Never Never

by Brianna Shrum

[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.