Never Never

by Brianna Shrum

• ISBN10: 1633920399
• ISBN13: 9781633920392
• Publish Date: 22 September 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Spencer Hill Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

//I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review//

Peter Pan has always been one of my favorite stories. I enjoyed the Disney movie growing up and I've really enjoyed all of the newer iterations throughout the years. But... I have a sweet spot for villains and Captain Hook is no exception. So this book was right up my alley! Never Never tells the story of James Hook from the time he is a child until he is the captain of the Spanish Main. And it was basically perfect.

The first part of Never Never is the story of how James came to be in Neverland and covers much of his time as a Lost Boy. Almost immediately it is clear that Peter Pan is not just a carefree boy like he is often portrayed. He is much more sinister than that. But more than anything, Pan is a narcissist. He expects everything to go his way and has insane rules for his Lost Boys, going as far as demanding they not be taller than him! I immediately found myself sympathizing with James Hook and felt myself being confused right along with him about why everyone loved Peter.



The next two parts of the book follow James as he slowly grows up and becomes Captain Hook. He seems to be in a constant state of despair at his continued existence in Neverland and is the only one of the Lost Boys who is unable to remain in perpetual childhood. I loved him. I fell in love with him through his childish nature and tears and loved him even more as he got older and turned to other means of existence. His inner turmoil was always apparent and entirely believable and I FELT for him in a way that I don't for many characters. This is really Captain Hook as you've never seen him before.



Other familiar faces are also here. Smee and Tiger Lily are main characters in Never Never and play really interesting parts. I loved the romance between Tiger Lily and James. I could really feel their difficulties and actually felt like their angst worked in the story - it was believable. That didn't stop me from hating Tiger Lily a little bit as things happened, though.

Neverland itself was also amazing. I loved visiting new places like the Neverwastes and even Keelhaul Island. There was something new and exciting around every corner that made a classic seem endlessly new and exciting. I also really enjoyed how the story was told. In the beginning it felt like a middle grade book, which then graduated to YA, and finally to what I felt was New Adult. The progression fit perfectly with the events.

I just loved this story. I loved every single thing about it. I laughed and I (almost) cried. This is a story spanning several (Never)years, which allowed for everything to be extremely well developed and Brianna Shrum really did an amazing job with every single aspect. The ending came quickly and really blew me away, almost leaving me in tears. If you're a fan of Peter Pan (or Captain Hook, more precisely) please don't miss this book!

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.



I received this book for free from Spencer Hill Press in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.



This book flips between having a middle grade feel, and then suddenly becoming YA. There were a lot of making Peter into being an evil child. Which seems to be a thing in Peter Pan retellings. Peter seemed to have no problem with killing. Pirates, Lost Boys, he'd kill or attempt to kill them and never care about the blood spilling.

I also wasn't expecting the sex. Yes it's mostly off-screen. But it is something I haven't come across before when reading a story based in the Peter Pan mythos.

The first third or so of the book was a really quick read. I wanted to know what was going to happen next, and what twists would be thrown into the story. After that it bogged down a bit. There was quite a lot of time spent angsting over the romantic interest. The very end bits of the book mirrored what happened in the Disney adaptation and the original Peter Pan book, with a few minor tweaks.

Looking back, there wasn't a huge amount of plot. It mostly boils down to: Hook wants to go home. Hook wants to kill Peter Pan. Hook falls in love. Hook wants to kill Peter Pan. I really wanted to love this book. Peter Pan is one of my favorite characters, and getting to see him through others eyes is usually a fun thing. This book just fell shy of the mark for me.

I did like how Starkey and Smee were portrayed. And how they took on characteristics of Hooks parents. I also liked how the ship was described (except the fact that it had a completely new name.) and the explanations about how children's dreams become Neverland's reality. It was also nice to be able to see how Hook came to the island, and how he became a pirate captain.

I also loved the cover. That red streak at the top of the first "N" in Never? It's Peter's red feather from his hat. And the hooks that flank the author's name! The entire cover is pretty much perfect.

If you like darker retellings, you may like this book.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

I was really, really excited for Never Never. I was really, really excited to see another side to Captain Hook. I had a huge crush on Captain Hook as a kid, so of course I wanted to read this! While it does give an interesting backstory to one of my favorite villains, the read itself is not interesting or exciting. It's actually quite boring and annoying, because the characters are so flat! I didn't care about anyone or just hated them.

Never Never starts when James Hook is twelve and ready to become a man, except for his dreams of becoming a pirate. Then he meets Peter Pan, learns about Neverland, and decides he wants to go for just a visit. Peter promises to bring James home when he's ready, but that never happens. Peter Pan is all about Peter Pan. Anything that doesn't suit his interests is just forgotten or ignored. Needless to say, James hates him. I hated him, too. Peter is completely one-dimensional. I didn't expect much development on his part, because this is James' story, but he was just this arrogant little prick. I felt like the author went a bit too far in making him the "villain" in this retelling. He's all bad, with nothing good to make sure that we know that he's bad and the cause of all of James' problems.

Then there's Tiger Lily. She is literally just there for James to obsess over and to give him the ultimate reason to hate Peter Pan. She randomly pops in and out of the story and causes much brooding on James' part because he loves her and wants to be with her, but she's in love with Peter, but then she's not in love with Peter and she's in love with James, but she can't be with him because of reasons (aka Peter), so James is basically like "Damn you, Pan!" And that's the extent of her character's purpose. I could totally get behind a Hook-Tiger Lily romance if she was treated as an actual person and not the reason for the feud between pirates and the Lost Boys.

The Darlings also make an appearance in the last 10% of Never Never, so this isn't wholly a prequel type story. That portion was totally rushed and felt random though. It was like the author felt that we needed part of the original story in order to pull it all together. It simply didn't work for me. But that last page was fantastic! I loved that!

In the end, Never Never was just not the story I was expecting. It was boring and repetitive. The characters felt more than flat, and I never came to care about them. James' personality changes a lot over the course of the book, which is to be expected, but it's not smooth transitions. It's jumpy, like he tries on new personalities when the time calls for it. I'd much rather watch Hook.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[jnikkir]

This review can also be found at my blog, There were books involved...

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Actual rating: 2.5 stars

For as long as I've known about retellings, I've been on the lookout for a truly amazing YA retelling of Peter Pan. I am convinced that, if done right, this hypothetical retelling would skyrocket up to one of my favorite books of all time. In my head, it just has so much potential.

I saw that potential in Never Never when I first heard about it. However, after finishing it, I can say with certainty that this void in my life -- the one waiting to be filled with the perfect Peter Pan retelling -- is still empty.

From the very beginning, I got the feeling that Never Never probably wouldn't be skyrocketing up to my favorites anytime soon, but I held out hope that I could still really enjoy it. As I continued on, however, reading this book became more and more of a struggle.

While not bad, the writing itself was definitely not my cup of tea for a longer book. It had a sort of "classic children's fairy-tale" vibe to it, which can be good; but in Never Never's case, I had a couple of issues with that. First off, the writing gives the impression of a younger-YA/upper-middle-grade book, and yet the content definitely veers into upper-YA territory later on in the story. That sort of disconnect between tone and content always ends up feeling... weird, to me, to say the least. Mostly, though, my main issue was that I felt like the writing was almost exclusively telling. This was one of those instances where I was reading, and something was bothering me about the way the story was being told, and I couldn't put my finger on it, until it smacked me in the face and the telling was all I could see for the rest of the book. Emotions, motivations, character development -- I felt like it was all spelled out.

And that single issue heavily influenced my perception of every other aspect of Never Never, especially the most important thing, to me -- the characters. Never Never is basically a retelling of Peter Pan, but it might also accurately be called a sort of prequel -- at least, the first three-quarters of it until Never Never catches up with where the original story begins.

The difference between Never Never and the original, though, is that Never Never is James Hook's story. And as awesome as "Hook is the main character!" sounds, and as much potential as a darker "backstory" for these characters could have been, I absolutely could not connect with Hook or his story. The emotions, all told, fell flat for me. As the plot progresses, I think the reader is supposed to feel sympathy (to an extent) for Hook's tragic plight, stuck in Neverland because of Peter Pan, but I couldn't get invested in his character or his struggles.

Later in the story, there is a bit of romance, which I was hoping might help with my lack of investment -- a lot of the time, if there's a ship I can get on board with, I can ignore a heck of a lot of dislikes elsewhere. But unfortunately, that whole relationship was fraught with even more issues, and ended up being another source of disappointment and frustration for me.

Finally, I also had some issues with the plot -- which felt to me like it lacked any sort of clear direction. There's the whole "Hook wants to kill Pan" scenario, of course; but that didn't feel like an actual "plot" to me. Beyond that, Never Never just... meandered. Looking back on it, I don't know why it was so long, when the plot felt so very thin.

 
In conclusion...

Honestly, I probably should have DNF'd this one, but for some reason, I kept reading. I think this was mostly a case of wanting so badly for the book to finally grab my emotions, but that never happened. A boat-load of "telling" is one of the best ways to distance me from any story, and Never Never kept me at arms' length the entire time. I wish I could say the ending, at least, was solid; but by that point, the (lack of) plot and disappointing character arcs had let me down so badly that the conclusion just felt predictable and emotionally unsatisfying.

I do think a lot of people will still enjoy this one, because of the novelty of a darker, YA Peter Pan with Hook as the main character and Peter as the antagonist. But despite desperately wanting to love it, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

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There were books involved...