About this book:
“The truth about Neverland is far more dangerous than a fairy tale.
Claire Kenton believes the world is too dark for magic to be real—since her twin brother was stolen away as a child. Now Claire's desperate search points to London... and a boy who shouldn't exist.
Peter Pan is having a beastly time getting back to Neverland. Grounded in London and hunted by his own Lost Boys, Peter searches for the last hope of restoring his crumbling island: a lass with magic in her veins.
The girl who fears her own destiny is on a collision course with the boy who never wanted to grow up. The truth behind this fairy tale is about to unravel everything Claire thought she knew about Peter Pan—and herself.”
Series: Book #1 in the “Heirs of Neverland” duology.
Spiritual Content- Claire says “Thank God” thrice; Claire says “Dear God…” twice and for one, it’s noted that her “words [came] out like a prayer”; Claire says “Hallelujah” when there’s nobody sitting next to her on a plane; Peter talks about the light being far brighter than the darkness & both him and Lily encourage Claire to overcome the weight of her shadows and let the light shine through; There are comments that “faith is learning to trust in things that aren’t there”(referring to pixie dust); Mentions of prayers & praying (Claire mostly, but it’s never set towards Who; Peter prays “to the stars” at one point); A mention of Goliath (used when describing the appearance of some men);
*Note: Claire believes she has a skin condition where flecks of skin/dust comes from her fingertips, we quickly learn that it is pixie dust *Spoiler* due to her being part pixie and being the daughter of “one of Neverland’s most magical creatures” *End of Spoiler* and when her emotions become out of control, it turns into ash that can burn others (we see this happen and harm others, Peter tries to get her to think of happy thoughts to stop the ash, semi-detailed to detailed); She feels like it is a curse and the dark side of herself to keep hidden from others, but Peter calls it magic and a bit of darkness (*Spoiler* About halfway, she starts to think that maybe it is a part of her and she can control it; She is able to heal others and pixies with her dust by just believing it will heal them and saying that “There is light more powerful [than darkness]…I choose light”; At the very end, she realizes that she has to do able to believe it for herself without someone else telling her that she’s worthwhile *End of Spoiler*); Neverland is said to be an “island that floats in the sky” & Peter claims to have created Neverland in the first place (his mood also apparently causes the weather of the island to change); Because of events on Neverland, Peter fell to Earth/was casted down to earth & because of there being no pixie dust available for him or the other Lost Boys, they are all aging; Peter describes Hook as the man who wants to “carve out [his] very soul”; Peter talks about the stars often (such as “not even the stars” stopping him, the stars guiding him, praying to the stars, swearing to “the maker of the stars”, thanks the stars, and saying “blithering stars” as a curse) & Tiger Lily says “thank the stars” once and refers to what the “stars say that [she is]” twice (which makes Claire wonder what the stars say about her); Hook calls Peter “the cursed fairy spawn”, “little demon”, and “little devil”; Claire says she isn’t making a deal with the devil (Hook); There is a man called “the Guardian” who is the peacekeeper between London and Neverland & maintains the harmony between both places while protecting humans against magical threats like Hook and Peter Pan (Peter doesn’t like him because he’s a grown-up and ruins his schemes); Tiger Lily tells Claire about the deity that her tribesmen talk about called “the Ever One” who “hang the stars in the sky and spins stories through them.” and adds “The prophets and the tribal leaders are taught a sacred gift of reading the skies, the constellations above us.” (Claire thinks that it’s whimsical to hear about “the spiritual beliefs” of Lily’s culture; In the tribe, the members have tattoos that serve as reminders and messages which shows “everyone who they are and what they think of themselves. Writing their own destinies” and shows Claire her tattoos that come alive across her skin); Claire comments that she’s dealt with darkness before; Flying with pixie dust (up to semi-detailed); Pixies are said to only be able to have one emotion in their heads at a time; With the Peter Pan and Pixie Dust aspects, we see pixies on page & also mentions of sirens (up to semi-detailed on describing them); All about many mentions of magic & pixie dust, & people flying with it (only if they believe); Many mentions of pixies, sirens, Neverbeasts, & magical staffs and canes (the sirens and Neverbeasts are described frighteningly, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of the darkness & shadows in people (including Claire & Peter); A few mentions of luck; A couple mentions of someone’s light (when someone almost dies & when wanting to snuff out anther’s light for the pain he caused; Peter thinks this); A couple mentions of a man’s dark eyes and cruel smirk; A mention of someone being entranced with darker myths; A mention of someone’s soul cracking and shadows seeping in; A mention of some of the Lost Boys turning evil; A mention of running as if there’s a horde of demons on your tail; A mention of someone fighting their demons; A mention of someone being a devil.
Negative Content- Minor cussing & British slang including: a ‘blah, blah, blah’, a ‘blow off’, a ‘drat’, a ‘duffer’, a ‘heave off’, a ‘wazzock’, a ‘what in blazes’, a ‘what the…?’, two ‘curses’s, two ‘dumb’s, two ‘hang it all’s, three ‘dang’s, three forms of ‘flamin’’, three ‘good gad’s, three ‘stars’s, four forms of ‘brassed off’, four ‘by the stars’s, four ‘cripes’s, four forms of ‘shut up’, seven forms of ‘heck’, eight forms of ‘blast it/blast it all’, eight ‘blimey’s, eight ‘stupid’s, nine ‘idiot’s, fifteen ‘blast’s, nineteen ‘cor’s (exclamation), twenty-one forms of ‘bloomin’/blooming’, and forty-one ‘blasted’s (including used as “what in the blasted stars” and “blasted stars!”); The phrase “cut the rubbish” is said once; Peter curses often & a couple pirate and pixie side characters curse as well (said, not written); Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Lots of Fighting, Being attacked/trapped, Being tied up, Seeing others attacked and tied up, Burning/Burns, Being caught in fires, Pain, Injuries, Blood/Bleeding, Being Threatened, & Threatening others with harm (semi-detailed); Being drugged & Passing out (up to semi-detailed); Pain & Grief (semi-detailed); Throwing up (barely-above-not-detailed); Going into a pub (main characters do not drink and Claire recalls sneaking into a car with other underage girls in her group home which did not end well); Prior to the book starting and a few years after her brother’s disappearance, Claire jumped out of a window because she had “given up on life” (suicide/suicidal) and wanted to see if she really could fly (there are mentions of her scars from this; she recalls it twice & talks about it with someone who also has self-harm scars from when she “lost sight of who [she] was” and didn’t like herself trying to be something for everyone else, semi-detailed); *Spoiler* Peter pushes Claire off of a roof to make her able to fly and it backfires as she remembers jumping out of a window & goes into shock *End of Spoiler*; Because of her dust hurting and burning people in the past, Claire is fearful of it & harming others again; Claire recalls someone being badly burned from her dust (including mentions of their skin come off of their bones and her screams, up to semi-detailed); Others are hurt on page from Claire’s dust becoming ashes and creating fires (semi-detailed); *Spoiler* At one point, Claire thinks that she’s too tired to continue and may just dissolve into ash from the fires her dust creates; Peter recalls the brutal death of a pixie, deaths of Lost Boys, & abuse from a parent (bluntly semi-detailed); Peter gets very angry & violent towards enemies (including wanting to snuff out the light of someone who killed someone important to him; Called an “episode” where he feels as if he’s “coming apart at the seams” with anger taking over his body; Peter wonders if he really is a monster); Peter tries to get her to think of happy thoughts to stop the ash *End of Spoiler*; Pixies are trapped in lanterns (Peter gets very mad & frees them); Peter comments that he’d rather be tortured than grow up; Peter has guilt over past decisions & it eats at him at different times; Peter lies to Claire about his identity & different details (he also thinks that it goes better than he thought it would); Claire trespasses onto someone’s property; All about many mentions of Claire’s twin brother disappearing, a possible kidnapping, & the grief Claire has over it; Many mentions of lies, lying, liars, & manipulation (including a mention of Peter teaching a Lost Boy how to lie); Mentions of deaths (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a father physically, verbally, & mentally abusing his son (Peter); Mentions of fighting, weapons, injuries, pain, blood/bleeding (semi-detailed); Mentions of scars (including self-harm ones and from Peter cutting off his shadow, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of Hook losing a hand to a crocodile (& Peter wishing he lost a lot more than just an arm and had just tossed Hook to the croc, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of gangs; Mentions of poison & being drugged; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, drunks, pubs, & bars; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of throwing up & vomit; Mentions of horror movies (unnamed, just that it feels like the start of one); Mentions of tattoos (including tribal ones that represent the constellations); A few mentions of throats being slit (& the threat of it happening); A few mentions of drowning; A few mentions of psychopaths & sociopaths; A few mentions of rears (such as “bite me in the rear”, cover your rear, & killing someone’s rear); A couple mentions of possible war; A couple mentions of potentially being killed (does not happen); A couple mentions of trespassing; A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of a group being left to die in a trap; A mention of a watery death; A mention of if looks could kill; A mention of stalkers; A mention of addicts; A mention of bullies; A mention of rumors; A mention of a gamble; A mention of eavesdropping;
*Note: Claire has anxiety, social anxiety, & also has a couple of scenes that could be called panic attacks where she can’t breathe (semi-detailed); Claire says that she’s hatred herself for most of her life (also implying depression; Someone tells her she has value becomes she’s here and Claire wants to believe that she’s not just a mistake, fluke, or outcast); *Spoiler* Someone else accuses Claire of being desperate for others to find her special that she ignores who they really are and if they have good intentions *End of Spoiler*; Claire believes that she and her twin brother were abandoned by their mother & wonders if she ever cared for them (*Spoiler* but it’s revealed towards the end that it was actually Peter who took them from Neverland and left them on Earth in a fit of jealousy; This has caused Neverland to dim without them there *End of Spoiler*); Peter rescued the Lost Boys from “neglected, unhappy homes that hadn’t wanted them” and recalls two being abandoned in an alleyway; *Spoiler* The Guardian tells Peter that he only protects Neverland and the people there as long as it serves him, but when Peter grows tired of them, he casts them away and only cares about his own happiness; Adding that Peter could cause more damage than Hook ever could; It’s later said that Peter became selfish and proud, not wanting to answer to anyone and when his soul cracked the shadows seeped in him and Neverland *End of Spoiler*; Peter is against growing up & becoming a man because of his father’s abuse (we see flashbacks of physical, verbal, and mental abuse from him & Peter thinks that he’d rather die than become like him; Peter later described the fathers he’s seen as “angry, controlling, manipulative men who have done nothing but drain the color out of their children’s worlds”, but *Spoiler* wonders if you can be a grown-up with magic in your soul and letting your dreams expand, but then shakes off the thought *End of Spoiler*); Peter refers to grown-ups as “butting in where they didn’t belong” & that adults “ruin his fun”; Peter calls Hook a ‘codfish’ often, a pixie a “bossy little snot” once, & Tiger Lily a “wet blanket” (once); Peter can come across as overall disrespectful towards adults; After an accident, Claire & her brother went through many group homes & foster homes (including some with violent foster parents); Claire refers to herself as a “freak” at times (or recalling when others would think that about her) & doesn’t belong (*Spoiler* someone tells her she feels that way because she doesn’t belong in Earth but on Neverland *End of Spoiler*); Going to Starbucks (Claire); Mentions of stores, brand names, & items (Starbucks, Circle K, the Salvation Army, Little Debbies, Coca-Cola, Dell computers, Converse, Keurig, iPod, iPad, & iPhone); Mentions of books & authors (Anne of Green gables, Oliver Twist, Treasure Island, Lord of the Rings, & Inkheart); A few mentions of fictional characters (not including those mentioned in the original Peter Pan story; Captain America & Terminator); A couple mentions of Disney & a song from a movie (Hakuna Matata); A couple mentions of a movie & a TV show (Tangled & The Twilight Zone); A couple mentions of apps (Pandora, Kindle); A mention of FaceTime; A mention of Halloween.
Sexual Content- A barely-above-not-detailed kiss, two semi-detailed kisses (some are the same kiss from both perspectives), and a detailed kiss; Remembering a kiss; Wanting to kiss & Staring at another’s lips (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Dancing, Hand holding, Warmth, Sparks, & Nearness (up to semi-detailed); Flirting; Blushes & Winks; Noticing (up to semi-detailed); *Spoiler* It’s said that Peter stole Hook’s first love and then sliced off Hook’s hand “as a warning to any other boy who dared to fall in love” *End of Spoiler*; Peter thinks about drowning into Claire’s eyes; Peter finds it distracting when Claire bites her lip; Peter thinks about stealing a kiss from Claire & is taken aback when his hidden kiss is taken; a ‘hot’; Mentions of kisses, kissing, “almost snogging”, & stealing a kiss/stolen kisses; Mentions of girls giggling, staring, & flirting with Peter (and him enjoying it); A few mentions of men breaking rules to be with the one they love; A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of hot guys & cute boys; A mention of puberty (which causes Peter to panic, thinking that it’s happening to him); A mention of boys who “wanted your kiss but not your heart”; A mention of sirens flirting with a man to be able to drag him down to a watery death; A mention of Tiger Lily not needing a man to rule a tribe; Some love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Hook can come across as a creep to Claire (not necessarily in a sexual way, but she is uncomfortable with him; He calls her “my girl” and traces the curve of her cheek at one point); A couple mentions of a father being abusive towards his son due to the wife/mother passing away (*Spoiler* Peter *End of Spoiler*); A mention of some girls showing more skin than Claire would “ever dare”; A few mentions of women wearing slinky dresses & barmaids wearing corsets that Claire thinks look “like some kind of lewd Halloween costumes”; A mention of inappropriate pirate songs; A mention of creepers.
-Claire Kenton, age 19
-Peter Pan, age 18/19
1st person P.O.V. switches between them
348 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
{ Might not the best option for sensitive readers and/or sensitive to self-harm and suicide. }
Interesting, very interesting.
I’ve been hearing about this duology since they released and have been meaning to get to it since then. I’ve heard a variety of thoughts and opinions on it, including that the series is very dark (particularly the second book).
I can see why some people got annoyed with Peter. He’s very focused on having an adventure, saving Neverland, and not trusting adults. But when you learn that his actual father was abusive, it makes sense that Peter is anti-adults and anti-growing up. He was annoying at times, but felt so much like Peter Pan that I have to compliment the author. I found myself smirking at different times and comments he would make because they just felt so perfect for that character in the situation. But as more and more is revealed, his selfish and brattiness is shown. Which made me wanted to throttle Peter at times. I wasn’t a fan of how he manipulated and lied to Claire so that he would help him. Now, that’s completely on par for the selfish Peter we meet in this book that is growing up while he’s away from Neverland, but it definitely causes some problems. Big problems, really. I hope we’ll see character development and true apologies from him towards Claire in the second book.
I liked Claire and truly wanted everything to work out for her and her search for her brother. I don’t have too much to say about her except the notes in my final paragraph about self-harm.
I like the writing style and how things are easily described. It almost feels effortless—which I know it probably wasn’t for the author—but it comes across that way because it’s so easy to understand what was happening. A lot of times I get bogged down by details and trying to understand how fantasy worlds works, but I didn’t have that problem at all with this book. Now, that could be because I know the general idea of the Peter Pan story, but I think the writing style had a major play in the parts I enjoyed in this book. It really does have that whimsical feeling that the Peter Pan original Disney movie has.
There is very little Christian faith content with a few mentions of praying (but once it’s said Peter is praying to the stars) and Claire saying “Thank God” (which could feel flippant to some readers).
I can see why so many enjoy this novel, I’m looking forward to the sequel to see what happens. I’ve heard it’s darker, so I’m curious how I’ll find it. The final chapter gave a taste of a part that turned my stomach, so now I’m a bit more worried. (Honestly, that scene/memory brought my rating down a full star and makes me mark this as a book that’s not the best for sensitive readers.)
I would say 17+ because of the mentions & alluding to self-harm and wanting to end it all when grief is too much. It was almost brushed to the side at times and some characters relate to others who have self-harming scars, but there was just something slightly off about it all? It didn’t settle well with me (perhaps because of the lack of talking about God in such situations and emotions). Because of this and a few other scenes, this book does have a deeper story to tell, but also portrays a darker vibe as well that may be unsettling for sensitive readers.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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