I liked what this book had to say about the temptation to escape from the real world. I think a lot of teens will relate to wanting a magical world to escape to where there are no bullies and they can do whatever they want and be loved for who they are. I also liked the treatment of Brody’s dad’s mental illness. Cameron clearly took great pains to make her cast super diverse, with characters of all different ethnicities and abilities, and I appreciate that.

More than anything else, Brody Fair feels disconnected from the world. He no longer relates to his family and wonders if they would even miss him if he was gone. He is bullied at school and suddenly impatient with his best friend and coping with bullies alone is no picnic. Then he meets Leo, who steps in as his shining hero and helps rescue his beloved cat from the bullies. He connects with Leo and is fascinated that Leo isn't afraid to show the world who he really is. Leo takes Brody to Everland, a magical place you can only reach through a door that appears at 11:21 each Thursday night and suddenly Brody belongs. All the pressures and stresses of the every day world fall away and Brody begins to live for Thursdays. This book is a genre bending contemporary fantasy that blends serious issues from the real world with the freeing feelings evoked in Everland. Cameron does an amazing job of developing each character and the struggles they face in the outside world. Brody's family members slowly emerge as distinct individuals and their different issues mix together to form an authentic family, flaws and all. Last Bus to Everland does an excellent job of addressing many different issues: Coming out, pressures of success, agoraphobia, poverty, mental illness, suicide without making the reader feel as if the author is heaping issues into the plot. Tightly woven and magical, Last Bus to Everland is a book every library that serves teens should have in their collection.

Amazing! Truly a remarkable and magical book that explores what happens when you want to escape your real world but need to face the fact that it is okay not to perfect all the time. We are all on a journey of self discovery and life experiences gives us a chance to learn more about themselves. An engaging book from beginning to end!

I like what Cameron is trying to do here. We have this magical place where outsiders can be themselves. It's like a drug. They can belong, can relax and put aside the pressures of their everyday lives. But he more they rely on Everland the harder it becomes for them to let it go. They have to find a way to live in the world rather than hide or risk being destroyed. It's perhaps a belabored metaphor. And the world and it's rules are not fully explored. We don't really dig into Everland's existence at all. Interesting at the surface but may not hold up on a closer read.

Great read for young adults who feel like they don't fit in and would love to escape reality. Lots of Peter Pan references although you would still enjoy the book if you're not a fan. I enjoyed it!!

Brody is a teen living in a very small apartment in Edinburgh with his mother, his agoraphobic father, older brother and younger sister. Brody is constantly getting picked on by the neighborhood bullies and just feels like he doesn't belong anywhere. He's gay, but only came out to his best friend Megan who is becoming more and more distant. Brody meets gorgeous, artistic Nico who invites him to meet some friends the next Thursday at precisely 11:21 pm. He sneaks out and joins Nico and friends in time to see a door appear out of nowhere. Of course Brody follows Nico through to discover Everland - a magical place full of people from all over the world. Brody feels at peace in Everland, like he belongs. When he returns to Edinburgh no time has passed - his family didn't even notice he was gone. Soon Everland becomes everything to Brody and as things in the real world become more and more dire, Brody has some difficult decisions to make.

Everland was a fast read and a well-told, well-crafted story. Teens will love it - as will anyone who has felt out of place. It would be a great book for discussion - lots of food for thought.

This was such a fun book. A really great Peter Pan retelling, very atmospheric and magical. Also it had great mental health rep. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a new take on a beloved classic.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was absolutely breathtaking. Perfect for those of us who always wished we could turn the corner and find ourselves in a magical land.

This was a magical book. I enjoyed the time I spent with it. I feel readers will either enjoy this immensely or possibly be on the fence with it. The imagery is lovely an the characters all bring something unique to the story. The parallels of Peter Pan in this lgbt story won't be lost on the readers and many will find it a fun, fast and inspiring read of acceptance and what it means to be true to who you are and be proud of who you are regardless of the thoughts of others.

Brody Fair’s life is everything but what he imagined for himself. His family is extremely poor, he thinks his brother gets all the attention, he’s picked on, and all around just doesn’t fit into the cookie cutter mold that the world expects of him. Then one day, he meets a boy named Nico who invites him to meet him at 11:21 exactly at a specific place in Edinburgh. At that time, a portal opens and allows Brody to experience a world where time just stops. A place where he can decompress and fit in for a little while. A place called Everland. Everland is everything Brody had been hoping for and more, but can he stay there?

This was magical!! This magical little world comes in softly and teaches you more about Brody’s journey to acceptance than Everland itself. I was so invested in Brody’s character development the whole time, just wanting him to be able to figure it all out so he could be happy. If you’re coming into this hoping for a sweeping magical story, this isn’t it, but if you’re hoping for a contemporary with some magical elements, this is the perfect marriage of the two.

Sophie Cameron's second novel, Last Bus to Everland, takes a page from J. M. Barrie and C.S. Lewis, in creating a magical place for a group of Scottish misfits.

The main character, Brody Fair, is sixteen. He feels inferior to his genius brother Jake, and his home life consists of a father who suffers from agorophobia, a harried mother trying desperately to support her children and take care of her husband, and another sibling, younger sister Keira. Brody is gay, but closeted, and is often bullied by some of his classmates who live in his same complex.

It is on a day when these female bullies kidnap Brody's cat when he first meets his own Peter Pan, in the form of a young winged chap named Nico. Nico tells Brody to meet him at a specific location at 11:21 pm SHARP on Thursday evening.

Brody sneaks out, and discovers, to his amazement, a green door admitting him, Nico, and Nico's friends to a place they call Everland - a magical place where time seems suspended and people from all walks of life meet to hang out, play music, party, read books . . . whatever their hearts desire. Every Thursday, Brody escapes the reality he hates to spend time in Everland, where he feels he truly belongs.

But then the doors start closing - trapping people permanently in Everland or locking them out. Nico decides he will stay in Everland and asks Brody to stay with him. As much as he loves Nico, Brody is torn between the allure of spending forever in Everland with Nico, or losing him forever to stay with his family in his real world. It is a tough, tough choice that Brody must face.

I thought Cameron did a great job with this story - by the end I was in tears for Brody. When an author draws you far enough into the story that you cry for the characters, it's well done. It takes a bit to acclimate to the fact that it takes place in Scotland and some of the language is "off" for American readers, but it wasn't long before I was right there with Brody.

A good read for sure.

Brody is a misfit, a victim of bullying who will never live up to the standards set by his older brother, Jake. Still, he plods along, trying avoid the bullies and pass his classes with the help of his best friend Megan. When his cat Tinker Bell is taken by a couple of bullies, Brody chases them into an unfamiliar neighborhood where he and Tink are rescued by Nico. Brody is immediately taken with Nico and when Nico invites him to a place called Everland, Brody can't refuse. It turns out that Everland is a magical place that can only be accessed through magical doors that appear in specific places around the world every Thursday at 11:21pm.

In Everland, Brody finally finds a place where he feels like he can be his true self, not a victim, not a shadow, not an afterthought. In the real world Brody's family lives on the brink of poverty, his Mam picks up as many shifts as work will let her and his dad is on disability because of his crippling agoraphobia. When Dad's benefits run out and the family is forced to cut off more and more (first sell the family car, then stop his sister's drama lessons, then get rid of the cat, then cut off the internet, etc. etc.). As life crumbles around him, Brody escapes into Everland in his daily dreams as well as on Thursday nights.

Then, the doors that access Everland throughout the world begin to disappear and Brody if forced to choose whether he wants to stay in Everland where things are always good but never change and you never grow up, or stay in Ediburgh with his family and figure out how to make life better.

This book deals with themes of loneliness and abandonment, poverty, family pressures, bullying, lgbtqia struggles, depression, and mental illness. I found the way the author treated the dad's struggles with agoraphobia to be raw and painful and authentic. While the family understands it intellectually, that doesn't keep them from being hurt emotionally. But, that doesn't mean they give up on each other, either. The portrayal of issues related to bullying was also spot on authentic (including the responses of adults at school and as home, as well as other teens).

The one thing that struck me as forced, as opposed to authentic, was the inclusion of so many LGBTQ characters in Brody's small circle of friends. The only one who was not gay (or pan or bi) was his best friend Megan. The deeper Brody went into Everland, the more LGBTQ characters there were. Then, when he started to make more friends in the real world, oh, surprise, they're bi, too. That was just too much for me. It made the casual introduction of diverse characters, which felt natural until they all turned out to be gay, begin to feel like it was being forced down the reader's throat. Not what I look for in my leisure reading.

The resolution with his brother was just unbelievable. I'll leave it at that so this review remains spoiler free. I will say that that part of the book brought it down a star for me. I don't like endings that are too tied up with pretty bows. Other than with his brother, the rest of the ending felt real and I enjoyed it. If you enjoy magical realism, YA lit, LGBTQIA stories, or Peter Pan, I recommend this book.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Came for the Everland worldbuilding, stayed for that and the mental health rep. It takes a little or a lot of bravery to move through the world sometimes, in different ways for everyone.

I really wanted to like this book. I really did. An LGBT centered retelling/inspired-by of Peter Pan is what I've been dying to read since I finished Lost Boys, but Last Bus to Everland just fell flat for me. I really dislike when author's write accents into a character's dialogue instead of trusting the reader to know/research what the character would sound like. It disrupts the flow of the novel for me and makes it really difficult to get through. I also just didn't feel for the characters the way I wanted to. I DNFed this book less than half way through, so I can't speak to the events that happened after that, but I was just bummed that this wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be.

2 out of 5 stars -- because my issues with it could be seen as pet peeves and I thought it had a good concept to start with.

I love a re-telling and this is probably one of my new favorites. A unique re-imagining of the classic Peter Pan tale, "Last Bus to Everland" goes beyond the typical Peter Pan trope and explores the question why? Why don't I want to grow up? Why do I want to escape? Why? Why? Why? Creating an excellent opportunity for insightful discussion for teen (or even adult) book clubs.

I love a book that has me tearing up a bit at the end, and this book did just that, The characters were written well, and I missed them when the book was over.. Not just the main characters either - I'm still thinking about the secondary characters, and wondering about some of their back stories. Great book about family - the one we are born to, and the one we choose to surround ourselves with..

This is one of those books that rips your soul out and then puts it back, bruised but better for the experience. Never before have I felt that an author really conveyed what it is like to be seen and yet invisible. That is the problem for most of the characters in this book. They feel that they are only seen on the surface and that no one knows who they really are until they find each other in Everland. No matter where they are from, in Everland they are seen, known, and validated. I am so glad that I read this book, even if I did cry through most of it. Everland is a magical place, and one that I would have liked to visit myself.

This was my first time reading This particular author. This was interesting. The characters were real, the setting was magical.