DNF'd at 9%

This is totally my fault. I saw "for fans of VE Schwab" and hit request without stopping for a second to realize I have zero interest in this book.

I read enough to be introduced to the three main characters (Hook, Wendy, and Jane) but none of them / their stories grabbed my interest.

Thank you to Titan and Netgalley for this eARC of "Hooked" by A.C. Wise.

I loved this book and it felt like the perfect retelling to me. Hook as a protagonist was genius and truly intriguing. The darkness of Peter Pan struck out as a motif that's been done before but not as well executed as Wise's concept.

This could have perfectly been 5 stars if the book wasn't advertised as a "feminist retelling"
Personally, I don't understand how it's a feminist retelling and if it did show signs of that, it didn't truly reflect on that most of the plot. Especially as James Hook was the main story at the forefront, it's claim of feminism was faulty at best.

This was a fantastic read! I felt drawn in to the story from page one, and the writing kept me intrigued right up until the end! The style felt very reminiscent, to me, of Christina Henry's writing style, which I also thoroughly enjoy. The cover of this book caught my eye and after reading the description I knew I had to read it! I went into this book not having read Wendy, Darling and that didn't matter at all. Hooked completely stands on it's own, and explains some of Jane and Wendy's back story as it goes along. If you don't want spoilers, though, I would pick up Wendy, Darling before reading this one.

This book is a tale of adventure, yes, but at it's heart are two beautiful love stories: the love between a mother and her daughter and the tragic love story between a man and the one person who refuses to leave his side. It's a story of grief, of reconciliation and of redemption. I knew right from the start that Hooked would be absolutely heartbreaking, and I wasn't wrong, but it was also full of hope in the end. There's one scene in particular, right after the climax of the action, that brought bittersweet tears to my eyes as Hook's story came to a conclusion.

I loved A.C. Wise's version of Neverland! It was perfectly creepy and the rendition of Peter Pan and Neverland was one that I've never seen before. The struggle between James and Hook was amazingly written and I really felt empathy for the character. Even when he was at his most villainous, I was never quite sure how much of that was because of Neverland's influence on him and how much came from Hook himself.

I found the start slightly slow going, but the beautiful prose and descriptive language more than made up for the slow pace. The speed of the action really picks up about half way through the novel and I found myself absolutely desperate to keep reading towards the end! The way everything concluded at the end was so bittersweet in the best way and the whole book leading up to this was a joy to read. I would definitely recommend it!

TWs: violence, death, addiction, homophobia
Rep: MLM romance

”Once invited, always welcome. Once invited, never free.”

What happens after you escape Neverland? In this retelling, Neverland is a dark and twisted place. The story focuses on Captain James Hook, but also on the Darling family after the traumatic events that happened to them in Neverland. However, parts of Neverland bleeds into their new lives in London.

I loved how the author told the story through both the past and present, it was written so beautifully. Another thing I loved is the blurred lines between villain and hero. The book tells a story about heartbreak, trauma, addiction, grief and consequences of your actions. But also, a story about love and family. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

going in i knew i would love the concept. i'm a huge fan of peter pan and there happens to be many, many, retellings. overall, this book was entertaining and kept me engaged. i wasn't the biggest fan of the writing style but it wasn't enough to make me stop reading.

i didn't know this was a sequel of sorts but i still caught on pretty easily.

Hooked by A.C Wise hits the spot if you are looking for a dark Neverland story with a sympathetic (and queer!) Captain Hook. While there are many “dark” Peter Pan stories out there, Wise's conception of Peter Pan and Neverland resonated with me more than others I have recently read. Perhaps it is helpful that I have always seen Pan as the villain of the story, so for cynics out like me, this story should be quite validating.

This is the second novel in a series that began with Wendy Darling and picks up 8 years after those events, where Wendy returns to Neverland as an adult to find her Daughter Jane who Pan has kidnapped. While I am interested in going back now and reading it, I was easily able to follow this story without having read the first. Wise gives readers enough context to understand key events from that novel while continuing to build on them here.

Though Pan is defeated and forced to face consequences for his actions in Wendy Darling, Hooked deals with the aftermath Pan leaves behind. In Wise’s Neverland, we learn Hook must live his defeat, drowning, and death by the crocodile monster over and over in an endless cycle as part of Pan’s “game” with no consequences. For Hook, the consequences are devastatingly real. The narrative follows 2 timelines, one where Hook is alive in 1939 London, alone, mourning the loss of his only love ( a crewmember named Samuel), ill, and pursued by literal and figurative monsters from his past. The second timeline picks up 22 years earlier in Neverland where we see Hook escape the hell Neverland was for him under Pan and the development of his relationship with Samuel. While far from innocent, Hook is also a victim of Pan's recklessness, tortured both in Neverland and in London as the story deftly explores the toll of PTSD on the body and the mind. In addition, Wise explores themes of grief, disability, and healing through parallels between Hook’s story and that of Micheal and Jane.

As a result, the murky post-Pan world of Neverland that Hook, Micheal and Jane ultimately return to in the third act serves as a metaphor for trauma and grief itself. The literal battle they find themselves fighting is secondary to the psychological conflict that lies beneath for each character.

Clearly, this is not a light “feel-good” read. However, the dark themes and disorienting atmosphere of the book don’t just serve to twist an old favorite into a depressing nightmare, but ultimately provides a path to healing and hope; for only when we deal with the monsters from our past can we truly move forward and live..

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for providing an electronic advanced read copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

Thank you NetGalley and Titan Books for the ARC.

This book is a Peter Pan retelling, focused on Captain James Hook. After being trapped in Neverland for a long time, victim to the games of a wicked child, Hook managed to escape that place and go back to London. But Neverland continued haunting his dreams, reminding him of what he lost, preventing him from living a normal life in the city he once called home. Now, Peter Pan’s monster is back, seeking revenge. To fight the beast and vanquish it forever, James forms an alliance with Wendy Darling and her daughter Jane, who know better than anyone you can’t escape Neverland.

This book had so much potential, I was really excited to read it, because the plot seemed so interesting and I love retellings, but I spent the entire book thinking there was something missing.

I loved the dark tone of the book, this is no disney fairytale, Peter Pan is not just a boy who refuses to grow up, he’s wicked and cruel, trapping people in Neverland, taking them away from their homes and making them forget who they are. Captain Hook may be Neverland’s villain, but James in nothing but a troubled man, marked by the horrors he witnessed and suffered in the magical land. He’s grieving the loss of the man he loved, struggling to remember who he truly is, where he truly belongs.

I found the writing very beautiful, although confusing at times, and I liked how the narrative alternated between the past and the present. But I struggled connecting with the characters, they lack some depth, I wish they had been further explored. I know the author has a previous book that focuses on Wendy and Jane, but “Hooked” isn’t marked as a sequel, and although I understood everything that went down in this book, there’s something missing, I found the word-building very poor, some.things weren’t explained properly, as if the author expected everyone to have read the other book. I was looking forward to the scenes where they finally went back to Neverland, but, once there, the enthusiam vanished and I didn’t find anything thrilling.

This book is also described as feminist, but I find that so ironic, considering it’s mainly focused on Captain Hook. Yes, Jane looks like a strong, corageous girl, and Wendy will do anything for her daughter, but nothing screamed feminism to me, I didn’t feel empowered or in awe of the female characters.

Samuel is my favourite character of the book, even though he’s not in it much. I wish we got to know him more.

Overall, this is a book with an excelent premisse that wasn’t well developed, but nonetheless I still enjoyed reading it.

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

After reading the blurb I was really interested in this title but it unfortunately didn't live up to my expectations. The plot idea itself was very interesting and i usually love retellings but I feel like this one had a little bit too messy and too slow one. However, I still mildly enjoyed this book and that's why I'm giving it 3 stars.

Less than a year ago I read a dark continuation of Peter Pan in the form of Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise. I wasn’t sure what I expected, especially as I have fond memories of the stories my mum used to make up for my siblings and me when we were much younger, of her brother Peter Pan.

When I picked up Hooked, the only things I knew were that it was a continuation of Wendy, Darling and that it focused on one of the characters that always intrigued me if not for his duality in the stage play and Pan, Captain James Hook.

Hook has always been an odd character, whether you’re looking at him in Hook, Peter Pan, Once Upon a Time, Pan, or any of the other screen adaptations, but this gave him an extra dimension. In Hooked we meet a man who is broken, he is lost, a man living in a London decades older than it was when he went to sea. He had a sister, she’s dead, he had friends, family. Now he has nothing, apart from his ship’s mate and doctor, Samuel.

This relationship is beautiful, you see it develop on the page, slowly, steadily. Samuel cares for James, though he can’t understand elements of his personality. But they both know there’s a limit on the time they have together, because something is coming for them.

This book takes place 8 years after the events in Wendy, Darling and though she is not the centre of the story this time around, Wendy has to come to terms with the realisation that she is no longer able to see the second star to the left, she has lost her right to ever visit Neverland again. This time, the saviour will be her daughter Jane, who is angry at the world, blaming her mother for the death of a close friend and devastated at what Neverland is still capable of doing to her family.

I have never been a fan of the darker side of literature, it gives me nightmares, but this twisted fairytale develops characters who were previously relatively one-dimensional. James Hook is not the heartless pirate he was made out to be while playing Peter’s sick games, constantly dying at the hands of the young boy and then forced to relive the experience over and over. He is a man who had a family, had a life, had ambitions and desires. He loves, and is in pain.

The story looks into the agonies of drug addiction as James suffers through withdrawal and relapse. He watches as the man he loves slowly dies day by day, but is unable to do anything to help him, and he barely copes with the pain of knowing that he is the cause of all of it, however unintentional it may be.

This book is one that I would definitely recommend, whether you like the twisted fairytale or enjoy the darker fantasy. It’s clever and emotional and deep. It makes the pirate of many childhood nightmares into a man you would probably want to give a hug.

Hooked is not a Peter Pan retelling: it is an after-telling. A truth-seeking. An analysis of the reader's truth within an imagining of what came after for Wendy Darling, her daughter, Jane, and Captain James Hook. Hooked is a counter-verse, an argument, an exposé.

Hooked features a cast that escaped Neverland and asks, is escape ever complete? As much as it is a story of a beast, a hunting, and a reckoning, it is more than that: it is fantasy, and a dark one. How do we deal with traumas within traumas: unresolved childhood experiences, within the milieu of a changing society of war and oppression.

I lapped up the imagery of this dark fantasy. Captain Hook’s “pulse gallops, and he’s pulled helplessly behind it”; and later, “the sense that he’s not alone cat-paws its way up his spine” - cat-paws!

In between the murders, the chase, and the nightmares, is a slow-burn M4M romance that tip-toes its way into the reader’s heart. These characters are flawed: cruel, at times unloving, irrational, or timid, and more realistic than you could ever expect from a bunch of once-immortal, flying, fairytale characters.

While Hooked has a plot, it is not plot-driven. It feels… thought-driven. Emotion-driven. The reader is transported to a memory of a place, rather than the place itself.

I found myself in the throes of memory-spirals. Hook is a story of toxicity. It is a story of changing narratives, of heroes becoming villains and villains becoming prey - not becoming as in changing, but becoming as in a realisation of truth.

When we are bad - when we are toxic - is it something within us? Or is something that we are made, for the sole purpose of fitting a storyline?

The imagery here is cruel, and sexual, and twisted. This book might make you introspect for days. You may need to discuss it at therapy. It could actually change your life - or at the very least, your mind.

To what extent do we share our traumas with our progeny - by choice, or by transference? How does hiding, or embellishing our traumas, harm our offspring? Can we truly save them from repeating our mistakes, or can we only help them to experience it differently?

What is the Beast that hunts us?

And how does it die? Does it die?

The finite pages of Hooked contain an infinity of questions that could not be asked in any other way - can you answer them?

I received an eARC of this book via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love retellings, and even though Peter Pan isn't my favorite, I was very excited to read this book.
So far, this has been my favorite backstory for Captain Hook, unfortunately not my favorite Peter Pan retelling.
After starting the book, I realized it was meant to be a sequel to the book ''Wendy Darling'', a book I have not read. I decided to continue the book anyway and found that it worked fine on its own. However, if you plan to read ''Wendy Darling'' as well, I highly recommend you start with that one. Pretty sure I ruined the whole book for myself by starting with this one.

The book is written from three points of view; Captain Hook, Wendy, and her daughter Jane. It jumps around in time, and throughout the book, we uncover Hook's full story and solve the mystery in the ''present time''.
The book is pretty well-written. Especially Hook's character is great. He has depth and so much feeling and emotion to him. His storyline was by far my favorite, and despite it being heartbreaking, I really enjoyed it.
I did not care much for Wendy. I found her character to be a bit shallow and one-sided (that might have been different if I had read the other book first?). Her storyline was a bit boring, and this is also where the book lost me.
It took me a bit too long to fully get interested in the book. It wasn't until Hook's story started to unfold that I felt invested. And frankly, every time we jumped to Wendy, it lost me a bit again.
Jane's storyline was okay but not as emotional as the Captain's.

I wished the book had been told in chronological order and focused mainly on Hook. I think it would have had a more organic feeling to it and worked better as a whole. The whole jumping around in time made the storyline a bit uneven and strange. It made it harder to follow, get caught up in what happened, and genuinely invest in the characters.

I will give the book 3 out of 5 stars - all 3 for Hook.

Thank you netgalley for this arc in return for an honest review.

Sadly this was a huge miss for me. I love retellings and I was very excited upon reading the blurb for this but it was just hard going and took me forever to wade through. I didn’t like or connect with any of the characters, I found it lacked a storyline and it was so slow! Nothing happened and the ending felt messy. I hate being negative about anyone’s hard work but I just did not enjoy any aspect of this unfortunately.

Hot on the heels of last year’s fantastic Wendy, Darling, A.C. Wise continues her story of Neverland with Hooked, a tale of Wendy, her daughter Jane, and the terrifying Captain Hook.

Captain Hook, also known as James, has escaped Neverland through a gap in the sky, bringing Samuel, the ship’s surgeon. As they start a new life in London, James finds it hard to adjust to the “real” world, and when Samuel dies, James feels the pull of Neverland, and Hook, once more.

Meanwhile, Wendy Darling’s daughter Jane suffers a devastating loss in the death of her beloved flatmate, and strange deaths continue to strike very close to home. It seems something evil from Neverland has crept into London, and Jane must continue the battle her mother started.

Compared to the non-stop action of Wendy, Darling, Hooked moves at a somewhat slower pace, establishing the relationship between Hook/James, and his partner Samuel. Wise takes time to really explore James’s trauma from Pan’s abuse, his opiate addiction, and his struggle of becoming a “good” person. But it is more than an origin story; it’s a deep dive into a well-known character, who, in reality, we scarcely know at all.

The real action starts when we return to Neverland towards the end of the book, and the final resolution is brutal and heartbreaking.

Hooked is a continuation of Wendy, Darling, and while it isn’t entirely necessary to read Wendy, Darling first, I would recommend doing so. Wise has created such an amazing world, and I enjoyed being welcomed back. Peter Pan is such an incredibly dark tale, and ripe for exploration. I really hope A. C. Wise continues telling these Neverland tales.

This book wasn't for me. Wise has a very distinct writing style but unfortunately the plot and characters are rather flat and is quite boring to read. I struggle to understand what audience Wise is aiming for who would enjoy something like this. A lot of the text also felt unnecessary.

I'm A total sucker for fairytale retellings; this did not disappoint. Captain Hook is still the bad guy and he brings with him bad things from Neverland. An absolutely delicious read.

I was really looking forward to digging into this story after reading the premise; I’m a huge sucker for fairytale retellings. I have not read the first book in the series, but there is enough backstory given throughout the novel to get the main gist of what happened before this book begins. Captain Hook, or James as he is known in London, escaped Neverland decades ago in a brutal flurry of madness with his ship’s surgeon and little else. Now an old man alone, he’s called something from the darkness of his despair that should never have left the shores of Neverland and now stalks the city, leaving innocent victims in its wake as it hunts for the one who called it. Jane, the only daughter of Wendy Darling and previous captive of Peter Pan, is attending college in London to become a doctor. When she arrives home to find her roommate dead and her Mother mysteriously appearing a few hours later, she knows that something nefarious from Neverland is to blame. All three of them must band together to save the people they love and right the wrongs of their pasts without falling prey to the dark wonders of Neverland. This book had a fantastically paced buildup, wonderfully descriptive settings, and very believable character development. My only complaint is that the end felt a bit rushed, and the epilogue was a tad heavy-handed after the feminist subtext woven throughout the rest of the story. Overall a fun read, and I will definitely be looking out for more books in the series.

USUALLY I LOVE A PETER PAN RETELLING, BUT THIS DIDN'T THRILL ME

I should have been madly in love with this book. I should have been over the moon to get the story of Captain Hook. I should have been the biggest fan. It was in the cards, for heaven's sake. But it just didn't come together for me. I cannot exactly pinpoint was didn't work for me. Perhaps it was the shifting POVs? Or perhaps the many, many timelines that wove into each other, back and forth. Or perhaps it was the characters that never really truly came alive for me. Might just be a mixture of all of it. Sadly, I was not a fan even though I really wanted to be.

I couldn't get into this one. The pacing and the writing style were just not doing it for me at all. I heard good things about Wendy, Darling and maybe I would have enjoyed this more had I read that one? Or maybe I wouldn't have requested it at all.

NOTE: The 1-star rating is only there because NetGalley requires it; I didn’t read enough of the book to give it an accurate rating.

Alas, for the first time in over a year, I must shelve another book as “did not finish.” I am loath to do this with an eARC I received from NetGalley—I try my best only to apply for books I will hopefully like, and even when I don’t like them, I do my best to finish them and provide a full review. That being said, I have no problem with DNFing a book if it isn’t right for me.

Hooked is a reimagining of the Peter Pan mythos. It is, apparently, a loose sequel to A.C. Wise’s earlier novel, Wendy, Darling (I haven’t rea dit). I love the premise behind these two novels. Retellings remain all the rage, with good reason, but the challenge is to twist the source material in such a way as to find new themes and entertaining layers to it. The idea that Captain Hook was the victim of some kind of fae spirit masquerading as a boy is really cool, and perhaps this book will work better for others, as many of the more positive reviews it has attracted so far seem to attest.

Why didn’t it work for me? Pacing was a big one. And the style of writing overall.

I am only about ten percent into the novel, which I admit isn’t that much. Normally I give a book a little longer to grab me—but something is telling me that Hooked won’t do that, and I want to listen to my gut. Very little has happened so far. The chapters are long and meandering. Wise flits in and out of flashbacks, taking us from present-day London, 1939, to James’s time as Hook in Neverland. The exposition this provides allows me to understand what’s happening, yet I don’t feel it, if that makes any sense.

Stylistically, then, Wise and I seem to be working at cross purposes. These days I much prefer novels with shorter, concrete scenes, and a good mix of dialogue and narration. Though Wise is fond of in media res storytelling, the action we get dropped into doesn’t seem to culminate in anything that then furthers the plot, so far as I can see.

Consequently, what I have read of the novel so far feels very jumbled to me. We have James, haunted by the ghost of someone I think was a former lover? Wendy, all growed up, off to help her daughter, who just witnessed a murder most foul. Pan and his monster are lurking somewhere. Like I said—this is a really intriguing premise, and I wish I could have enjoyed the writing enough to keep going. As it is, I will pass on this one.

Disclaimer: all views and opinions are my own.

Date read: June 25th, 2022 - June 28th, 2022

Release Date: July 12th, 2022

Page Count: 336

Category: Dark Fantasy/Horror

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Triggers/Warnings: Drug Addiction | Borderline Personality Disorder

Thank you Titan Books for a copy of this arc for an honest review.

This is the story of James and of Captain Hook.

The villainous pirate in so many stories is split between two: the world he left and world he lives in. After escaping Neverland, he is James - just James - and is living out his life, living in London as the last remaining pirate alive, until he can feel Neverlands pull seeping through the cracks, and he opens the door to Neverland and lets through Pans beast, which is hungry and out for shadows.

It explores the other side to Hook, the one capable of love and caring outside of the role he was molded for.

The story involves James, Jane and Wendy, following Wendy, Darling (a book I haven't read and still found the story really easy to follow, but there are spoilers so only read without if you don't mind knowing elements that happen from the first book).

It took me a while to read this - because it takes me a while to read e-books and because sometimes the story felt as though it dropped in places. They explore different types of relationships, social issues regarding women, the issues of drug addiction and explore the different characters grieving for different things.

I love anything Peter Pan, so I had high hopes for it. And although it didn't meet all of them - probably would have if I'd read the first book - I still found myself getting lost in certain parts of the story. I still also loved the premise of the story and am very happy I was approved a copy to review.