CW: Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Murder of Children, Children in Danger
He Can Fly, He Can Fly, He Can Fly~ 500
I don't care a ton about Peter Pan. I don't think I've ever read the book, I've seen the Mary Martin and the Disney, and a more modern iteration, and I just don't really care all that much. Except for Hook but I think that's different (Rufiooooooo). But I loved Cemetery Boys and will read anything by Aiden Thomas, so here we are.
Wendy Darling~ 10,000
Wendy is our main character. We catch up with her five years after she went to Neverland with her brothers, Michael and John. The difference is that, in this version, only Wendy came back. Her brothers are missing and Wendy can't remember what happened to them, and doesn't remember her time in Neverland at all. Not only is Wendy traumatized about her missing brothers and the missing time in her head, but also by the way she was treated by the cops (and the town at large) for not remembering what happened. She copes the best she can: she has her best friend, Jordan; she was on her high school swim team; she volunteers and works at the local hospital; she plans to go to the University of Oregon in the fall with Jordan where she'll study Nursing. She takes care of all the chores around the house and tries not to think about what happened to her and her brothers in the woods. But then young kids around town start to go missing and Wendy can't help but to think about her lost brothers.
A Boy Named Peter~ 10, 000
Wendy can't stop drawing a big scary tree or a boy that she thinks of as Peter Pan. She doesn't know why she's drawing them, and she does it constantly without realizing it's happening. She thinks it's because her mom used to tell Peter Pan stories (that her mom made up; there is no J.M. Barrie or a Disney cartoon in this universe) that Wendy then told to her brothers. So IMAGINE HER SURPRISE when a boy that looks just like her drawing of Peter Pan is dropped in front of her truck when she's driving home from working at the hospital (on her 18th birthday, even). The boy (Peter Pan) appears injured, but recognizes Wendy before he falls unconscious and Wendy calls the paramedics (there's also weird damage to her truck). The boy is taken to the hospital and Wendy follows. At the hospital, the boy screams for Wendy before he's sedated. Then he disappears. He finds Wendy again, of course, and explains that she needs to help him reattach his shadow, as she did all those years ago. It's escaped and things are going terribly wrong in Neverland. Peter's growing up and losing his magic...
Time Keeps on Slipping, Slipping~ 20,000
I had a lot of trouble with the timing of how things happen. Like, it didn't seem to line up quite right? Wendy and her brothers went missing five years prior to the events of the novel. John and Michael have been missing for those intervening years, and Wendy (and readers) think that Peter's shadow has had them since Wendy left Neverland five years ago. But why would Peter wait this long to come after it? Has it been gone the full five years? It's unclear to me, and I went back through and checked. It makes more sense that the shadow has only recently strengthened enough to leave, otherwise why wait so long to try to get it back? Peter's losing his magic, growing up, other unspecified "things" are going wrong in Neverland, and he...takes his time? There is, of course, a plot reason for why the timing seems off with these events (it's a reveal; I hesitate to call it a twist), but I picked up on the time weirdness enough to wonder what was up, and for 300-some pages think it was a plot hole. Having read the whole book and knowing why the timing doesn't work based on what Peter initially tells Wendy and us, I still think it's something of a flaw.
We Have to Save the Day Right Now...Or Maybe Tomorrow~ 500
The pacing of this book also has some issues. There are maybe 150-pages where Wendy talks about how she and Peter need to get out and start hunting for the missing kids and for Peter's shadow, and then a lot of other things happen that are maybe sort of related to finding the kids and shadow but also not really. I didn't really mind this--it left room for story and character building--but also all the delaying felt unnecessary and frustrating at times. The fact that kids are missing should inject their actions with urgency, and there was room in the narrative for Peter and Wendy to unravel the mystery that his shadow is the culprit behind the disappearances, so the drawing out of things wouldn't feel so obvious and plot-y.
The Shadow Knows~ 1,000
Peter's Shadow begins to menace Wendy. He shows up outside her house, and as they're talking, kidnaps a boy named Alex that Wendy worked with at the hospital that day. She chases the shadow and Alex into the woods behind her house, and Peter rescues her before his shadow can get her (he reveals his pixie dust in this scene!). Peter tries to go after the shadow alone, and is soundly beaten. And basically, Wendy is terrified of the shadow. The shadow is powerful and is able to get the upper hand in every encounter with Wendy and Peter. When it comes to the ultimate showdown between Wendy and the shadow, he's fairly easily defeated, which--given the build-up--is faintly disappointing. Wendy's drive to finally win is pretty much fueled by being fed up at the shadow for consistently being such a dick, but somehow the successful re-stitching of the shadow to Peter didn't feel very profound. Probably because, though the shadow is framed as the ultimate villain by the text, the true profound moment of the novel has nothing to do with Peter and his shadow and everything to do with Wendy's recovered memories.
There's an additional sort of...I guess I'll call it a discomfort...with the magic behind the shadow. In the film iterations of Peter Pan that I've seen, the shadow is rascally and mischievous but not bad; something more akin to fairies playing tricks. I get the logic behind making the shadow, once it grows in power, the opposite of Peter, taking children to feed off their fear, and I also don't like it? Like, it definitely tracks that Peter Pan's dark side would be evil and take children, and maybe this rides too close to the inherent menace that lies underneath every telling of Peter Pan since J.M. Barrie wrote it? But there's also just a little bit of flimsiness with the lore behind the shadow that adds to me not liking its powers--it can separate from Peter because Peter is magic, so it's not like regular shadows, and once it becomes a separate entity it feeds on despair and negativity. It's made to seem like this is true for all shadows of magical beings, but Peter is the only one we know, and I'm stuck wondering if really it means that Peter is the only one with a shadow-self like this (I don't know that this is born out by any part of the book whatsoever, but there also aren't evil mermaid shadows drowning people all around town, so).
Other Parts of the Story~ 500
This is a YA novel, so there are, of course, many other things going on in Wendy's life to be quickly addressed here. Jordan is her only friend, and they are very close. Jordan helps Wendy regain balance when things get too hard, and readers get the sense that have a deep relationship, but we don't really see much of it because Wendy is having trouble coping with all the children disappearing and also working with Peter Pan to find his shadow. This culminates in Wendy and Jordan blowing up at each other; Wendy because of stress and the inability to tell the truth about who Peter really is (Wendy introduces him as new in town and calls him Barry), and Jordan because Wendy is being distant and also lying to her.
We don't see this happen, but Wendy baby-sits for the family next door. They have two boys that are the same ages as Michael and John. Wendy sees Mr. Davies outside often and they chat from time to time. The Davies children are the last to go missing and spur a massive hunt of the woods that abuts their (and the Darlings) backyards.
Then there are Wendy's parents. Neither has recovered from the loss of their sons. Mrs. Darling talks to her boys in her sleep and doesn't really smile anymore. Mr. Darling has succumbed to high-functioning alcoholism and avoidance. No one talks, no one touches, and parenting veers from over-protection to negligence. They try to get Wendy to stay inside with the doors locked, but Wendy has a shadow to fine and a Peter Pan to fall in love with, so she sneaks away or comes up with excuses. I have no experience with grief in a context like this, but the inconsistency and loneliness of it feels very real and well-done.
I Don't Wanna Grow Up~ 10,000
Is there anything more quintessentially telling of growing up than starting to have crushes? It's no secret that Wendy is into Peter--it seems fairly evident from the reverence with which she speaks of him, even when she thinks he's fiction--and becomes obvious once Peter is a real person standing in front of her. Being close to Peter makes her uncomfortable (in the nice way), she checks out his body, she studies his face...it's all pretty apparent from the get-go. What isn't, though, is that Peter reciprocates those feelings. Well, it's obvious that the feeling will be mutual, but we aren't reading from Peter's perspective so don't see it as clearly as we do with Wendy. They have some moments--eating ice cream on the pier, swimming at a waterfall that ends with Peter holding Wendy and flying, holding hands as they fall asleep when he spends the night on her floor, and finally the very beginnings of a kiss. And it's the kiss that is Peter's undoing, as it's the signal that Peter has Grown Up. This moment gives the shadow enough power to finally, and thoroughly, beat Peter. The shadow also reveals that most of the problems with Peter's magic stem from his fascination, and eventual desire, for Wendy. Peter would listen to Wendy tell stories about him and became transfixed with her, his interest only growing when Wendy reattached his shadow the first time. When Peter found Wendy and her brothers in the woods, Wendy was already 12, too old for Neverland, yet Peter couldn't help but take her there. Things go wrong in Neverland as soon as Wendy arrives, so Peter takes her back home, but doesn't stop loving her. The more he cares for Wendy, the less his magic works, and the more he grows up, until his shadow is unleashed.
I have a few thoughts about this. One is that I like the intentional correlation of Peter, forever a boy, falling for Wendy and how it drains his magic and makes him age. He can't be a perpetual child and in romantic love with a normally aging human girl, but also once you fall in love, once you desire, that's a sign that you're leaving childhood behind. The second is that this hits on one of the things I've always struggled with in Peter Pan (thought not this particular re-telling)--that Wendy is both potential romantic interest and mother figure. Wendy's value in Neverland is as the nurturing, caring figure that the Lost Boys lack (I feel like Wendy is also the only girl ever in Neverland, though I don't know if this is true or not)--she sews Peter's shadow back early on, after all, showcasing her skill in the womanly arts. She also represents a future romantic possibility, the budding of an eventual potential, for Peter. I've spent a lot of time thinking about why this bothers me--of course there's the surface level mother figure/romantic interest thing--but there's also the fact that Wendy doesn't ever get to not grow up. Even in Neverland, she plays the role of nurturing caregiver, no time for carefree frolicking like the boys. While the Lost Boys can play without worry for all of time, Wendy must be responsible for them--even in a fantasy land of fun and joy, girls must grow up. (I think this novel is able to avoid this because, well, we don't really see Wendy in Neverland, and the trauma of losing her brothers and the totality of her parents' grief forces her to grow up, but Peter's feelings for Wendy force him to grow up too. It's not all about Wendy playing the mature role to a perpetual boy.)
Ultimately, I enjoyed the romance, though I think it would work a lot better (and the pacing of the novel might improve) if readers got to experience more of Peter pining for Wendy. Or at least, if we got to see the depth of his love for her before the shadow reveals it.
Remember, Wendy, Remember~ 30,000
One thing that I think this book really has going for it is the lack of whimsy (don't get me wrong, I love whimsy), but this book isn't that. It's about trauma, grief, loneliness, survivors guilt, recovery, loss...and that is most apparent when Wendy remembers what happened to her brothers. It is a gut punch.
The shadow reveals that Wendy's brothers have been dead the whole time; Peter knows because the Lost children are all actually dead. Peter's purpose is to help dead children come to terms with their deaths and move on (Neverland is childhood limbo). Michael and John are stuck in Neverland because of Wendy.
Wendy remembers that her brothers and Nana the dog ran out into the woods to play in the snow. She caught up to them around the big creepy tree where they chased each other. Suddenly, a shot gun blast rings out and one brother falls. Another shot, the other brother collapses. Wendy runs to them, but they are already dead. She hears someone coming, so hides, but can't calm Nana down. A man appears--Mr. Davies from next door. He's drunk and hunting and has killed her brothers. Nana jumps at him, but he fires a shot in the air and Nana flees. When he sees what he did, Mr. Davies is horrified. He leaves and Peter appears for John and Michael. Wendy traumatized and grief stricken and full of guilt that she let her brothers go out into the woods, begs Peter to take her to Neverland too. Mr. Davies is coming back with a shovel. So, Peter takes Wendy with them.
There is a--I don't want to call it a trope, because I'm not sure it is quite counts--narrative in media that centers around thinking that a character will die by the end (Will Ferrell in Stranger than Fiction) or there is an anticipation that they will be found dead (Margo in Paper Towns). In both of those examples, by the end, I wanted the character to be dead. Not because they were unlikable or anything, but because there was so much build up that, when it doesn't happen, the narrative doesn't feel quite as compelling; it hasn't lived up to its promise. With this book, I asked myself as I was reading what I wanted to happen with Michael and John. I wanted to experience the catharsis of the boys being found alive, but that didn't seem likely given the information we had. So, when Wendy remembers I was shocked and heartbroken, but not disappointed. This book also really goes there--has a young girl witness the murder of her little brothers by a drunken hunter--and that in itself was shocking to me. Even when I thought Michael and John must be dead, I figured they got lost in the woods or that the shadow really had them all this time. That they had been murdered in front of Wendy? Phew
I also cried and cried.
For the Sake of the Reveal~ 5,000
Because so much of the text relies on Wendy and readers not knowing what happened to John and Michael, I'm not sure that the novel totally works as constructed. I've already talked about the plot holes that crop up when we think that the shadow has had Michael and John for the past five years (how had they not died of starvation? Why hadn't Peter tried to re-attach the shadow already?). The thing is, these questions that come up are persistent. The narrative doesn't quite make sense and it's distracting. And it has to be that way, so that the novel ends with Wendy remembering what happened to her brothers. Everything for Wendy, for her family, for her relationship with Peter, for her to defeat the shadow, hinges on this moment. And the moment itself really works--it's very effective and heartbreaking--but sustaining Wendy's wondering and Peter's lying/avoidance really weakens the narrative for me.
Also, I understand why Peter can't tell her about John and Michael, but I'm a little skeptical that she would still have uncomplicated feelings for him after learning he's been lying to her this whole time (even just by omission).
Wendy frees the kidnapped children and defeats the shadow by thinking good thoughts. She reattaches Peter's shadow and he recovers and disappears as the community search and rescue nears. Wendy announces she's found the kids and the searchers, police, and EMTs converge. Wendy's dad, who was part of the search, finds her and he's mad that she left the house but grateful that she's okay. Mr. Davies runs up, looking for his sons, and Wendy flinches away from him, drawing the attention of the police. Wendy tells her dad that John and Michael are dead, that their bodies are buried under the tree, and that Mr. Davies did it. He confesses and is arrested. Later, back at her house, Jordan and Wendy make up, and then Peter comes to say good-bye. He wants to stay with Wendy, but his purpose is in Neverland, helping children move on.
Crickets~ 10,000
Regardless of the plot holes or the romance being maybe a tad underdeveloped, I really loved the epilogue. Wendy is at college with Jordan. She's declared her major as pre-med. She's happy. She and Jordan spend breaks from classes sitting in an outdoor common area. Jordan leaves for class, and Wendy lays back, closes her eyes, and thinks about Peter. The novel ends with Wendy hearing cricket sounds and opening her eyes (oh, now is the time to mention that Peter is a skilled mimic--it's magic?--he mimics John and Michael to comfort Mrs. Darling is her sleep, and also calms Wendy by making cricket sounds).
This ending! Peter and Wendy can never be together because Peter has a duty, but he still loves Wendy. And he'll be there when she's thinking of him. Presumably, now Peter is a boy again, so a relationship is even more out of the question, but the feelings remain. I probably love this because it reminds me of Gregory Peck walking away from Audrey Hepburn at the end of Roman Holiday, the Hot Priest replying to Fleabag's confession of love with "It'll pass," the Doctor saying "If it's my last chance, Rose Tyler, I..."before disappearing. All that is to say, I love a romance where they love each other and can't be together because of factors largely out of their control. It's good, give me more.
Verdict: Even though Peter Pan is not my fave and this book had a few flimsy narrative constructions, the things I loved about it far outweighed the things that I did not. Also, I cried and cried, and I am obligated to love any book that makes me cry. Hard recommend.
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