Review: Death in Neverland

Death in Neverland by Heather C. Myers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is another of those reads that isn’t quite a full four star rating. However, again, it could not be rounded down. It was close enough to the four stars that I had to hand them over.

I was pulled into this one by the promise of a Peter Pan retelling mixed in with Greek mythology. How could I say no to such a thing? I adore retellings. More than I should, if I’m honest. I especially love it when authors select something aside from the typical – namely, I adore it even more when an author choses a story other than Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast to retell. Thus, I was pulled in by the Peter Pan aspect alone. When we added in the promise of Greek mythology, I was unable to say no.

Truthfully, I feel as though it was a bit of false advertisement.

The Greek mythology is present. The names of the Peter Pan characters are there. However, I wouldn’t really call it a Peter pan retelling, insomuch as I would call it another take on Greek mythology using some of the names from a popular classic story.

Don’t get me wrong, it is an interesting story, it simply wasn’t what I was expecting. I went in expecting something much closer to Peter Pan than I was given. Had I not been promised the Peter Pan aspect, I probably would have given it a full four star rating rather than a rounded up four star rating.

Thus, for the rest of the review (or, at least, the majority of it) I will approach the story as though I had not been promised the Peter Pan aspect.

The story is a fascinating one. We take interesting aspects of Greek mythology and create a wonderful new world. We’re dealing with the afterlife and the goings on in a limbo world. The limbo created by the author is a lot of fun. We’re given quite a lot of details regarding the goings on, and whilst it can seem quite daunting at times, it is important to cover these aspects. Later in the story, once we’re done with loading information, things become much easier. We’re able to move along with the story without worrying about missing details.

Without a doubt, the world building was my favourite aspect of the story.

There were some fun characters, too. Although, truthfully, I did not enjoy them as much as I enjoyed some of the other characters the author has created. Some things felt a little too forced when it came to the characters – in particular how the views of the main character changed. She seemed to go from one extreme towards the other far too quickly, as though development was being forced upon her at an unnatural rate. Plus, I found myself enjoying side characters more than the main characters. Still, I could deal with them. There have been many characters I have despised, and such was not the case here. I merely didn’t love them as much as I could have.

Additionally, I feel as though the book could have used a final proof read. Part of me believes the names of characters were changed to add in the Peter Pan aspect, as I’m sure I found an inconsistency or two here and there. Such often happens with freebies, and it did deter from the book somewhat.

Overall, though, I’m interested to see where things go in the future books.

View all my reviews