Review: Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen

Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen

Series: Standalone

Published: July 8th, 2014

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

368 pages (eARC)

Genre: Fantasy/fairytale retelling/romance/historic fiction

Acquired this book: From the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Warning: May contain spoilers

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"Every child knows how the story ends. The wicked pirate captain is flung overboard, caught in the jaws of the monster crocodile who drags him down to a watery grave. But it was not yet my time to die. It's my fate to be trapped here forever, in a nightmare of childhood fancy, with that infernal, eternal boy."

Meet Captain James Benjamin Hook, a witty, educated Restoration-era privateer cursed to play villain to a pack of malicious little boys in a pointless war that never ends. But everything changes when Stella Parrish, a forbidden grown woman, dreams her way to the Neverland in defiance of Pan’s rules. From the glamour of the Fairy Revels, to the secret ceremonies of the First Tribes, to the mysterious underwater temple beneath the Mermaid Lagoon, the magical forces of the Neverland open up for Stella as they never have for Hook. And in the pirate captain himself, she begins to see someone far more complex than the storybook villain.

With Stella’s knowledge of folk and fairy tales, she might be Hook’s last chance for redemption and release if they can break his curse before Pan and his warrior boys hunt her down and drag Hook back to their neverending game. Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen is a beautifully and romantically written adult fairy tale.

I’ve always loved Peter Pan and anything even remotely related to Neverland. I love the idea of a magical place where children go when they don’t want to grow up. I never thought I’d be able to accept anything where Pan was made out to be the villain, until this past season of Once Upon a Time. They took the legend of Peter Pan and turned it on its head in the most amazing, sinister, heartbreaking way, and I loved it. That, and Captain Killian Hook from OUAT, made me even more interested in all things Neverland. I jumped at the chance to read Alias Hook, a story that seemed to turn Neverland and its inhabitants into characters that were familiar in one way but also completely new.

I loved Alias Hook from the first few pages. Beautifully written, compelling, and completely captivating, this book - and Captain James Benjamin Hookbridge - stole my heart in a completely unexpected way. Narrated by Hook himself, the well-known ‘villain’ of Neverland, we get to see his side of things. I was surprised by his patience and kindness, his humour and intelligence. I never thought I’d be even remotely okay with Peter Pan being portrayed as a villain, but Jensen wrote this book in a way that made it completely plausible. I sympathized with Hook at every turn, and desperately wanted him to find a way to defeat that horrible, insolent, spoiled little brat Pan. (Side note: Don’t get me wrong; I still love Peter Pan in general, but I was able to separate my lifelong view of him as a capricious, harmless youngster for the sake of this particular story).

Throughout the book, I felt like I was right there with Hook. I would imagine writing a story set in Neverland would be pretty daunting, but Jensen did a fantastic job. The setting was lush, and the characters leapt of the pages. I loved that so many different aspects of the original story were worked into the book and had their own unique spin - the mermaids, the fairies, the Indians, Hook’s crew. This book made me laugh, made my heart ache, made me swoon, and it even made me cry. It was sexy in ways I didn’t expect, and I loved that.

Alias Hook is a fairytale for adults. It’s for those of us who never stopped believing in magic, and maybe even still indulge in a game of make-believe from time to time. I fell head over heels in love with Hook, and I never wanted his story to end. This book touched me deeply, and got its hooks firmly in my heart (heh heh, sorry I had to!). If you enjoy fantasy, romance, adventure, and magic, Alias Hook is a must read.

 

Have you read Alias Hook? What did you think? If you haven't read it, do you plan to? Do you like the legend of Peter Pan? How do you feel about the idea of Peter being portrayed as a villain and Hook being portrayed as a hero and a romantic lead? Have you ever fantasized about visiting Neverland?

 

 
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Book Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson 

Series: Standalone

Published: July 3rd, 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen

292 pages (hardcover)

Genre: Young adult fantasy

Acquired this book: From the library

Warning: May contain spoilers

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Synopsis: Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything--her family, her future--to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

Until about two weeks ago, I was only familiar with movie versions of Peter Pan - the Disney version and its sequel Return to Neverland, and the movies Hook, and Finding Neverland. When I heard about Tiger Lily, I knew I had to read it, but I wanted to read JM Barrie’s Peter Pan first. I honestly had very little idea of what Tiger Lily was about - I almost never read synopses of books, I was just intrigued by what I’d heard from friends, especially one of my good blogging friends, who loved the book. So after reading Peter Pan (you can read my review here) and discovering how silly and ridiculous (not in a bad way) and comical it was - although heartbreaking in many ways - I was expecting something lighter from Tiger Lily.

What I really got was a story that shattered my heart into a million pieces. Almost from the very beginning, my heart ached for the characters. Neverland seemed even more like the island of misfits than it did in Peter Pan - it seemed to be a land inhabited by people who didn’t belong, and who were broken in some form or another.

Tiger Lily is unlike any book I’ve ever read before. It’s so beautifully written, with vivid imagery and characters that are so real it feels like you’re right there in the story with them. We get to see inside the characters’ heads and learn their motivations - even the secondary characters. I never thought I’d feel sympathy for Hook, but this book made me feel bad for him. He was just as broken as all the other characters. Possibly the most brilliant thing of all is that this story isn’t told from Tiger Lily or even Peter’s perspective - it’s told from Tinker Bell’s point of view. There was something so intimate about the storytelling; at times I felt like a voyeur, but I couldn’t look away, and more importantly, didn’t want to look away. I wanted to see it all, hear it all, feel it all. 

"To love someone was not what she had expected. It was like falling from somewhere high up and breaking in half, and only one person having the secret to the puzzle of putting her back together." ~ Tiger Lily, page 169

I loved getting to see the softer side of Tink. She’s always portrayed as mean, jealous, haughty, and conniving, and even though she admitted herself she could be all those things and more, we didn’t see much of that in Tiger Lily. She loved Tiger Lily so much that she was willing to give up a normal life and accept being pretty much invisible just to stay with her. Her devotion and unconditional love, as well as the way she loved Peter, tugged at my heartstrings. Those moments when she realized she wasn’t as invisible as she thought were so sweet and tender they made me want to cry.

Tiger Lily herself is fierce, independent, and courageous, but also vulnerable and afraid of so many things, especially her own thoughts and feelings. She’s a conundrum of hard and soft, hot and cold, sharp edges and sweetness. I absolutely loved her.

"Maybe all of her strangeness, her curse, her always feeling like an outsider, had all existed so that she could belong here, with Peter." ~ Tiger Lily, page 197

Peter is just as much a conundrum as Tiger Lily. He’s frustrating because he’s so scattered, but in so many ways he’s the same as Tiger Lily - there’s vulnerability and fear and longing in him that he doesn’t understand. Some of the scenes between them left me breathless, and I always yearned for those stolen moments where it was the two of them trying to figure out who they were separately and together. I’ve never read a love story like theirs - one that excites even while it sometimes disturbs. It’s innocent and intense at the same time.

There were other characters, but I feel like I can’t touch on that without going on and on and possibly giving away important plot elements. Just know that all the characters are multidimensional with incredible depth. I don’t think there was a single character my heart didn’t bleed for - they were all tortured or broken in some way, and I was moved beyond words on countless occasions.

If you’re familiar with the original tale of Peter Pan and you’re a stickler for retellings/spin-offs that follow along religiously, you’re going to be disappointed. Anderson sticks loosely to the original, but often puts a unique spin on something or gives an event or person a different purpose or meaning or history. You really need to set aside everything you know about Peter Pan and enjoy the story for what it is - a brilliant, beautiful piece of prose - separate from Barrie’s story.

Beautiful, bittersweet, surprising, sometimes dark, and haunting, Tiger Lily is a story that’s going to stay with me for a long time to come. These characters grabbed hold of my heart and won’t soon be forgotten. 

Have you read Tiger Lily? What did you think? What's your favourite Peter Pan adaptation?

Classic Book Review: Peter Pan by JM Barrie

Peter Pan by JM Barrie

Series: Standalone

Published: First published 1911, published by Puffin Classics January 1st, 2002

Publisher: Puffin Classics

242 pages pages (paperback)

Genre: Children’s classics

Acquired this book: Gift

Warning: May contain spoilers

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Synopsis: Peter Pan, the book based on J.M. Barrie's famous play, is filled with unforgettable characters: Peter Pan, the boy who would not grow up; the fairy, Tinker Bell; the evil pirate, Captain Hook; and the three children--Wendy, John, and Michael--who fly off with Peter Pan to Neverland, where they meet Indians and pirates and a crocodile that ticks. 

Unlike many people, I never read Peter Pan as a child. I grew up watching the Disney version and Hook. The reason I decided to read Peter Pan now is because I wanted to familiarize myself with the 'real' story before reading Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson.

I think this book has a brilliant, imaginative concept - how many children (and perhaps adults) dream of finding their way to Neverland, joining the Lost Boys, and never growing old? On the surface it’s a lighthearted adventure, but it’s actually quite heartbreaking. My heart ached for Peter, the original Lost Boy. He seems like this happy-go-lucky kid who loves his life, but his behavior is so worrisome - his forgetfulness, the way he needs Wendy without realizing it, the odd things he says and does. It was interesting how the story would go from lighthearted - kind of ridiculous in a funny way - to giving me this feeling of unease, like I just wanted to step into Wendy’s shoes and mother Peter myself, and heal all those emotional scars he doesn't even know he has.

I found it hard to believe that this is a ‘children’s book’ - the writing itself (which I found hard to follow - it had my eyes crossing at times because it was kind of nonsensical and everything was dramatically overstated), the violence, Tink telling Peter he was a ‘silly ass’ several times, and the way the parents spoke and behaved. I know for a fact I wouldn’t have enjoyed the book as a child, so I’m glad I didn’t read it until now! And I know this may be considered blasphemy to many people - and it's something I very rarely say - but I enjoyed the Disney version (and even Hook) far more than the book.

Overall, this was an amusing adventure with serious, emotional undertones that left me with mixed feelings. However, Neverland will always have a special place in my heart, as will the characters. 

"...when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies" ~ Peter Pan

Have you read Peter Pan? What did you think? What's your favourite adaptation?