I normally let myself digest a little before fully diving in to a review, but here I am… less than an hour later sitting down to write this up. 
     First let’s get this out of the way… Peter Pan was never a book I cared much about. It didn’t really capture my attention. The only Peter Pan media I was ever a fan of was the move with Robin Williams in it, Hook. The actual story of Peter Pan, which again I’ll admit I didn’t dig too far into it, is on a basic level pretty dark already.  Boys running away? Not wanting to grow up? It’s a sad little story already. 

So I could easily see how someone could twist this story into a more darker retelling. I’m actually surprised after thinking about it that we don’t have more of these type of stories floating around. 
      Now, for the actual story …
      I struggle, because although I was initially intrigued the whole story felt ‘messy’. I felt confused most of the time. I never connected with Holly. I felt confused where the story was going, how storylines lined up. The beginning of the story especially had a really hard time setting a solid foundation to base the rest of the plot on top of. While reading, I kept waiting for things to ‘click’. 
     (Evil) Peter himself wasn’t what I was expecting. After finishing the book, I still feel like I’m left with questions rather than answers. Is Peter really just a cliche play on the modern day ‘man child’? For a magical being that has lived a long time, was Holly the one thing that made him turn evil? It feels unbelievable and confusing. I still don’t get what he even wants? What is his motivation for evil? It feels like the author tried to explain it but still.. I’m left with questions. 

When the end finally did come, I watched the pages dwindle and felt I wasn’t ready for it to end. No way the author could zip up all these mysteries sprinkled throughout the story. I’m sure other won’t agree with me, but I do feel some parts are open ended. I don’t feel like I really understand or feel good about the endings. 
     Sometimes writing reviews help me decide how I really feel about a book and this one is no different. Going into this review I was a 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. I really like the idea of the book. The boldness of it all. After sitting with my thoughts, I’m going 3.5 rounded down to 3. It just wasn’t done well enough for me to ever recommend to someone else.