On New Year's Eve 2020, one of my Wattpad friends and I were discussing how we would love to read, or maybe even write, a Peter Pan retelling. The next day, guess what appeared in my BookBub feed? Second Star by J. M. Sullivan. Coincidence? I think not. Here's the blurb:
"An enthralling, action-packed reimagining of Peter Pan. Captain Wendy Darling is appointed the mission of a lifetime: to find the lost crew of the Jolly Roger and bring them home. But on the ageless planet Neverland, time is running out, and Wendy must decide who to trust- the legendary Captain Hooke or his mysterious mechanic Peter Pan- before darkness consumes them all."
My absolute favorite part of reading Second Star was discovering how the author put her own twist on the fairy tale. I enjoyed comparing her novel to the animated Disney movie.
This retelling is set in the far future, and Neverland is a planet in out space. The Jolly Roger is a spaceship, captained by the legendary Hooke, and Peter Pan is his mechanic. The Tinkerbell, Tinc, in this novel, isn't a pixie. She's a flying nanobot with a snarky attitude and a potty mouth. Peter and the other Lost Boys, from the poverty-stricken streets of New London, do the dirty work on Hooke's ship until ** spoiler ** it crashes on Neverland. ** When Peter tells the Lost Boys, "Follow the second star on the right, straight on 'til morning," I squeed in my mind, not out loud, because it was late at night and my family was asleep. But when Peter calls Captain Hook a codfish, I almost booed. The insult clashed with all the scientific, futurist terms in the novel.
The first four chapters are in Peter's point of view. This Peter is a lot like the original. He's fearless, fast, and infatuated with Wendy Darling. We don't meet Wendy until chapter five, where the story switches to her POV. She's a new cadet in the Londonierre Academy with her soon-to-be best friends, Johns and Michaels. They aren't her brothers in this retelling. Her Nana provides some comic relief, but isn't a big fluffy dog, like in the Disney movie. It's a future version of a fitbit.
My favorite character was Michaels. When he texts Wendy a rose, I was smitten. Book boyfriend, anyone?
In my humble opinion, this Wendy is too perfect. I couldn't relate to her at all. She's too smart- first in her class at the Academy, too strong- she kicks John's butt every time in wrestling, and too polite- she never talks back to her annoying mother. I so wanted her to tell that women where to go. Wendy's only flaw is her lack of self-confidence, because her rich, socialite parents don't love her enough. Her mother was my least favorite character in Second Star.
My least favorite part of Second Star was the violence, perpetrated by the menacing villians: Captain Hooke, his pirate crew, the aliens, the mermaids, and the evil demon Shadow. This novel is definitely not appropriate for preteens. ** spoiler ** Hooke's hand is cut off in chapter three by an electric sword. ** The violence gets even more gruesome as the story progresses. If I wasn't reading the story for a book review, I would've stopped at chapter eight when the horrifying mermaids try to drown and eat Peter. This nightmare-inducing incident made me miss the ticking crocodile from the animated Disney movie. He's more silly than scary.
Even with "Faith and Trust and little bit of pixie dust" sprinkled throughout the novel, Second Star is too dark and scary for me.
I give it 2 out of 5 roses.
2 roses= I liked some of it.
