Review by Booklist Review
Tough, rebellious Jordan and anxious student Baron both know that Peter Pan and his famous island aren't as innocent as the stories have told. The two of them were Lost Boys once, marauding with Peter's never-grow-up troupe, battling pirates and bullying mermaids, but were brutally driven out when Peter discovered Jordan's secret--that she was a girl, and that she was growing up. A decade later, Jordan is still mercilessly unable to escape her withdrawal from the magic dust that allowed them to fly and heal, and Baron is a struggling scholar haunted by the traumas of their time with Peter. Neither has anything to lose, and so they set out for the island, this time as adults, destined to become the villains of Peter's story. While it runs slow at times and has somewhat unconvincing romances, Low's clever play on the tale of Captain Hook will entrance fans of dark fairy-tale retellings and well-told villain-origin stories with its disturbingly bloody Peter Pan, its clever twist on fairy dust, and its compelling, antihero protagonist.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Low debuts with a gritty Peter Pan retelling about what happens to Neverland's lost boys when they grow up. Peter alone remains forever young, replacing his cohort with new children whenever the other lost boys fall prey to the passage of time--if Peter doesn't kill them first. Former lost boys Jordan and Baron were cast in the role of the twins by Peter, though they weren't biologically related or even similar in appearance beyond their Hanwa ethnicity. Jordan, the only girl, would normally have been forced into Wendy's old role of mother, but she used magic Dust to disguise herself as a boy, and ended up developing a dependence on the stuff. Years later, the pair have been forced to return to the Outside, the world beyond Neverland, where Baron suffers debilitating anxiety, and Jordan has switched from Dust to karsa, running the drug for a crime syndicate. Unlike Baron, Jordan is determined to reclaim her place on Neverland. But doing so means changing the role she plays in Peter's story: she must become the villain. Low takes the childlike wonder of the original and turns it on its head. Fans of dark fairy tale retellings won't want to miss this. Agent: Sara Megibow, KT Literary. (July)
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Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT Jordan was a Lost Boy, flying with Peter Pan and fighting pirates, never to grow up--until her body betrayed her, and she was cast back to the real world. Now Jordan is 22, still fighting against her body and its addiction to the Dust from Neverland. When an opportunity presents itself to get her back to the island where everything went wrong, Jordan knows this will be her chance to go back to the stories and the magic, her chance to face Peter one last time, the way she wants. Jordan knows that she is heading onto a shadowy path, so maybe it is time to be the villain of this story. The raw, emotional arcs of the characters show that the innocence of youth is not always what it seems, and the novel deals with themes of substance-use disorder, disability, and gender. VERDICT A gritty, immersive Peter Pan retelling with a Malaysian-inspired setting that flips the narrative on its head. Readers will enjoy the familiar tale in Low's resonant prose.--Kristi Chadwick
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A pair of former Lost Boys return to the Island to steal a famous fairy. Peter's roster of Lost Boys never changes; when one Boy grows up, Peter simply collects another to take his name and place. That rule once allowed unrelated best friends Jordan and Baron to join as "the Twins." Sure, Jordan had to pretend to be a boy and use Dust to glamour her missing hand, but it was worth it for a life on the Island. Years after her first menstrual period outed her and nearly cost her her life, Jordan is a famed underground fighter with a mean drug addiction. Half a decade of heavy Dust use has left her reliant on a street drug--and the landlord-dealer who supplies it--to get by. Determined to get out from under his thumb, Jordan hatches a plan to return to the Island with Baron and steal Tink from Peter. Complicating her endeavor is the fact that no grown-up has ever gone to the Island and lived to tell the tale. But Jordan may just be the only person ambitious enough to succeed. And when she takes up the pirate captain's hook, well, that's where the story really takes off. Low walks a knife's edge here, remaining faithful to Barrie's original work while transplanting it into an invented world. The novel showcases the brutality of the Lost Boys' existence, as members of their little tribe kill wantonly. Peter comes off as particularly frightening here. Readers will recall his line in Barrie's novel, "I forget them after I kill them," as they watch him cull the followers who have grown too old and make Dust from his victims' ground bones. Intersectionality abounds. Jordan has a congenital limb difference and a complicated relationship to her gender identity. Baron lives with intense anxiety, as well as suicidal ideations. Both heroes are Chinese-coded. The grown-up Peter Pan sequel readers needed all along. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
