A Land Of Never After is definitely a retelling aimed at adults as opposed to the traditional YA market, particularly if the opening list of trigger warnings is anything to go by, so as you can imagine I was desperate to get stuck into this book.
(Side note: more books should open with their trigger warnings – this was very refreshing)
Wendy has always been drawn to the sea and, since aging out of the orphanage, her aim is to gain employment on a ship. However, bad luck, an encounter with a boy in green and her quick temper thrusts Wendy into the forest that borders her town, a forest full of monsters, the Forest of Never.
Hook, Tink, Peter and Wendy are all along for the ride in this swashbuckling, quick read, along with the new and amazing Elvira.
The diverse changes to the characters were really clever and put a whole new spin on Peter’s reluctance to grow up from the original fairytale. I also loved Hook’s anguished past but I feel that both Hook and Peter’s struggles could have been developed a little more. This is possibly a sacrifice of a short book but, particularly with Peter, I wanted to feel more emotion than I did.
With pirates, curses and some pretty epic battles, I was getting all the Pirates of Caribbean vibes from this story and I loved it.
Despite being a quick read, Davennor’s Neverland is full of action and intrigue. Yes, I did miss some character development but the epilogue was so well written that I may just get this in the next installment.
Thank you to Netgalley and Night Muse Press for an advanced copy of this book.
The Disney Bookworm 