by Liz Braswell
First published 2020
Sixteen-year-old Wendy Darling feels trapped in her dreary London life. Her brothers have left for school, leaving her alone in an empty house. Her parents plan to ship her off to Ireland to work as a governess. The social gatherings she attends bore her, and everyone finds her too talkative. Wendy finds solace only in writing stories about Never Land, a place she discovered four years ago during a brief encounter with Peter Pan. She still keeps his shadow, clinging to hope that his magical realm exists. When a chance appears to reach Never Land aboard a pirate vessel, Wendy strikes a bargain with Captain Hook himself. The Never Land she finds differs sharply from her dreams. Dangerous threats emerge everywhere, and Tinker Bell proves unhelpful and hostile. Hook soon reveals his sinister scheme to destroy Never Land permanently. Wendy must join forces with the very pirate who brought her there to rescue Peter Pan and preserve his world.
Genres: adventure, fantasy, young-adult, fairy-tale-retellings
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: London, Never Land
Period: 19th-century
496 pages · Hardcover · Disney Hyperion
Content warnings: violence