Neverland
Warning: Spoilers ahead! Also… This is not a comprehensive review, just a quick spat of my thoughts
Over the last two days, I read Neverland by Shari Arnold, and now that I am armed with hot chocolate, I am ready to talk about it—just a little bit.
I honestly can’t decide what I feel about this book. You know how there are books that are just so perfect, like… you needed to read it in that moment, and because you did you are sorta changed forever? But then there are the books that are just a little too much for you to handle: a feeling you’ve been feeling lately is a little too emphasized, or a situation hits just a little too close to home, or you’re simply just too sensitive in this particular period of your life. The thing about Neverland is that for me it falls somewhere between those two categories. There were a couple of times where I had to set the book aside just to breathe a little (but then, because of my personality, I just picked it up again).
Putting all that aside, let’s talk about my love for Peter Pan, and how Neverland fit in to it. If you follow my Instagram, you might already know that Peter Pan is one of my favorite stories, and I don’t just mean the book(s) by J. M. Barrie, though I do quite love Peter and Wendy quite a lot. When I say that Peter Pan is one of my favorite stories, I mean the whole, all encompassing thing that Peter Pan is: the imagination, the theories, all the different books and movies. I love the idea of Peter Pan (I tend to reference him as Pan). Neverland has definitely not quelled that love; if anything, Neverland has intensified it. One common theory about Pan is that he is a collector of children who have passed—a guardian angel of sorts. I really liked how Arnold used that in her book. In all of the remakes I have read (which, lets be real, I haven’t read that many), no one has utilized this theory. I understand why, it makes for a heavy read, but man… it was good, and I felt like it was done well.
AND CAN I TALK ABOUT JAMES JUST FOR A MINUTE??? I’ve always, always loved the idea of Hook being a good guy (especially when he is made out to be a bad guy at first?), but I think this Hook is my favorite so far (though… Colin O’Donoghue was perfect in Once Upon a Time). The role James plays in this version of Neverland made my heart hurt a little. Like, when Meyers (aka Peter), accused him of being Death, I could tell James’s heart hurt a little too. There were times where I wasn’t sure what James’s motivation was (or Meyer’s motivation, for that matter), but I still loved the way he contributed to the story, and how his character interacted with everyone else’s.
I love how Jane was a character and was Meyer’s right hand (it just seems far too fitting that she, Wendy’s daughter… even though she wasn’t actually Wendy’s daughter in this version… was there on Neverland). Also, it was her that stepped up to be Neverland’s guardian, correct? Like, it isn’t explicitly stated, but from the way James said, “There has always been someone willing to take the role. And she’s doing a great job so far,” I figured it either had to be Jane or Jenna. However, I think Jenna would have moved on, so that leaves me with Jane.
Random insert… Jenna is my older sister’s name, so that threw me through too many loops (and may have helped with my confuzzled feelings over the story).
The ending was nice—left hope, which I was worried it wouldn’t based on how the book started. But I guess the word ‘hope’ was sprinkled in throughout the book, always with the idea that hope was needed and to lose it is devastating. So, it fits that the ending inspires hope. All I’m saying is… I’m glad it ended that way. It was necessary.
Last thing, before I leave you with a quote from the book, did anyone else feel like the character name Jilly, and the very first use of the word “Always” was some homage to Harry Potter? Or was that just me self-inserting my own love for Harry Potter?
Please comment your thoughts on this book, responses to my ideas, or your favorite quotes!
I’ll leave you with a quote that stood out to me:
“A story is a story. It takes you away from what you’re doing and how you’re living right then, and whisks you away into someone else’s world. But now, looking at Jenna, I want more than just a story.”
Here are some of my favorite Peter Pan stories:
