Peter Green and the Unliving Academy is a fast-paced young adult fantasy novel with a colorful cast of characters, a great sense of humor, and a unique setting. However, the novel is simply too fast paced, and not enough time is spent on character development or in between moments of action. I also could not shake how similar Peter Green and the Unliving Academy felt to Harry Potter.
“Fourteen-year-old Peter Green woke up knowing only three things: the proper way to put on a tie, that lemon custard was disgusting, and that he was dead.”
I did enjoy the humor of this novel. I found myself chuckling aloud throughout the book. It’s clear that the author had a lot of fun writing this novel. The setting itself is a testament to that as well. Peter Green and the Unliving Academy takes place in Purgatory, a place where very few things change. One character even jokes that since Steve Jobs died, you’d think they’d have better technology in Purgatory, something that made me snort, and another that shows how impossible it is for times to change in this unique realm.
“You may have heard. Purgatory is a strange place, with strange magic. It was meant to be a temporary place, a lovely place to wait for those you love to come to you. Sometimes, there are those who get stuck, those who like the predictability of it, the unchanging nature of it. And then there are those...whose soul gets altered.”
A major problem in the novel is that the characters have no memories of their deaths or past lives due to the risk of going mad in Purgatory. This means that the main cast of characters have virtually no complexity or conflict in their lives. Each character is only determined by one or two traits. For instance, Charlie, one of Peter’s friends, is very flamboyant and gossipy, but we never learn why he is this way or what makes him tick.
“He was nervous, and there was an annoying tingling in his skin, as though he were forgetting something important. He couldn’t help but feel that though he seemed to be in the right place and doing the right things, there was something very wrong.”
What’s more is that this same problem of no memories rendered me indifferent to what actually happened to Peter’s family in real life. Even when Peter does retrieve his memories, I had no idea why Peter loved his little sister so much, or what made their relationship special enough for him to wake up dead with some inkling that he was forgetting something really important. There were no flashback scenes of her visiting him when he was bedridden with illness or anything like that, which would have helped me to feel more attached to her and her family's plight.
A lot of the novel really reminded me of Harry Potter as well. Peter Green joins the BASA, a secret program that teaches new dead-people skills such as Shadow Walking, dueling, and Teleporting. This reminded me a lot Dumbledore’s Army and Apparating. There’s also a half-demon girl in his class that he’s strangely attracted to, which reminded me a lot of Fleur Delacour and the Veela’s of Harry Potter. Similarly, Peter ends up dating best friend Charlie’s friend Alex, who reminds me a lot of Ginny Weasley. There’s even a giant snake roaming the halls of the Unliving Academy, which made me think of the Basilisk of The Chamber of Secrets.
Peter also deals with a bully practically from the moment he arrives at the Unliving Academy. Shelly, aka the Draco Malfoy of the novel, tries to get Peter harmed or killed at every possible opportunity. But I still cringed when Peter punched her and is applauded for it by all of his friends. I imagine this was trying to replicate the success of Hermoine punching Draco in The Prisoner of Azkaban but it is severely problematic to me to witness the fourteen-year-old protagonist of the novel strike any girl, even one who is a bully, especially in a book with younger audiences in mind. As all of her nefarious plans are easily dealt with by Peter and the rest of his friends, it just felt unnecessary for him to punch her and practically knock her out.
Ultimately, despite having a fun sense of humor and an interesting setting, this book was just not for me. I couldn’t get attached to any of the characters due to a lack of development and never felt a sense of tension about what would happen next, as everything happened and was resolved so quickly. I could see a younger audience, perhaps middle school students, especially those that like Harry Potter, enjoying it quite a lot.
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