Sunday, August 13, 2017

*Review* Lost Boy by Christina Henry


Genre: Fantasy Horror
Published: July 4, 2017
Publisher: Berkely Books
Pages: 292

Synopsis

From the national bestselling author of Alice comes a familiar story with a dark hook—a tale about Peter Pan and the friend who became his nemesis, a nemesis who may not be the blackhearted villain Peter says he is…

There is one version of my story that everyone knows. And then there is the truth. This is how it happened. How I went from being Peter Pan’s first—and favorite—lost boy to his greatest enemy.

Peter brought me to his island because there were no rules and no grownups to make us mind. He brought boys from the Other Place to join in the fun, but Peter's idea of fun is sharper than a pirate’s sword. Because it’s never been all fun and games on the island. Our neighbors are pirates and monsters. Our toys are knife and stick and rock—the kinds of playthings that bite.

Peter promised we would all be young and happy forever.

Review

I received a copy of this book through Penguin's First to Read program in exchange for an honest review. I used points to guarantee my copy because I desperately wanted to read this book. I fully expected it to be amazing and it didn't let me down. 

I have never read the story of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, but I haven't been living under a rock for the past 33 years either, so I am familiar with at least the basic idea behind it thanks to Disney's animated film and Spielberg's Hook. I can honestly say that I never really stopped to think about where Captain Hook came from though, before now. And Captain Hook is an easy character to hate. I mean he's a grown man who has no qualms about hurting little boys. That doesn't exactly scream likable. But Ms. Henry has turned him into a sympathetic character, and I want him to succeed in his mission so badly. 

The story got off to kind of a slow start. Even though Neverland seems like it's a pretty familiar world by now, there was still some world building necessary for this particular story. We really did kind of need some information about the types of games that Peter likes to play with the boys. This also set the stage to show us why Jamie, Peter's favorite boy, finally grew up. 

Once the action really started, I found it hard to put the book down. I need to know that Jamie and the other boys would get out of the scrapes that Peter got them into, mostly unscathed. Unfortunately, this is no children's book, so I didn't always get my wish on that score. I can say that I will never look at Peter Pan the same way again. 

Overall I give Lost Boy 5 out of 5 stars, and would definitely recommend it to anyone that likes a little bit of horror with their story retellings. - Katie 

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About the Author

CHRISTINA HENRY is the author of the CHRONICLES OF ALICE duology, ALICE and RED QUEEN, a dark and twisted take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as well as LOST BOY: THE TRUE STORY OF CAPTAIN HOOK, an origin story of Captain Hook from Peter Pan.

She is also the author of the national bestselling BLACK WINGS series (BLACK WINGS, BLACK NIGHT, BLACK HOWL, BLACK LAMENT, BLACK CITY, BLACK HEART and BLACK SPRING) featuring Agent of Death Madeline Black and her popcorn-loving gargoyle Beezle.

She enjoys running long distances, reading anything she can get her hands on and watching movies with samurai, zombies and/or subtitles in her spare time. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son.

You can visit her on the web at www.christinahenry.net, facebook.com/authorChristinaHenry, twitter.com/C_Henry_Author and www.goodreads.com/CHenryAuthor.

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