Lost Girl by Chanda Hahn

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Title: Lost Girl
Author: Chanda Hahn
Series: Neverwood Chronicles #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: December 13, 2016
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 328
Genres: Fairy Tale Retelling, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Retellings Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Summer Hunt
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

Wendy doesn't remember anything about Neverland—or the experiments done on her there as a child. Seven years later, all she wants is a normal life, but shape-shifting shadows plague her dreams and turn her life into a waking nightmare. When the shadows attack at a football game and a boy disappears right in front of her, she realizes these wraith-like shadows are real. They’re not just haunting—they’re hunting.

A mysterious boy named Peter, his foul-mouthed sidekick, and a band of misfit boys intervene before Wendy faces a similar fate. But can they trust Wendy enough to take her to Neverwood Academy and reveal all of their hidden secrets when she's hiding a secret of her own, or will the dreaded Red Skulls find her and drag her back to Neverland?

My Review:

4 stars — Dude, this one had so much potential to be full 5 stars, and it just fell short in a few ways.  But it was a fascinating take on the Peter Pan tale, with a truly fleshed out world, hilarious and sassy characters, and lots of emotion and mystery.  Basically SCORE!

Gripes: I’d be going along in the story, and all of a sudden the writing would be a bit disjointed.  Like, a character would say something, and another character would respond with something that didn’t make sense in context.  It was almost as though in edits some stuff was taken out, but then no one went through and read it to make sure it still made sense.  It happened a few times, and in a few different ways where I just felt lost…like I should have known a certain detail already, but I didn’t.  A bummer, truly, b/c otherwise it was da bomb.

I will admit that I started the book feeling a bit overwhelmed and lost with what was going on, and how it was going to fit with the story of Peter Pan.  But it was compelling at the same time, so I just kept going and eventually settled into the space.  I LOVED the concept of Neverland existing in OUR WORLD and pirates being corrupt soldiers and a corrupt organization, and the children being subjects of experiments.  It was truly a unique twist, and so much fell into place in strange ways that delighted me.

Wendy was an intriguing heroine to follow, b/c she is both strong and fearful, sassy and meek, and her emotions can sometimes turn on a dime.  I definitely felt her confusion, though I feel like sometimes I was also confused about why she was confused (see above gripe).  But she really did have a wonderful way with children, and I loved seeing that.

Peter was precocious in a grown man kind of way.  He was just flirty, and silly, and bubbly?  I don’t know.  He was infectious, that’s what he was.  He was exactly as I imagined Peter should be.  I LOVED the connection he felt with Wendy, and the emotions he had about the past.  He was super easy to fall in love with, even when he was making decisions I didn’t agree with.

And Peter and Wendy had a great connection, both in the past and present.  I desperately want to know what’s going to happen for them.

The secondary characters almost stole the show though.  Tink had to be my favourite, she was HILARIOUS.  And all her gadgets!  She was just *perfect*, and I could picture her perfectly.  And then there were some of the lost boys.  Oh god, Tootles makes me want to squeeze him.  And I appreciated Slightly and Ditto too…  Jax I’m reserving judgement on.  I also found who John and Michael ended up being to be really interesting!

All in all, I’m sucked into the world, and I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen next!!  On to Lost Boy!

COYER Summer Hunt: Read a book that retells a fairytale — 1 point.