Lost Boy by Chanda Hahn

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Title: Lost Boy
Author: Chanda Hahn
Series: Neverwood Chronicles #2
Published by: Indie
Release Date: November 14th, 2017
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 317
Genres: Fairy Tale Retelling, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Retellings Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Summer Hunt
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

After nearly losing Wendy, Peter returns her to her family but fears she may not be safe from Hook. Torn between protecting Wendy and leading the lost boys, he must decide to fulfill his duty or follow his heart.

Wendy pans, and awakes in her bedroom, clothes stained in blood, with no memories of Peter or Neverland. Wendy struggles to return to her normal life, for shadows plague her during the day, and where shadows roam—monsters follow.

With Hook closing in on the lost boys’ hideout, Peter faces a betrayer from within the ranks of Neverwood. The final battle is on the horizon, and the secret to victory lies with the shadows, but only one can hear their voice, the Lost Girl.

My Review:

3.5 stars — While this one had some ups and downs for me, I was still compelled by the story…so much so I stayed up until 3am finishing it.

Wendy was a bit harder to connect with in this one.  Because of her loss of memories, we actually lost a lot of what connected us to her, and of course she didn’t know Peter, or her family, or anyone.  I found that her emotions were all over the place and changed at the drop of a hat…she was very mercurial.  I get that Ms. Hahn is trying to show us the confusion and effect of panning, but it really just made Wendy kind of unlikable.  She wouldn’t listen to her heart, and so she was kind of a bitch to Peter.  AND OMG HOT AND COLD.  It dragged on for longer than I thought was necessary…it started to feel repetitive.

Peter was still super mischievous, but he was dealing with a lot of emotions as well.  His reactions to Wendy could be kind of over the top as well.  Honestly, I don’t know why he’s 3 years older than Wendy, because he certainly doesn’t act like it.  And I get it, Peter Pan is supposed to be holding on to his childhood…but, I don’t know.  He could have done that at 17 just as easily.

While Wendy and Peter were yo-yo-ing all over the place, I found what captured my attention was all the other little details in the story.  From Michael’s gifts, Jax’s reasons, John’s introduction, John and Tink’s strange flirtations….just all those little things helped keep me wanting to read more and more.  I also really enjoyed the development with Wendy’s gift, and the things she learned with the Shadows.  It seriously fascinated me.

The ending was, like, super intense and tragic and I don’t know how to feel about it.  I didn’t feel enough emotions at some of the tragedies as I feel like I should have.  I don’t know why.  But yet other things had me on the edge of my seat.  It’s a super dark version of Peter Pan in so many ways.  I mean, I get in the original story that Hook is horrible, and they have battles, but there is *death* and killing in this one.  It was, just, unexpected.

The ending definitely has me one-clicking the final book to see how it’s going to “pan” out though (sorry, couldn’t resist).

COYER Summer Hunt: Read a book with a man fully clothed on the cover — 3 points.