T;LDR: A contemporary Peter Pan retelling, Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas has a great premise and an interesting setting, but it is bogged down with too many words and not enough tension.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2
WendyWendy Darling is an eighteen-year-old girl stuck at the point in her life when her two younger brothers went missing in the woods five years ago. She too had gone missing but returned six months later; they didn’t. This story picks up with more missing children and a boy she almost runs over, who looks a lot like the boy she’d been unconsciously drawing for months.
I wanted to like this book. It had all the right pieces, but I had to push through to finish. The writing was good, but the pacing and the repetition was not. I liked the story, I liked the premise, and I did find it interesting to see how a Peter Pan retelling could happen with Peter Pan in the modern world, but it needed a good edit. For those reasons and more, I gave it 3.5 stars.
The Plot
Wendy Darling is on her way to college to study nursing; she just has one summer to go before she can leave behind the small town where she lives and the tragedy that follows her and her parents around.
Five years before, she and her two younger brothers went missing in the woods. She came back six months later with no memory of what happened or where her brothers were.
Enter in more missing children, a strange black creature landing on her truck right before she almost runs over an unconscious boy, and you get Lost in the Never Woods.
Can Wendy overcome her fear and help Peter find the lost children? Will she regain the memories of what happened the day she and her brothers disappeared?
What I liked & liked less
I liked the premise of this story – a mystery solving another mystery with some fantasy elements. I also liked the character arc Wendy is on; the author could’ve picked many ways to show her growth, but this one worked really well.
I liked how Peter Pan was presented. He kept his childlike enthusiasm, but also showed his insecurities. I also didn’t mind their romance, because it didn’t feel forced and it worked well with why the children were missing in the first place (and that is as close to a spoiler as I will get – sorry if it’s too far!).
Wendy was alright as a character. I didn’t find her as bland as other reviewers, but I also didn’t particularly care when she struggled. I failed to feel that deep connection I would’ve liked to feel, especially in those moments where another book would’ve had me in tears. There were no tears.
I’m not fond of how the dad was portrayed either. It felt almost abusive/controlling and not from a good place, especially with how it ends. There was no rebound arc for him or rather, we didn’t get that heart to heart moment where we realize why he was the way he was.
My biggest issue with this book was the pacing. There were so many moments where she repeated the same drama, the same emotions – it went on and on, and lost all its impact. What this book needed was a strong edit to cut out all the fat and leave the juicy emotional pieces behind. Sadly, that did not happen.
The writing was good, the ideas were there, and the characters were interesting, but the only reason I kept reading was because it filled a square on my Fantasy Bingo card.
To Sum Up (Too Late!)
An interesting premise, a fun Peter Pan character who fit in the setting the author put him, and a good idea, Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas could have been great if some of it had been cut. I liked the writing, I loved the idea, but it didn’t get pulled enough for me to give it more than 3.5 stars.
About the Author
Aiden Thomas is a New York Times Bestselling author with an MFA in Creative Writing. Originally from Oakland, California, they now make their home in Portland, Oregon. As a queer, trans, Latinx, Aiden advocates strongly for diverse representation in all media. Aiden’s special talents include: quoting The Office, finishing sentences with “is my FAVORITE”, and killing spiders. Aiden is notorious for not being able to guess the endings of books and movies, and organizes their bookshelves by color.
Their debut novel, CEMETERY BOYS, was published on September 1st, 2020.
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Originally published on Feedium.