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Lost Boy is a dark fantasy Peter Pan retelling by Christina Henry. Released in 2017 by Titan Books, the story envelopes more of Henry’s amazing storytelling on classics.
Lost Boy follows Jamie, Peter’s first lost boy, as Peter grows restless and unhappy with their newest and youngest member. Friction builds and Jamie soon finds himself deciding between his loyalty to Peter or his urge to protect the youngest lost boy.
EVALUATION
Genre
Lost Boy lives up to its listed genres quite well. With Christina Henry’s retelling books, you can always be well-assured that the stories will be interesting and dark, and Lost Boy is no different. Living up to the Horror and Dark Fantasy name, Henry has once again succeeded by twisting Peter into a more obvious dark-minded individual, despite the original story already having some dark parts.
On Goodreads, Lost Boy is labelled as both Young Adult and Adult; I’ve decided to remove the Young Adult labelled on my blog since, as much as I feel that this could be suitable for teenagers, I think older teenagers would find it better, as some detail can be a tad disturbing. I think if I were to categorise it somewhere else with Adults, I would maybe venture into the new “New Adult” genre, which seems to bridge the gap between teenage years and full-blown adulthood.
Prose
The prose is once again Christina Henry’s classic format; easy to read with some intrusive narration. I love this writing style; it gives such a wonderful insight into the main character. However, unlike some of her other books, Lost Boy’s intrusive narration isn’t a major presence, and I found it more suitable. If you’ve read Henry’s The Girl In Red, you’ll know the intrusive narration is very pronounced throughout the story. Lost Boy blends it nicely through the narration. I think this comes down to the main narration style since Lost Boy is written in limited third-person focused on Jamie, whereas The Girl In Red is written in first-person from Red’s perspective.
Characters
The characters were all very well written and felt real.
Peter Pan gives the accurate vibes of a boy who never grew up but also feels very close to the original Peter Pan. How different he felt made Lost Boy’s Peter Pan a bit more unnerving. In the original story, his dark side is a lot more subtle and could easily pass over innocent minds, but this Pan was sickly innocent and would alert most people’s fight or flight instinct. This fact made him such an interesting character. As the story continued, it almost blew me away with how twisted yet pure childish he was simultaneously behaving. Truly a disturbing character that I loved.
Jamie was brilliantly written. Over the course of the book, as his character develops, as the reader you can almost feel him changing within air. If you reread the first chapter directly after the last, you can see just how much Jamie changes. Despite such a big change over the course of three hundred pages, Jamie never seems to lose his sense of self; rather, it expands and individualises, which was amazing to read.
Nip is the last character I will discuss purely because…wow. Nip was brilliantly written—props to Henry on such a character. I had a terrifying fascination with him from the moment he was introduced. Something about him crept off the page, and was searching for a place to crawl into my mind. He’s brilliantly written.
Worldbuilding
Since Lost Boy is set in Neverland, the world was already built; it had to be built upon and altered in some ways. First, Lost Boy is set many years before the events in the original Peter Pan, so things are slightly different than the J. M. Barrie original. However, these differences are interesting as the story goes on; seeing them change into something familiar was fun.
Secondly, despite being in Neverland, Henry (for me) manages to reimagine the island completely. I felt like I was there and could feel the sand, sun and sea despite being tucked away in my bed, under blankets or in my car.
Pacing
The pacing was good. As usual, it is slow and steady near the start, but once you get about a quarter of the way through and some interesting events occur, the pacing picks up and only slightly slows down for some dramatic effect–and to let us breathe a little. Then again, the last quarter or so of the book is rapid. Plot twists, new information and action all cascade into one mega blend of Nerverlanding magic until the very last line.
Plot & Theme
The story is such an interesting take on a classic. It’s essentially an origin story and explains details that were left unexplained for the most part in the original story. It especially explains some of Peter Pan’s actions in the original story, almost as if Lost Boy was meant to be part of the universe from the start.
My favourite part was the ending. It felt so complete, so resolute. Like I could hear and see Jamie completely, empathise with him, and would join him if I were with him in Neverland. The final page is the best page, I feel—just an amazing ending to an amazing story.
Story’s Impact
Lost Boy has actually had a lot of impact on me. I’m currently in my fourth and final year at University, so I have my dissertation to write. Thanks to Lost Boy, my dissertation is also a retelling of the Peter Pan story. I’ve decided to take the darkness from Henry’s Lost Boy Pan and mix him with Celtic Festivals and myths in a world I have been building for years. I’m looking forward to seeing it completed. It almost feels like my child at this point, and I’m so thankful to Henry and her final page of Lost Boy for sparking the inspiration. The feedback I’ve had so far looks promising.
RECOMMENDATION
I would 100% recommend Lost Boy. If you enjoy Christina Henry’s work, this is just one more step in enjoying her words. Lost Boy truly twists a classic, bringing the hidden darkness from the original to light, delving deep into the horrific depths and discovering a new side of Pan and Neverland.
Information & Rating
Triskele Rating: 7/7
5-Star Rating: 5/5
Book: Lost Boy
Author(s): Christina Henry
Series Name: Standalone
Pages: 304
Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Retellings, Fairy Tales, Adult, Pirates, Adventure, Dark, Peter Pan,
ISBN/ASIN: 978-1785655685
Publication Date: 4 July 2017
Publisher: Titan Books
Reading Speeds
(Based on Kindle/How Long To Read)
Average Estimated Reading Speed: 4 hours and 1 minute
Based on the average of 300WPM
My Estimated Reading Speed: 5 hours and 17 minutes
Based on my calculated speed of 228WPM
Calculated by How Long To Read’s test
From the national bestselling author of Alice comes a familiar story with a dark hook—a tale about Peter Pan and the friend who became his nemesis, a nemesis who may not be the blackhearted villain Peter says he is…
There is one version of my story that everyone knows. And then there is the truth. This is how it happened. How I went from being Peter Pan’s first—and favorite—lost boy to his greatest enemy.
Peter brought me to his island because there were no rules and no grownups to make us mind. He brought boys from the Other Place to join in the fun, but Peter’s idea of fun is sharper than a pirate’s sword. Because it’s never been all fun and games on the island. Our neighbors are pirates and monsters. Our toys are knife and stick and rock—the kinds of playthings that bite.
Peter promised we would all be young and happy forever. Peter lies.