Haunting, mysterious, and just a little bit seductive this Peter Pan remix snared me from the first line and wouldn’t let me go. I will admit I wasn’t outwardly ready for the sadness, but somewhere inside I knew it was the only was this book could have ended in a satisfying way. I’m loving everything Aiden Thomas writes. They are really quite fantastic.

Well written, hard to put down, but oof: I guess I just was not ready for it to get that dark and depressing.

Sign me up for a Peter Pan retelling. The park and sinister pieces of this story hook you from the beginning. It did drag a bit in the middle but the ending was worth it.

I was excited to get to this one once I saw that it was Peter Pan and somehow I'm a little disappointed.

I liked Wendy well enough. She has a lot of grief and that emotion came through in everything she did. Peter was the bright spot. He got Wendy moving and doing something instead of going through the motions. I really liked Jordan and wish she would have been used in a different way. I have a hard time believing Jordan wouldn't have been on board to help.

Plot wise, it was a struggle. The phrase "time is running out" was repeatedly used, but Wendy and Peter were always off doing random things like getting ice cream or playing in a waterfall. Sure, maybe it was used to break up the so-called tension, but it didn't work that way for me. The woods were atmospheric and wonderful and almost made up for the fact that we never got to see Neverland. And there were a lot of random things mentioned that didn't seem to go anywhere (Dad's study, Wendy's handwashing).

Overall, I loved the idea of this story, but it just didn't quite do it for me. Of course I'm going to read anything Aiden puts out, so I'm eager to see what's next.

**Huge thanks to the publisher for providing this arc free of charge**

Fairytale retelling is a genre that I have recently began exploring.
Lost in the Never Woods stirred so many emotions! It is an amazing story of Wendy Darling and how she lost and regained precious and heartbreaking memories.
Definitely recommend this book!

I loved so much about this novel. There were a lot of Peter Pan retellings from 2021, but this one really stood out. Aiden Thomas is an author that is able to take a story and characters and make them come alive.

aiden thomas is a favorite of mine! and his 2nd novel did not dissappoint! I loved this story, and Aiden even more lol! I love a good retelling and this just hit the mark in so many ways.

Absolutely amazing novel. I was hooked from the first chapter until it was entirely taken aback that it was over. I’m officially a follower of this author, and will preorder anything that they release. The writing style is so refined and the world building is so unique and oftentimes complex, I find myself telling all of my friends to pick up this book, and keep an eye on upcoming works.

Pretty disappointed in this one. Writing felt rushed and the characters weren’t fully fledged. The romance/relationship between Peter and Wendy felt like a last minute addition and I couldn’t bring myself to care about it. I felt like Thomas expected the readers to care about and be just as knowledgeable about Peter Pan as he is, but that wasn’t the case. I’m sure his debut is much better, but this missed the mark in every way.

I will buy anything from Aiden Thomas. Their books are fantastic and emotionally gripping. This was fantastic and kept me gripping the book while reading late at night. It was a bit spooky, mysterious, and emotional.

I've read Cemetery Boys and loved it, and I was expecting the same thing to happen with this one, but.... Well, this is boring.

I won this in an eARC giveaway before I knew it was a PP retelling, which I'm not usually into. I read about 20% of this book but sadly had to DNF. It just really is not my thing, so it did not keep my attention. The writing is good but wasn't engaging to me. I will definitely try something else from this author, but this one just didn't do it for me.

Lost in the Never Woods is a fantastic story about grief and trauma. Wendy has severe anxiety years after the fact, which is compounded by the shifting dynamics in her family. She constantly deals with the knowledge that, even though everyone around her is very understanding of her ordeal, no one truly understands what she went through. She cannot remember anything about what happened, not the initial disappearance, nor anything in the six months that she was gone, and that just makes everything worse for her; she feels intense guilt that she can’t do anything to aid in figuring out what happened to her brothers.

Wendy is all too relatable as a protagonist. This is a girl who went through a terrifying and traumatizing ordeal, something by which she is still affected, years later, but she is constantly diminishing her own pain, her own feelings, her own needs, in order to not make things “more difficult” for those around her. She tiptoes around her father, who has taken to explosive emotions and bouts of aggressive protectiveness; she coddles her mother, who hasn’t truly smiled in five years and works long hours to avoid being home. She has only one real friend; everyone else around town treats her with suspicion.

Peter, by contrast, is bright and vivacious. He is everything magic and light, and he isn’t afraid of anything. Wendy initially mistrusts him because of this – also because of the whole, you know, she thought he was a fictional thing – but throughout the novel, he is able to slowly but surely break down her walls in a way that doesn’t feel forced or that he’s pushing her too hard too fast. Because Peter is also someone who takes everyone else’s pain on his shoulders; he just handles that burden in a different way. Their dynamic is great because of their similarities, but also because of their differences.

I’ve attempted to read several different Peter Pan adaptations, and this is the first one I enjoyed enough to finish. Aiden Thomas creates a tense atmosphere and a series of unanswered questions that will draw readers to this story’s startling conclusion. Those who enjoy a sprinkling of magic with a dark dose of mystery will enjoy Lost in the Never Woods.

Five years ago Wendy and her brothers went missing, but only Wendy returned. The mystery of what happened to them has never been solved and there is still a niggle of hope that the boys will one day return. When local children begin to disappear, Wendy is forced to face her past. When she nearly runs over a boy named Peter, things suddenly become much more complicated- how can the boy she thought was only a story be alive and pushing her to help rescue the missing children?!

Lost in the Never Woods was a good book overall. It was an interesting take on a timeless tale. Aiden Thomas does a great job of painting an intriguing picture of Wendy and Peter. This rather dark tale pulls the reader into a world where Peter's escaped shadow is the villain and the race against time may not be won.

I did not like this as much as Thomas's first book, Cemetary Boys, but I still think it is worth picking up if you are a fan of fairy tale rewrites!

i really enjoyed this book! the pacing was a little slow at the beginning but the second half picked up and got a lot more interesting !! i think the mental illness rep was really good and wendy and peter's relationship was heartbreaking in the best possible way

A retelling of Peter Pan had me very interested the beginning started out strong and had me hooked. But it did not keep me hooked the whole way through. It was a bit slow moving for me and I was slow to finish this one. An overall It was a good read but not one of my favorite retellings.

I MIGHT NOT BE TOO SUBTLE AND THERE COULD BE UNINTENTIONAL SPOILERS

I was so excited about this because I love retellings, but it just didn't live up to my expectations.

The story seemed to drag for so long, I got to half of the book and it felt like so many things had happened but it just hadn't really gone anywhere? It's a mystery, but it seemed like the clues and actual discoveries were trickling in so slow it didn't feel like they were making any progress. There were no exciting plot twists until the very end, which was also kind of boring. It didn't feel like much was at stake with how leisure Peter and Wendy were acting. Like Wendy would have an encounter with Peter's shadow and lose a kid, and the next day they went to the woods and ended up swimming.

The villain didn't feel much like a villain either. I don't know if the author wanted to have an "atmosphere", but it certainly wasn't there. The villain appeared a couple of times, being mysterious and all that, but it just didn't feel like it was actually powerful. Peter goes on and on about him growing weaker, and his shadow getting so much stronger but I just didn't see it. Besides a little tormenting in the dark, was there anything else he could do? Might be just me, but it felt a little disappointing.

The side characters are not memorable? For me, at least. Wendy's best friend is there basically to create more emotional conflict for Wendy, her parents get some development and I understand their perspective but the way she is treated just angers me. I feel like the police and detectives were there just to throw fuel to the flames? They did little more than just harass Wendy and throw her into her traumatic past with no consideration.

The romantic tension felt ok, it was natural but I just... he's Peter Pan and we all know how that ends. I like my angst but I like a happy ending for the couple too!

Still, nostalgia plays a huge enjoyment factor, I loved every reference to the story we all know. I was disappointed that a certain character was NOT THERE but I guess there was no necessity. The ending was not so bad, the final battle sequence was quite enjoyable, considering the villain and what he held over Wendy's head. I teared up a little, not gonna lie when Wendy remembers everything because damn. Thanks for the feelings, that was totally unnecessary.

I wanted to love Lost in the Never Woods so badly. Peter Pan retellings are my absolute jam and I usually find so much joy in seeing what an author does with the original story. And while Never Woods did have those Pan similarities I loved, the pacing of this book greatly hindered my experience. I DNF'd it at 49% because I strongly felt that at that point, we should have been reaching the climax and then end. So much of this was dragged out and/or repetitive, which is such a shame because I've heard wonderful things about the author. But I just couldn't finish this. It took me three entire weeks to get halfway, I can't dedicate another three to finish. My rating reflects my overall experience with the first half of the book.

<i>"Shadows are made up of darkness. They feed off of sadness and despair. They manifest what you're most scared of and use it as a weapon to feed off your fear.[...] That's why we need pixie dust to fight it. It's made from light and laughter and joy. That's why when you use pixie dust and think of good things -- happy things -- it makes you light enough to fly."</i>

TL;DR: A clever twist on the <i>Peter Pan</i> story -- with important messages about grief, trauma, and the importance of therapy -- but needed a healthy dose of pixie dust. Ultimately, an unmagical and kinda repetitive story.
<b><i>I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.</b></i>

Vibes: <i>Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens</i> with Dementors + <i>Cold Case</i>

Genre: True YA Retelling of Peter Pan [standalone]

Character MVP: Meh. Wendy...I guess? She was really the only developed character...but that's not saying much.

Verdict: I must be on a retelling kick because this is the 3rd or 4th retelling in a row I've read. And let me just say -- this was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 and I saved it for a <i>Peter Pan</i> retelling week in my online book group. I loved <i>Cemetery Boys</i> and I recommend that book to so many people.

So, man was I disappointed when I read this. The first 10% and the last 10% were...okay, but the middle 80% was a bit of a slog. I felt like basically the entire plot could be boiled down to this: <i>something happened to Wendy 5 years ago. Now kids are going missing. Wendy meets Peter Pan. They talk about saving the kids and defeating the Shadow. Wendy does.</i>
That's kinda it. Not much else happens.

Now, I'm a fan of character-driven, emotional/psychological stories. That alone is not enough to frustrate me as a reader. But when the internal emotional plot thread doesn't go anywhere or evolve *and* there's no action...that's frustrating as a reader. Wendy has three main thoughts: (1) I can't remember what happened to me, (2) I feel guilty about what happened, and (3) we should go into the woods to save the kids but we can't go into the woods.
And then, in the last 10% of the book, she goes into the woods and somehow manages to defeat the shadows by thinking happy thoughts/memories. Which...I get what Aiden Thomas was going for, and there's an incredibly important message there about getting yourself through dark times by focusing on the light but the book was about 100 pages too long. And Wendy, while strong, wasn't really as active as I would have hoped -- not to undermine her mental strength, it just seemed like things happened *to* her a lot.

Other Thoughts:
<b>[Spoilery]</b>

✔︎ -- I did think Thomas's twist on the Peter Pan story was clever. It definitely relates more to <i>Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens</i> where Peter flies the souls of dead kids to Neverland -- and there is a reading of Peter Pan which argues that he's an angel (maybe even an angel of death?) but that's not necessarily supported by Barrie's story, <i>Peter and Wendy</i>, or most other adaptations (e.g., Disney). So Thomas sort of validates that theory here -- and Dementors.

✔︎ -- I also think I like how Thomas handled Peter's cruelty. I talked about this a lot in my review of [book:Darling|51199185], where Barrie's OG Peter Pan was capricious and childlike, yes, but also cruel in the way that only kids can be. Here, Peter himself is much more indebted to Disney's light-hearted version, and the shadow reflects that inherent cruelty. I think. Not entirely sure yet.

✘ -- Not a fan of romance between Peter and...anyone. That's a personal thing, probably because I'm so familiar with OG Peter and Barrie's biography and just all the literary conversation. Peter Pan doesn't have a sexual/romantic side, so...ick.
Although you can definitely tell that Peter is related to Thomas's other manic-pixie-dream-boy, Julian from Cemetery Boys.

✘ -- Again, another personal thing: Wendy is supposed to be a swimmer. But, she doesn't practice over the summer? She's not on a team? And has plans to just walk on to the swim team at her university?
Nope.
Now, she could *club* swim, sure. But not join an NCAA swim team. Because you gotta practice every day for that sh*t. And you'd have a year-round team, for sure. Just little things bothered me a bit, because that's not how NCAA swimming works -- and there's no "varsity" team.

✘ -- I noted this with Cemetery Boys as well, but Thomas tends to get a bit repetitive in their writing style. It's a beautiful prose style, don't get me wrong, and you can tell that Thomas put a lot of love into writing this story, but streamlining and/or more action would help. Wendy has the same internal conversations 4 or 5 times -- e.g., about not wanting to lie but feeling like she has no choice -- that just halts the movement of the story.

✘ -- If you read this as a retelling of <i>Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens</i> this doesn't matter as much, but if you're thinking it's a <i>Peter Pan</i> story, there are not nearly enough fairies or pirates in this book. Pixie dust makes an appearance, but only because Peter is, apparently, made of it? IDK. Again, more a meditation on grief and trauma and healing than magical adventure in Neverland.