Captain Hook is bored. Neverland isn't nearly as exciting since his old rival Peter Pan left; even the Lost Boys are rather tame without their fearless leader. But when he comes back and the truce with the pirates is broken, things don't go quite as expected.

This is the Peter Pan retelling I didn't know I needed and sure as hell didn't deserve. It's both a retelling and a sequel of sorts, in which the original story of Peter Pan we all know and love but with a twist: Peter was the older of the Darling children and ran away to Neverland because he didn't want to grow up in a world that didn't understand he was a boy, but went back because he missed his family.

After ten years he has grown up and returns to Neverland, and he is still the same selfish, cunning and ruthless boy he used to be. Of course the first thing he does is resume the war against his old enemy, Captain Hook.

Both characters are amazing; although Peter keeps the classic qualities he goes through an amazing development where we see his more vulnerable and empathetic side. And Hook. OH, HOOK. I wasn't a huge fan of the villain in the Disney movie but this book has turned me. He is painfully aware of his part in the story, of how he is supposed to play the villain because Peter Pan needs someone to fight. Hook delivers some of the best plot twists in the book, has a flair for the dramatic and is more compassionate that anyone imagines. Instead of making him just ruthless and evil, Chant turns him into an explorer, not so different from Peter himself, who just went to Neverland to have adventures. (Also his obsession with clothes is an amazing detail. I loved it).

The relationship between them had me hooked since moment one (first and only hook pun, promise!). Their dynamic somehow paces the book: at first their rivalry means a lot of sword fighting scenes, Peter flying all over the place and ambushes in the woods. But somewhere in the 40% mark the narrative slows down a bit to show us more insightful and vulnerable scenes. And there is where I absolutely fell in love with this book. What starts with the expected rivalry turns into so much more. No spoilers but SO MUCH MORE. The fact that they are so vital to each other plays a huge part, but they don't stray from their parts right away: the teasing and mischief and fighting are still there.

This is coming out too lengthy but I love these two and the scenes of introspection and opening up to each other killed me. And then the slow burn buried me. Their relationship evolves very naturally and doesn't seem forced or rushed.

The writing was very fitting to the setting and mood. The description of the places in Neverland made them cruel and magical at the same time, just like their inhabitants. I loved all the fantastic creatures, from the kraken to the mermaids, and of course the fairies. The fact that we got to explore more of Neverland and learn about the places and customs of the magical creatures was one of my favorite parts.

My only complaint would be that it focuses so much in the main characters that the secondary ones lack a bit of depth. It makes sense for both the pirates and the Lost Boys, but I would have loved more character development for Ernest and Tinkerbell.

The theme about growing up is different than the original story, here is more of a struggle of not wanting to live in the real world. Peter Pan is the ultimate escapist; he was unhappy with the Darlings, who didn't accept he was a boy, and his only way of being treated like one was playing pretend. That's how he came up with Peter Pan. His gender identity was the reason he ran away to Neverland, and there are some traumatic moments in the flashbacks, which include misgendering and deadnaming. (Also when he is about to fly away there are some thoughts that could be considered suicidal, but Chant doesn't dwell too much on them. Just be warned when you read about his past in London). The idea of leaving toxic family and being yourself were implied.

I honestly devoured this and now can't get it out of my head. I can feel the reading slump approaching after such an amazing read.

This is my Goodreads review, which will hopefully be copied across to my blog (with minor edits) later this week.

This book has a very cool concept: it's a Peter Pan sequel/retelling where Wendy and Peter are the same person. Peter is trans, and Wendy is his deadname / past self that he has left behind: Neverland is the place where he can be himself. So you can tell from the beginning this is going to be quite a different take on the story, and it continues to be so in other ways. It gets quite meta in places, treating Neverland as a story more than a real place, and without giving any spoilers, this comes with the knowledge that it is essentially controlled by Peter (and to a lesser extent, Hook) in whose minds it was created.

In some ways, this meta telling is true to the ideas of the original story. The idea that belief can save a fairy, for example: it's the power of thought that controls what happens and who lives in Neverland, and this is the same in 'Peter Darling'. That said, there are some crucial differences between this and the original story, namely that JM Barrie's story is a children's book and this isn't: the romance element makes that quite clear.

(The sexual element of the book is fairly minor and, while unambiguous, isn't explicit as such, so I doubt it'd offend anyone except homophobes, but it's there. Which I think is made fairly clear from the blurb, but worth a mention in case people missed that.)

In some ways, I would have liked this book to dig a bit deeper into the things that really fascinate me about Peter Pan's story, namely how messed up everything about Neverland is once you look closely. However, it's not long enough to do that, and in some ways therefore it felt a little bit surface-level and incomplete. That said, that would have been a different story and the one it's telling has a reasonably complete arc from enmity between Peter and Hook, to a reluctant truce, to adventures, to romance, to homecoming and self-acceptance: that, in and of itself, didn't feel like it was lacking something. I just felt if you're going to do a queer retelling of Peter Pan, there's a lot you could get into if you wanted to, and I half-wanted this to do that.

It was nice to read a short book, though, one that managed to have a lot of emotions but was ultimately a quick read with a happy ending. Well, mostly happy. Peter's alternate storyline in this version means his relationship with his family isn't great -- quite the opposite -- although he does care a lot about his brothers; it would have been nice to see some reconciliation there, but that wasn't something that was able to happen naturally in the timeline of the book.

I felt it was a bit of a shame that there weren't more female characters. Obviously, combining the characters of Wendy and Peter means you lose your main female protagonist, and aside from Tink and the fairy queen, there weren't really any others. Tiger Lily is, understandably, a bit of a minefield in terms of race and stereotypes, so I can understand why Chant stayed away from including or even mentioning her. So I don't have any suggestion for how some could have been included, but nevertheless, it was a very male-dominated book. Even if none of them were straight.

I should probably address the romance element itself. I'm not wild about romance generally and it takes a lot to convince me; in addition, I was a bit apprehensive about the potential imbalance between Peter and Hook on account of the age gap between them and so on. However, I should emphasise that this is very much a story about a grown-up Peter -- a young man, but definitely an adult -- and that it didn't come across as too unbalanced in that way. I know some people who are very enthusiastic about the enemies-to-lovers trope, and I imagine they'd find this engaging. I'm not that wild about it (enemies-to-best-friends-who-will-die-for-each-other? enemies-to-weird-uncle? absolutely) so while I felt it was well done, it's not, like, my new OTP or something. Because it has to be truly phenomenal to get that reaction from me.

Anyway. Pretty quick read, pretty enjoyable, probably not for the die-hard Peter Pan purists out there but if I'm honest I've never met one of those so I think we're safe.

I absolutely loved the concept behind Peter Darling; it was an original and inspiring approach to reinventing the classic tale. The main difficulty I had was that I struggled to like Peter. It's clear that his past and the truth behind his escape to Neverland are the reasons for his behaviour, but even so, for the first half of the story, I found him obnoxious. Luckily, James Hook was a delightful character, and as he interacted more with Peter, I grew to like Peter more too. Overall the tale was engaging and the ending satisfying, so I am giving the book four stars. A delightful LGBT retelling of a well-known story, it make me want to both reread the original book and watch the film Hook, which I loved as a child.

Born as Wendy, Peter always knew he was a boy. His family, however, refused to see him as anything but a little girl to the extent that they belittled and hurt Peter at every turn. Afraid for his life, Peter runs back to Neverland where he can be Peter Pan and have grand adventures as only a boy is allowed to do. Except, Peter is older now and the adventures of a little boy are no longer as much fun. That is, until Captain Hook starts playing.

I didn't expect this story. Peter Pan is a theme that has been written and rewritten dozens of different ways, so I was prepared for something ordinary. I was so unbelievably glad when that wasn't what I found. The plot was so vivid and unique that in my wildest imaginings I could never have come up with something so wonderful. The dynamic of Wendy versus Peter and the impact Neverland provided to allow Peter to figure out who he was as a boy was beautifully written with twists and turns I couldn't foresee that had me completely unable to put this book down.

This story was part of Less Than Three Press' "My Dearest Enemy" collection which pitted two enemies against each other until hate eventually became love. Peter's enemy has always been Captain Hook, and that is no different in this story, but the way their relationship weaves from hate, to respect, to love, is beautifully written. I couldn't help thinking back on every other Peter Pan book and movie and wondering if there might have been something in those other stories between them that I missed.

Peter Pan is one of my favourite fairytales, and Captain Hook certainly is my favourite villain ever, so when I heard there was a retelling of Peter Pan as a transgender and possible relationship with Captain Hook, I wouldn't have missed it by any chance. Peter Darling did more than meet my high expectations as I fell irrevocably in love with this story.

For one, Chant's writing style and world-building was perfect for the fairytale setting, especially for a retelling of Peter Pan; it gave the feeling of mystical, a little bit whimsical, and a bit vicious Neverland, a land made of dreams, lost boys, and fairies. And seriously, the description of Hook's clothes and hair were perfection (and I couldn't get enough of those). Of course, there's adventures and lots of fighting especially in the beginning when Peter goes back to Neverland and naturally he and Hook get back to fighting their war.

It was all good, until it became brilliant. The main characters went through a huge character development around the halfway mark of the story, and at this point I really fell in love with the story - and more importantly, with Peter and Hook. Okay, I loved Hook from the beginning but not necessarily Peter. I liked him and felt for him in the flashbacks that contained gender dysphoria as Peter was often misgendered. However, before the character growth, Peter was quite boyish and a bit naively vicious but I loved how he started to realize that world is not as black and white, and that Hook is not necessarily the villain he had made him to be. There were also a few secondary characters worth mentioning, as I really liked Ernest and Tinker Bell.

Overall, Peter Darling was touching and beautiful story that did not let me down. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down as I devoured every page. My only complain is that the book could have been longer as I couldn't get enough of it! Magnificent story, truly. All the diversity that got representation was fantastic. I just really fell in love with the story! And yes, I ship Peter and Hook with all my heart.

I highly recommend this to everyone. It's simply a must read.

With ‘Peter Darling,’ author Austin Chant has successfully enhanced a beloved classic fairy tale to include a trans Peter Pan who was born Wendy Darling. Pan’s childhood gender dysphoria comes through in his dreams and flashbacks of playing with brothers John and Michael, and feels relatable to readers.

All the usual aspects of Neverland are here: chasing adventures, fighting pirates, flying with pixie dust and happy thoughts. Chant uses this familiar back-drop to spin his re-imagined version where Pan and Hook may not necessarily be enemies.

Oh my god how I loved this book, let me count the ways.

This book could have been written by the good J. M. Barrie himself, all the way till the queen of the fairies gives to Peter some of the memories that caused him to run towards Neverland and lose himself in there.

Where Wendy has always been a big part of the Peter Pan myth, sort of a mother to the Lost Boys, and a kinder counterpart to Peter himself, in this Peter and Wendy are the same person. Or, shall I say, Wendy is the person his family wish him to be. Peter is who he is, in a time when pushing that truth meant being sent away to an asylum, or worse.

The fight scenes between Pan and Hook are just as tension-filled as a reader could hope. I would say only that they are a *bit* more charged and then followed through on in an incredibly satisfying way. Even romantically and sexually interested in each other, their interactions are just as violent as their fighting had been up to that point. The only thing I would have liked would've been to see more of their interactions in Neverland before Hook remembered himself as the James who lived outside of Neverland. I loved the one interaction we got and would have loved to see more of it.

I could totally see myself reading more James and Peter in real life, out of Neverland. The part we got at the end of this seemed like just a teaser for this, although it made a satisfying ending. If he is thinking of this already, I have only three things to say to him: yes, yes, yes.

Amazing character development

In all honesty, I'm having trouble putting my words down, right now. I have so much to say about this book, but am having such trouble putting it to words, so please excuse me if I happen to ramble or not make sense.

In the beginning, I really couldn't stand Peter. He was stuck-up, cock-sure, and really *fucking* annoying. He was really selfish, and I was actually struggling to get through this book because of him. The beginning had the same pattern, and that also got annoying fast-find Hook, mess around with him, run, get caught, escape, repeat. It happened quite a few times, until Hook-James, I should say-finally pushed up the stakes, and everything changed. This lead to the rest of the book that I fell in love with.

At the 50% mark, it changed. Peter was pushed into the realization that maybe James Hook wasn't an enemy (mentioned in the summary, so not a spoiler). A lot of development happened for both of these characters that was just beautiful, which budded into an amazing enemy-to-lover romance. None of it felt off, or weird, or forced as I was expecting. Yes, there is an obvious age gap, but Peter was at least 24 in this book, and it was all consenting (there is legit a mild sex-scene in which James asks him if everything is alright, and before that if he wanted to do this and I just died a little inside because, yes, consent is important).

Wonderfully entrancing

Chant's writing and world-building relied heavily on what people would already know from the original tale. Truth be told, I wasn't that big of a Peter Pan fan when I was younger, but I'm still fairly familiar with the tale. There were nods to it here and there, with descriptions, quotations, and other mentions of it. But Chant also spins his own version of it in this novel, which is seriously charming.

I would also like to mention that this book includes some gender dysphoria. Peter is misgendered multiple times in flashbacks, and is forced to dress as a girl while back in London with his family. You could feel the pain in these passages, written with absolute heartbreak. Peter actually has some PTSD because of this, and it is a huge part of the story.

Their relationship also really hit me close to home. It felt so real and normal and familiar. While a lot of the characters were underdeveloped, the ones that really did matter were wonderfully full of life. Peter and James, Ernest and Tinker Bell-They were all so amazing, and I just really couldn't believe how much changed from the beginning of the book to the end.

Final Rating: ★★★★½☆

Overall?

This book hit really close to home, and I loved all of the characters in it. It was such a wonderful book, which is pretty amazing, considering that I'm not much of a romance person. The only reason this book isn't five stars, sadly, is that Peter was so unlikable in the beginning, and that it fell into a really predictable pattern in the beginning.

Would I Recommend?

I would recommend this book to everyone and everyone. It was beautiful. I would get a physical copy if I could. Just looking at the cover hurts me.

delightful. magical. heartbreaking. *almost made me cry happy tears of joy at the end there* so very damn good!!!

This was such a great retelling, my word! all the elements of the story of Peter Pan as we know it are there, woven into this story but it does an excellent job of not just regurgitating everything we know about Pan and his Lost Boys and his battle with Hook, but truly adding its own take on everything.

When i heard there was going to be a retelling with a trans peter pan and he was gonna maybe have a thing with Hook???? yessssssss. i was so excited and this book didn't disappoint one bit! Pan is all grown up but still that cocky boy, with the confidence befitting the prince of neverland, leader of the lost boys. And yet tangled up in all that is this vulnerability, because the Neverland he returned to may not be the one he left behind.

I loved how the fairies of this Neverland are these vicious/fiesty/foul mouthed at times creatures, who will not hesitate to sting you if you annoy them (poor Hook lol)

Also, Peter and Hook, listen the author did a great job of building that relationship from long-time enemies to so much more. Nice, slow build. Even with the length of the story, their relationship never felt rushed to me.

I don't want to give anything away so lemme just end by saying you all need to read this. It's a quick read too, so you can devour it in one sitting, or two like me cuz lol life :)