler of Eden to the next heir near the time of their death...but whoever possesses it (even if it is obtained by force) is considered the rightful Lord of Eden. In an attempt to escape Athyka, William takes his crew and family to Neverland--a world that rests between Pangea and Earth and that will try to destroy anyone who enters unless they bear the mantle of the Pan. 

Inevitably, Peter’s father and mother are killed and Peter is left alone with Tink, the family’s fairy guide, to protect the mantle and keep the invaders off the island. In the process, he comes across several boys from various time periods and places on Earth who mysteriously keep showing up in strange places around the island (often a wild animal’s nest...sometimes a bush, etc.), disoriented and covered in a strange green goop. Among the boys is Santi, a dark-haired boy from a Catholic background sometime around the 1700s-ish, and Tootles, a Celtic boy from the time of the Roman Empire. As Peter begins amassing an army of boys to fight against his enemies, Santi--who very briefly possessed the mantle of the Pan when Peter was dead (the mermaids brought him back to life somehow??)--becomes increasingly jealous of Peter and tired of being pushed around. This anger and jealousy comes to a head when Smee, a dwarf ally of Athyka, sexually assaults him and he is unable to fight back as well as he would have if he’d had the mantle. (More on this later.) He eventually attempts to fight Peter...only to have the crocodile come and snap him up...leaving Peter--who had reached out to pull the boy away to safety--holding only Santi’s bloody, disembodied hand. 

In the meantime, on the other side of the island, Tiger Lily and her family, after journeying for generations following a vision, finally arrive at the place they believe will be a good new home, unaware of Neverland’s dangers or the war that is going on for the mantle of the Pan. And in London, Wendy--after a brief encounter with Peter on the streets when he accidentally travels through a portal to Earth--starts feeling as though she is going mad. She starts to hear people’s thoughts and begins to know things she has no way of knowing. (She, in fact, like Athyka, has mind control powers that have been awakened by Peter’s touch.) Eventually, she comes to the realization that Neverland--this place she has seen only in her mind--is a very real place that she is somehow, inexplicably, connected to.

What I Liked: 

Christian Michael is wonderfully descriptive of the places and people in this book. I could easily picture the lush gardens and palaces of Pangea as well as the dangers of Neverland. He’s also creative in his approach. I have read/watched a TON of Peter Pan retellings, and I’ll be honest, a lot of them fall into the same tropes and plots. This one is extremely unique both in terms of the origins of the characters and their connections to each other as well as the many original characters and their cultures. The author draws on imagery and symbolism from biblical sources and other recognizable mythology and has a very high-fantasy feel to it that seems a bit reminiscent of C.S. Lewis or Tolkien...only much, MUCH darker. I’m not personally a huge fan of high-fantasy, but for those who DO enjoy it, I think this book would be enjoyable.

What I Didn’t Like:

Confession time: I...didn’t actually quite finish the book. I got a little bored in some places, and I ultimately stopped reading and only skimmed a little after a certain point because the content was making me highly uncomfortable. 

As mentioned above, I’m not really a high-fantasy fan, and while the author’s creativity is to be commended, I got a little lost at times trying to keep up with all of the new OC’s...and quite frankly, I didn’t really /care/ about their war or politics or culture. When I come to a retelling, I do so primarily because I want to further explore the EXISTING characters and settings that I know and love. A few OC’s are fine, but too many are distracting and I start to lose interest. Additionally, we start off the book being dropped into the middle of a battle with very little to no context. I felt like someone had handed me a history book of a country I knew nothing about, flipped to a random page, and told me to start reading. It was rather disorienting and confusing trying to figure out who all these people were  and why they were fighting.

More importantly...I  was deeply unsettled by the content in some places. While the book does state that it is “not for kids,” it should come with a trigger warning for sexual abuse. I see “not for kids” and think, “contains violence and some (consensual) sexual content.” “Not for kids” is an understatement here. THIS BOOK CONTAINS THE GANG RAPE OF A WOMAN AND THE RAPE OF A CHILD. Read at your own risk. It’s brief and not too explicit but you know what happens, and for me, it ruined the book.

Would I recommend it?

As much as I wanted to like this book for its creative approach to the characters, I cannot in good conscience recommend a book that contains such disturbing instances of sexual abuse...which is a shame, because the author is talented.  I stopped reading after the child rape scene, and I will not be continuing to check out the rest of the series.

Overall Rating:

2.5/5 stars

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Second Star to the Fright (Disney Chills Series, Book 3)

Well, it’s been awhile since my last review and though I had initially planned on doing Return to Neverland for my next post, in the meantime, Second Star to the Fright came out and I wanted to review it while it was still somewhat fresh in my mind. (At present, I don’t have any particular order planned for these reviews, so we’ll see what happens next, though feel free to make suggestions if you have a particular book/film, etc. you’d like to see reviewed. I will get to all of the Hook media on my list eventually. It will just take a bit of time.)

Summary/Overview: 

Barrie Darling is approaching his twelfth birthday, and although he’s looking forward to going to the Lost Boys concert with his best friends John and Michael, he’s less than enthused about what getting another year older will mean for him in the long run--more chores and responsibilities, harder classes in school, and perhaps eventually drifting away from his childhood friends as they go off to other schools. When his family visits a local maritime museum and tours the Jolly Roger that once belonged to the infamous Captain Hook, Barrie discovers that there just might be a way that he can stay young forever. Sneaking off by himself to explore Hook’s cabin, he finds an old rusted hook with a note saying that whoever possesses it will stay young forever. Against his better judgment, Barrie takes it home...and then things start to get weird. (SPOILERS beyond this point!!) From the moment Barrie entered the captain’s cabin, he felt an eerie  presence, but he ends up brushing it off as the overactive imagination of a kid who has read one too many mystery novels. After taking the claw home, however, the feeling doesn’t go away...it only gets worse. Barrie begins having terrible nightmares where the ghost of Hook shows up in his bedroom, clutching at his bloodied stump, threatening him with a sword, and slashing at him with the claw he took from the ship. Stranger still is that his family and friends seem to have forgotten about his birthday entirely...and suddenly everyone is treating him differently. His parents allow him to eat whatever he wants (healthy or not) and his teacher lets him goof off in class... Everything seems great...until a few more days pass. Barrie’s parents decide that he’s too young to go to a concert and as summer break begins, his friends no longer recognize him. In a panic, Barrie breaks into the school library and begins looking through the yearbooks, startled to find that no matter how far back he goes, his photo ALWAYS shows up in the same grade level...and the captain’s ghost has once again followed him, angry that Barrie stole the hook. It’s only at this point that Barrie truly realizes that the “gift” of eternal youth may not be exactly what he was hoping for after all. After convincing Michael and John of his story, he recruits their help in returning the claw to the ship to appease Hook without alerting the museum staff (or his parents) to the fact that he stole it. While his friends distract the night guard, Barrie climbs aboard the Jolly Roger...only to find that Hook is very much alive! He attempts to return the claw to the captain, but the pirate does not believe the gesture is truly in good faith and decides to punish Barrie by taking him to Neverland where he will never see his family again. Barrie manages to escape (with some help from a certain crocodile...) but Hook ultimately gets the last laugh. When he tries to go home, Barrie discovers that somehow, many years have passed in his absence. His friends and sister have all grown up and have children of their own, and his parents have moved into a retirement community...all believing that he drowned that night at the docks of the maritime museum.

What I Liked:

The nods back to the original story were cute, if a bit too much on the nose at times. I did like that they named the main character Barrie, though, in honor of author J.M. Barrie. I was expecting references to the Disney film but not the original book/play, so it was a nice surprise to see an allusion to the author take center stage.

My favorite thing about the book, though, is that the author generally seems to get Hook’s personality right. He is both legitimately frightening at times and also sympathetic. There is never any doubt that Hook is serious about wanting to kill Barrie at times. “You’re not the first scurvy brat to play a childish prank on me,” he tells Barrie, “but you will be the last.” That’s a threat if ever I’ve heard one. We don’t ever see Hook ACTUALLY do much damage to any of the kids on screen, but there were times while reading this book that I thought we might see him harm Barrie. Likewise, however, we also see him clutching his stump to his chest, shivering in fear of the crocodile like a “scared little kid,” as author puts it. Yet neither Barrie nor the author seems to make any attempt to laugh at Hook in this moment.  While Barrie DOES use it as an opportunity to escape, he doesn’t disparage Hook’s fear...which isn’t something you see terribly often.

What I Didn’t Like:

Although this book has its good moments, for me at least, the negative outweighs the positive. One of the most grating things about this book is how absolutely cringeworthy the attempt at replicating child/teen language is. It sounds like badly written fanfiction by an adult who clearly isn’t up to date on how children actually speak. I know I’m on the older end of the Tumblr user spectrum (and definitely not the intended audience for this book), but I’m pretty sure nobody ACTUALLY talks like that and expects to be taken seriously by their peers.

Another thing that bothered me is the fact that, as someone whose primary interest in reading the book was Hook himself, I was disappointed at how little “screen time” our favorite pirate actually gets. While Hook’s appearances are well done, they are few and far between and for the majority of the book, we’re not quite sure whether Hook is real and alive, a ghost, or in Barrie’s imagination. We get glimpses of him in the shadows, the sound of his boots walking down the hall, the scratch marks of the hook...but very little of the captain himself.  We really only see him clearly in the last few pages of the book when it becomes obvious that (SPOILER) Hook is neither a ghost nor a dream. For a book that is marketed by its connection to a major Disney villain, we really don’t get much of him.

My biggest qualm with this book, however, is the ridiculous number of plot holes and things that just don’t make sense. (More SPOILERS to follow...) The plot of this book has more holes in it than Hook’s ship does at the end of Return to Neverland...and that’s a lot of holes! Hook is apparently accepted as a real, historical pirate in this universe...but no one seems to know how he lost his hand, so there is no Peter Pan mythos in this world. As far as anyone at the museum is concerned, Hook died hundreds of years ago...and yet no one questions the fact that his ship just...showed up in the harbor one day in almost perfect condition. The museum staff apparently just accepts it as a lucky find and automatically claims the ship as their own. Moreover, where is Hook (and his crew, for that matter...who we NEVER see in this book...not even Smee) during the time when tourists are crawling all over the ship and the museum staff is trying to renovate his cabin? Furthermore, why is the hook itself somehow magical now and why, if Hook was actually there and NOT just a ghost, would he leave the hook where it might be taken  with a note that makes it sound VERY tempting, allow some random kid to take it, and then be upset when said kid tries to return it?? And why is his stump bleeding again? And why, after managing to get into Barrie’s room and using the claw to leave scratch marks everywhere, would he then leave the hook there? How is it that Hook seems to be able to manipulate the pages of books in the library without touching them (like a ghost) if he is, in fact, merely human? And WHY ON EARTH, after finally capturing Barrie and getting the hook back, would he put it down where Barrie could get to it again and use it to help cut through his bonds?? NOTHING ABOUT THIS BOOK MAKES ANY SENSE!!! Even the ending leaves us with more questions than answers... How did the time warp happen...and more importantly, what in the world is poor Barrie supposed to do now that everyone who ever cared about him has grown up, moved on, and assumes he has been dead for decades? I understand that it’s supposed to present a sort of “be careful what you wish for” moral and that the book is supposed to be a “horror” genre...but I don’t like the open-endedness, and honestly, it sounds more like the ending of a tragedy than a horror story to me. 

Would I recommend it?

Honestly...no.  It’s not the WORST Hook book I’ve come across, but it’s far from being the best. It might not be a bad read for a kid who just has a casual interest in Disney and Goosebumps-style stories...but if you’re reading it primarily as a Hook fan, I’d say it’s probably not worth looking into.

Overall Rating:

2/5 stars.

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Yuh I know you haven't reviewed return to neverland yet, but hook seems especially off the rails in that movie, this dude really captured someone mid ww2 and almost got his ship blown up only to come back to neverland and lose her immediately lmao

To be fair, he only lost Jane because the whole octopus thing he had planned for her backfired horribly but yeah, he’s definitely a bit more...manic in the sequel. I’ve actually spoken about this before with @concordia-cum-sinistro who theorized that perhaps between the films something extremely traumatic happened to him with the crocodile. It might explain the croc’s absence and why he seems to have some serious issues in the second film. (Not that he didn’t already have plenty of issues but...)

I’ll try to make this film my next review since you asked about it (though I’m not sure when exactly I’ll be writing it up).

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Hooked by Bobbi J.G. Weiss

Well, it’s that time again, folks--time for another review! This time, rather than a film, I’ll be taking a look at one of the many book retellings of the Peter Pan story. As usual, this review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. For those of you who want to bypass any major spoilers, I’ll try to clearly distinguish where the basic summary ends and the spoilers begin. Now here we goooooooo! Off to Neverland!

Overview/Summary:

This book is not a retelling that I likely would have picked up on my own. After skimming just the first few pages, it’s obvious that it’s going to have some MAJOR departures from the original and, like Wendy (2020), it involves a more modern (and American!) setting. However, after it was recommended to me by a fellow Hook nerd, I decided to give it a go, and ultimately, I think it was worth the read.

The quickest way for me to sum up this book is “Captain Hook meets The Santa Clause,” which sounds absolutely ridiculous but actually ends up being an intriguing new take on things. For those who may be unfamiliar with the 1994 Christmas film, it features Tim Allen as Santa skeptic Scott Calvin, who--after accidentally causing Santa’s demise (He falls off a rooftop.)--puts on the Santa suit and, to his great dismay, begins transforming into the next Santa. This book starts out by introducing us to Johnathan Stuart--fencing master, cat fancier, bookseller...and the next Captain Hook in a long line of Stuart men. When John’s uncle passes away, leaving the Stuart estate in California to his nephew, a safe is discovered containing nothing but an old journal and a magnificent sword. The journal, John quickly discovers, seems more like the ramblings of a madman than an actual logbook of sorts. He writes it off as some long forgotten relative’s poor attempt at a fanwork of Peter Pan and thinks no more of it. But the sword has a strange and unsettling effect on him, bringing out the worst in him and triggering old childhood dreams and hallucinations...and yet, he cannot seem to make himself get rid of it. Only as his nightmares begin to blur with reality does he finally realize that something is truly wrong, but by then, it’s too late to turn back.

*****SPOILERS AHEAD*******

When John is admitted to the hospital after fainting, his girlfriend, Melanie--a researcher--begins to dig deeper into the history of the Stuarts and discovers a pattern: For several generations now, going all the way back to a James Stuart in England, almost all the men in the Stuart line have eventually gone mad...and many have mysteriously vanished without a trace. Meanwhile, Melanie herself begins to feel a bit batty when strange things begin to happen that she can’t fully explain. John’s right hand--for no apparent reason--becomes gangrenous in the hospital and has to be amputated. His hair--once blonde--becomes dark and curly. Earring holes that weren’t there before show up in his ears. And what’s even MORE confusing is that the rest of the world seems not to notice the changes at all, his friends and doctors and even his DRIVER’S LICENSE seeming to confirm that these traits are nothing new or surprising. And then, one day...she literally sees John vanish before her eyes!

As Melanie starts to put the pieces together, John is thrust into the Neverland as its new villain. Strangely, almost everyone--from his crew to the Lost Boys--act as though he has ALWAYS been Hook...despite the fact that initially, he does not LOOK like Hook and several claim to have witnessed the previous Hook being eaten by the crocodile. At first, John fights to prove that he is not and never has been Hook, but as time goes on, his memories of his life before begin to fade and overlap with a second set of memories...memories not his own but those of Hook. Eventually, the Hook persona takes over entirely until there is nothing left of John but Melanie’s memory of him...and their baby boy.

*********END SPOILERS*********

What I Liked:

This book is one of the longer Peter Pan retellings, but it’s a real page-turner because--being SO different from the original--you never quite know what is coming...and that unpredictability is actually a GOOD thing because so many of the retellings/backstories, etc., inevitably fall into the same old tropes. This one does not. It also does an incredibly good job of delving into the psyche of Hook and explaining why he is the way he is. This man--and presumably his ancestors before him--was FORCED into the role of a villain against his will. He had his home, his pets, his career, his girlfriend, and even his MEMORIES of them all taken away. The way the author describes his gradual descent into madness and the pain and desperation he feels along the way is utterly heartbreaking. Not to mention how she handles the interactions with the crocodile... Rather than having the audience laugh at a villain getting his just deserts, Weiss writes Hook’s fear as so completely and realistically crippling that you can’t help but empathize. It’s probably the BEST depiction of his phobia that I’ve ever come across in a novel (and trust me, I have read a LOT of Hook-centric material). 

What I Didn’t Like:

First off, a warning--while it doesn’t bother some people, those who are sensitive to profanity and NSFW content should be aware that this book contains both. I’m not a fan of either, but I was able to ignore most of it because the book itself was so intriguing. The NSFW scenes are brief and few in number. One can easily skip over those parts without losing too much of the storyline. The profanity, however, is sprinkled throughout and is tougher to ignore. 

Without delving into too many spoilers again, I will say that to me, at least, the ending felt a bit rushed and dissatisfying. The buildup was great, but because it took so long to get there, I was expecting more from the ending and it feels to me like the author was, perhaps, asked to cut back on some material from the publisher to meet a page number restriction. While the ending is not entirely surprising (We all know how things generally go for Hook in the end.), it feels...wrong this time around. Incomplete. Unfair. We are used to seeing our protagonist’s efforts pay off, but this time...they don’t. But then, perhaps that’s what the author intended--to leave us feeling just as unsatisfied as Johnathan Stuart, seeking the justice that he deserves, so that we fully understand Hook’s frustration. 

Would I recommend it?

Despite its flaws, Hooked is one of the most creative Peter Pan retellings out there and does an excellent job of portraying Hook as a tortured, terrified man whose only goal is to make it out of Neverland alive. It also cleverly explores Barrie’s comparison of Hook to Charles II. For Hook fans, it’s definitely worth a read...just be aware that the ending will likely leave you wanting. 

Overall Rating:

While it deserves five stars for creativity, the profanity/NSFW content and ESPECIALLY the unsatisfactory ending take away from it a bit for me. Overall, though, still a good read, so I’ll give it three and a half stars. 

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Wendy (2020)

After my initial review of the well-known Disney version of Peter Pan, I decided to drastically depart from the traditional and go for a retelling that is a bit more (okay, a LOT more) AU for my second review. Wendy (2020) is still fresh in my mind, so it seems like the perfect time to write up a review for it.

**WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS.**

Overview/Summary:

I’ll be honest...I don’t typically like AU stories that significantly depart from the canon time period and/or location. I’m a sucker for period films, and the Edwardian London setting is, for me, almost as essential to the magic of Peter Pan as Neverland itself...so I went into Wendy with fairly low expectations, and I was very pleasantly surprised with how much I ended up liking it.

Wendy starts off in a small town American cafe sometime in the recent past (1950-1980-ish??) where we are introduced to Angela Darling, single mom and owner of the cafe, along with her three kids--Wendy and her twin older brothers, James and Douglas. Right off the bat, anyone who is familiar with the original storyline will recognize that this retelling takes a major departure from Barrie’s novel. Many of the characters we think we know are almost unrecognizable, while others (notably John and Michael, Tiger Lily, Tinkerbell, and Mr. Smee) sometimes have similar stand-ins but are ultimately missing entirely from this tale. That seems like a recipe for disaster at first glance, but the film handles the characters that it DOES have so well that the oversight can be forgiven.

Wendy and her brothers initially get the idea of Neverland in their minds after one of their friends, Thomas, disappears one day after hitching a ride on a train with a mysterious young boy named Peter (wonderfully portrayed by the ten year-old Afro-Caribbean actor, Yashua Mack). Instead of worrying about her friend, Wendy makes up fanciful stories about what Thomas might be off doing without them...but she remains fascinated by the train and the boy she saw until one day, she and her brothers decide to hitch a ride themselves. Upon arriving at the island, Wendy and her brothers are introduced to a slew of lost boys and girls and are surprised to find that their friend Thomas has not aged, though it has been a few years since they last saw him. The other children, many of whom have taken on new nicknames, have apparently never seen identical twins before and are particularly intrigued by James and Douglas, who they collectively label as, “Two-Boy.” The first half of the film (about an hour) is mostly spent on this introductory part of the story with the kids exploring their new home and generally having a good time. It’s all fun and games until they explore a shipwreck of the Mañana (a symbolically interesting name if ever there was one) and Douglas has a serious accident and is presumed dead. And THIS is where the real story begins.

“This is the story of Two-Boy broke apart,” Wendy tells us. “All that was left was a half. His heart cracked right down the middle...and all the joy spilled out.”

Heartbroken at the loss of his brother, James begins to age at an alarming rate...starting with his right hand. Worried about what will happen to him if he continues to age, James decides that the best course of action to stop his rapid aging is to cut it off...a task he assigns to Peter, as the leader of the children. But the aging doesn’t stop and James, needing medical care, is taken by his sister to the colony of “The Olds”--a shantytown on the outskirts of the island “where Lost Boys go when they’re REALLY lost.” The next time we see him, James is an adult, forging a crude prosthetic for his missing hand out of pieces of scrap metal. This “Hook” is a far cry from the elegantly dressed, suave captain we are used to; he’s old and ragged and broken...and despite my attachment to Hook’s original design, the raw emotion we get from the actor(s) portraying James in this film is flawless.

James, having become an outcast, decides that he and the other “Olds” need to use one of the children as bait to capture and kill the Mother--a magical whale that is the source of the island’s power and the protector of the children--to avenge Douglas (who was not protected) and to become young again themselves. Wendy’s pleas to her brother and her determination to see the child he was behind the man he becomes is devastating. “James, tell them to stop,” she cries. “James, you’re GOOD. BE GOOD!” And perhaps even more heart-wrenching... “James, you gotta remember who you are. Do you remember home? Do you remember Mama?” To which he quietly and tiredly replies, “...That was a long time ago.”

Douglas, of course, eventually turns up unharmed...and still a young boy, though his brother--in his grief and anger--has become an old man. The first time they see each other again after the accident, Douglas is shocked...and James is deeply hurt. More determined than ever to capture the Mother, he moves forward with the plan...but the moment he strikes a seemingly fatal blow to the creature with a harpoon, even he knows that he has done something very, very wrong. With a rousing chorus of “I love my mother!” reminiscent of the famous “clap your hands if you believe in fairies” scene, the kids (and the adults, too) cheer on the Mother until she is revived and rejoice at her coming back to life. Only James, sitting quietly off by himself, remains silent throughout the affair until, in one of the most poignant moments of the film, Douglas slowly makes his way through the water to his brother and takes his one remaining hand. “I can’t go home,” James reminds him. Pressing their heads together, Douglas quietly replies, “I know.”

As the adventure comes to a close, Wendy and Douglas are left with the dilemma of what to do with their brother, who can't return to the "real world" but has also been banished from the camp of the Lost Boys and Girls. But then Peter gets an idea and, with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes, proclaims that Two-Boy is his "greatest enemy." “Two-Boy is dead,” Wendy proclaims, standing in front of her brother. “All hail Captain Hook!” James, understanding the game, smiles and raises the claw. And so the story of Pan and Hook ends...or rather BEGINS.

What I Liked:

There was so much of this film that I loved. The subtle details like the watch James is shown wearing in a scene shortly before he loses the hand, his broken reflection in the glass at the camp of “The Olds,” the symbolic meaning behind the name of the ship... It’s super well done.

The setting threw me for a loop initially but ultimately ended up leading me to feel personally connected with the characters in a way that I hadn’t before. I grew up (and still live in) a small Southern town, and I’ve met people like Angela. They were my friends’ mothers growing up. They’re my clients and coworkers and who some of my friends grew up to be now. The cafe could be one right down the road from my parents’ house. My brother and I grew up on a lake, and one of my best childhood friends and his brother (my brother’s age) lived nearby. The scene of James and Douglas catching turtles and exploring down by the water in their hometown reminded me of the days when we’d all go looking for minnows and turtles and toads in our backyard...and watching James grow up into the sad, cynical Hook from that boy who reminded me so much of my best friend really hit me hard.

James’ character as a whole was a breath of fresh air. Though the film is titled, “Wendy,” it’s really James’ story that drives the plot. It’s not often a film takes the approach of giving us a detailed backstory for Hook (books are a different story, but...), and the fact that they not only made him the real focus of the story but also made him incredibly human and sympathetic without demonizing Pan was unexpected but appreciated. Often, in making the villain likable, authors and filmmakers fall into the trap of feeling like they must, in turn, make the “hero” out to be a terrible person (as in Maleficent, where King Stefan’s character assassination was absolutely brutal and painful to watch). Instead, what we get is a lonely little boy who covers up his sadness with mischief and mayhem and a broken man who disguises his pain with bitterness...and Wendy sees past both their guarded exteriors.

This Wendy isn’t quite the proper young lady of Barrie’s fairytale, but she, like James, has the same heart as her original counterpart. One thing I love about Wendy in nearly any version is the fact that she alone seems to see the hidden grief both Hook and Pan have and acts accordingly; she mothers Peter when he needs her without condoning some of his more morally questionable behavior and sympathizes with Hook but ultimately isn’t afraid to stand before him with her head held high even when he threatens her and the boys. She’s a compassionate character, but she doesn’t allow anyone to take advantage of that and walk all over her. Indeed, she defies anyone who tries to. This Wendy is much the same. She calls it like she sees it. When James is hurt and possibly dying from blood loss, she goes against Peter’s wishes and takes her brother to the camp of “The Olds” so he can have proper “grown-up” medical care that the kids can’t offer. Once there, she isn’t afraid or repulsed by the old men and women but instead tries her best to bring out their inner child and remind them of things that once made them happy. When Peter claims that her brother has become evil and betrayed them by growing up, she blatantly calls him out on his own guilt—“You cut off his hand, you a**-face!!” (I almost choked with laughter at that one!) I’ve always thought that if anyone of the original characters could reach the goodness in Hook, it would be Wendy. This film, in making her his sister, really showcases that, and it makes for some incredibly touching moments...particularly at the end of the film when James finally re-embraces his inner child and takes on the role as Peter’s “enemy,” the legendary Captain Hook (though he’s just “Uncle James” to Wendy’s daughter).

What I Didn’t Like:

I suppose my only real complaint, if you can call it that, is that I miss a few of the more traditional elements of the storyline. There are some iconic moments that, because of changes to the story, we don’t get in this film like the fight scene when Tiger Lily is captured and freed. We also lose the crocodile in this version, which takes away some of the fear that is usually present in Hook and which I honestly consider as much a part of the character as his anger and sadness. The film as a whole doesn’t suffer for the changes that were made, however, and I can live with them because of how well done everything else is.

Would I recommend it?

If you’re a die-hard stickler for canon or favor one of the characters who doesn’t appear in this version, this might not be the film for you. BUT if you love Hook’s character and are willing to be a little open-minded, definitely give this one a shot. I had pretty low expectations going in, but having seen it now, I’d add it to my list of favorite Peter Pan retellings.

Overall Rating:

I’m taking off just a little because I miss some of the traditional characters and elements of the story, but overall it’s a beautiful film with a lot of heart. 4.5/5 stars

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Disney’s Peter Pan (1953)

Summary/Overview:

I’ve been considering a Hook-themed review blog for some time now, and what better way to start off than with the classic 1953 Disney film? Originally slated to be Disney’s second animated film after Snow White, the idea for a production of Peter Pan was in Walt’s mind long before it hit the big screen. Walt himself had played Peter in a school play as a boy and had retained a fondness for the story ever since. The first major film version to feature a boy (Bobby Driscoll) in the titular role, Disney’s Peter Pan has since become perhaps even more widely known than Barrie’s original. That being said, I think it’s probably unnecessary to give much in the way of a summary, but for the sake of developing a consistent format for my reviews, here’s the super quick version:

Wendy Darling, a young girl with an active imagination and a love for storytelling, is distraught when her practical father decides that it is time for her to grow up and move out of the nursery with her brothers. Later that night, after her parents have gone out, Peter Pan—the flying boy hero of Wendy’s stories—shows up at her window and offers to take her and her brothers to Neverland, a magical island with mermaids, “Indians,” and pirates where they will never grow up. Unfortunately the kids get caught up in the plans of Captain Hook, who wants revenge on Peter for cutting off his hand and feeding it to a crocodile. Ultimately, Hook captures the children and nearly kills Peter with a bomb in the guise of a present from Wendy, but Tinkerbell, Peter’s loyal fairy friend, saves him just in the nick of time, allowing Peter to free the children from Hook’s crew and fight the captain in a final duel that results in Hook being chased off into the sunset by the crocodile. Wendy and her brothers return home safely, and Wendy realizes that she isn’t so afraid of growing up anymore...only to have her father admit that maybe holding onto her childhood a little bit longer wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.

What I Liked:

Those of you who followed me over here from my other Hook blog, not-wholly-unheroic, already know that I am more than slightly biased when it comes to Disney’s Hook. I distinctly remember the first time I saw him on screen when I was twelve. The sequel had just come out on video, and ABC was doing its usual Sunday Disney movie (and advertising) by showing the original Peter Pan one weekend, followed by the sequel the next. I was bored and had never watched the film before, so I decided to give it a shot...and I was instantly struck by how different Hook was from any Disney villain I’d previously encountered. While most of the classic villains are motivated by greed, vanity, or the desire for power, Hook’s feud with Pan is at least somewhat justified considering he not only lost a hand but also faces the constant threat of the crocodile as a result of our supposed hero’s actions. Additionally, prior to Peter Pan, Disney’s major villains (Queen Grimhilde/The Evil Queen, Lady Tremaine, the Queen of Hearts) were typically rather flat and lacking in personality. We see only their wicked side (or in the case of “Man” in Bambi, we don’t see them at all!). Hook is a major departure from this trend in that while he is clearly made out to be the bad guy, we also see him in moments of fear, weakness, and self-doubt. We see him sick and in pain and ready to give up at times. Suddenly, he isn’t just a villain anymore... He’s a person we can empathize with. Walt himself recognized that the audience would “get to liking Hook” would not want him to die as he does in Barrie’s canon, opting instead to have him “going like hell” to get away from the crocodile but ultimately still very much alive at the end of the film.

Aside from Hook himself, I love the dynamic he has with Mr. Smee. While Hook admittedly doesn’t treat Smee well, there is clearly a bond of trust between them. Early on in the film, for instance, Smee prepares to shave Hook with a straight razor. It’s a moment that is ultimately used for comedic effect, but when one considers that Hook has a crew full of literal cutthroats, it says a lot about Smee that Hook feels totally at ease with this man putting a blade to his neck. Smee repeatedly attempts to intervene to save Hook when he doesn’t have to, and Hook unfailingly looks to Smee when he’s afraid for his life or when he needs to send someone out to complete an important mission for him. It’s a villain/sidekick dynamic that borders on friendship, and I think it adds a lot to the film and to Hook’s complexity as a character.

As far as artistic choices go, it is a rather minor thing, but I love that they kept the stage tradition of using the same actor for both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook, giving the film a rather dreamlike feel and subtly reinforcing the enmity Wendy feels toward her father in real life as she faces off against Hook in the Neverland. Speaking of the actor, Hans Conried isn’t just voice for Hook, as many would assume... He IS Hook as much as any live-action actor could be. I love the old hand-drawn animation style and how they used to use the actors as live-action reference models. (You can see some shots of Hans as the reference model vs the final images of Hook in the film here.) If you’ve ever seen a recording of Hans in one of his other roles, you’ll notice he doesn’t just SOUND like Hook...he makes the same facial expressions (particularly in how he speaks with his eyebrows) and hand/arm motions. It’s small details like this that make Hook (and all the characters) more human and show just how much time, effort, and love the animators put into their work.

What I Didn’t Like:

RACISM. With a capital “R.” There’s no sugar-coating it. Unfortunately, Disney’s film falls victim one of the many problematic tropes of the time when it was made and portrays the island’s native characters as highly caricatured, ignorant, and—in the case of Tiger Lily—romantically exotic people. Their signature song, “What Made the Red Man Red” is lyrically painful to modern listeners with any sense of decency, and the villagers’ character design—from their bright red skin to their large noses and often extreme body shapes (very fat or pencil thin)—along with their badly broken English is highly uncomfortable, to say the least. On the other hand, Tiger Lily, the most realistically drawn native character, is shown dancing flirtatiously for Peter and subsequently rubbing noses with him in what is meant to be a sort of native kiss (based on the concept of the “Eskimo kiss” which in and of itself is not a politically correct term).

Aside from the glaringly obvious issue of racism, my only real complaint with the Disney film is the music. While the songs are pretty standard for films of the day, I personally don’t find most of the music particularly memorable or catchy. “You Can Fly” is alright, I suppose, but the next few songs have their issues. “Following the Leader” and “What Made the Red Man Red” both have racist undertones, and Wendy’s lullaby, “Your Mother and Mine” puts the kids to sleep for a reason... It’s sweet but rather boring and drags on for far too long to keep the audience’s attention. Less time on the lullaby and more pirate sea shanties, please!

On the flip side, Hook is arguably the first Disney villain to get his own theme song, which is pretty cool. The original pirate song (which you can find here) is a bit more sedate than “The Elegant Captain Hook” we end up with and focuses more on the joys of pirating in general than why Hook, specifically, is someone the kids should want to work for. Personally, I’m glad they chose the song that they did, though I do wish they’d given Hook more lines as originally planned. (You can find the lyrics to the full version here.)

Would I recommend it?

Despite its flaws, Disney’s Peter Pan has had a major impact on the legacy of Peter Pan and how we view the characters as well as Neverland itself. It has long been a personal favorite of mine and acted as a gateway into the fandom for me. It introduced me to Hook as a likable, sympathetic, and complex villain and I’ll always be grateful for that. I definitely recommend it to anyone entering the fandom, those with a fondness for the nostalgia of classic Disney films, and kids at heart of all ages.

Overall Rating:

As much as I love the film and want to give it a perfect score, I’d be remiss if I didn’t deduct at least a few points for the depiction of the “Indians.” Otherwise a lovely version of the story so... 4/5 stars

[captains-log-reviews]

Welcome to the Captain’s Log

Hello and welcome to the Captain’s Log, a place where you’ll find reviews for all your favorite Peter Pan media with a focus on everyone’s favorite pirate captain, the wickedly charming Captain Hook. Below, you’ll find a masterlist of all the media I’m currently considering for review. If you have anything in mind you’d like to see reviewed but which doesn’t appear on the list, feel free to make a request. I’m also not particularly planning to review these stories in any specific order, so let me know what you guys would most like to see reviewed and I’ll start from there.

Films:

- Disney original Peter Pan

- Return to Neverland

- The Pirate Fairy

- 2003 Film (Jason Issacs as Hook)

- Hook (Dustin Hoffman as Hook)

- SyFy’s Neverland (Rhys Ifans as Hook)

- Pan (Garret Hedlund as Hook)

- Wendy 2020 (various actors as Hook at different ages)

- Peter and Wendy (Stanley Tucci as Hook)

- Come Away (2020)

- Disney’s Peter Pan and Wendy (to be released approximately 2021??)

TV shows:

- Jake and the Neverland Pirates

- Fox’s Peter Pan and the Pirates

- DQE’s New Adventures of Peter Pan

- Once Upon a Time

Musicals/Plays, etc.:

- Christopher Walken, Paul Schoeffler, and Cyril Ritchard versions

- Finding Neverland

- Milwaukee Ballet

- Drewe and Stiles’ Peter Pan

Books:

- Original Barrie book

- Scarlet

- Peter and the Starcatchers (also a play, may be reviewed together or separately)

- Adventures of a Notorious Youth

- Alias Hook

- Never Never

- Hooked

- Hook’s Tale

- Midnight in Neverland

- Before the Hook

- Lost Boy

- Straight on Til Morning

- Curse of Peter Pan/Siege of Neverland

- The Wendy Series

- Grounded

- Neverland’s Lament

- The Child Thief

- Captain

- Peter/The Last Pirate

- Six Points of Light

- Beyond Neverland/Forever Neverland

- Blood in the Water/Hearts in the Looking Glass

- Sea Road to Neverland/Hook of the Jolly Roger

- The Pan

- The Fall of Peter Pan

- Hook’s Little Mermaid

- Disney Chills Series: Second Star to the Fright

- Legend of the Pan

- Wendy, Darling and Hooked by AC Wise

- Disney Villains series book on Captain Hook (Never Never)

Other:

- Audible’s Peter Pan

- BBC’s Radio Production of Peter Pan and Peter Pan in Scarlet