WAIT SO YOU FINISHED PETER PAN??!! what did you think of it??
I DID!!! And I loved it so much! I'm very sorry for taking so long to get back to you, I've been super stressed with exams, so now that I'm done I've been trying to empty my inbox and drafts here.
Anyways, I was expecting whimsy and fairytale vibes, and got plenty of that, but nothing could have prepared me for how unhinged some parts are, and I honestly loved that. I don't really know how to describe it, but it was super funny in a way that I haven't seen before, as well as really sweet and somehow nostalgic.
I love Wendy, she ended up being my favourite character. All I knew about her going in was pretty much from watching the Disney movie like once as a kid, and from Ouat, so basically not much, so I wasn't expecting to feel so much for her. There's something really bittersweet about the way she wanted adventure but also missed her home, and wanted to stay in Neverland, but also wanted grow up, and I think that made her very relatable. Like not right now, but I've definitely felt all of those things growing up, maybe without really knowing, but still being aware of it to some extent. Idk if that makes any sense.
I also loved Peter, I had no idea he was like this. He's so insane and unhinged in the most hilarious ways, but so sweet and charming too, and I don't get why he's so different in the adaptations I've seen (which to be fair aren't that many) because why would they change him? Like you won't get a character like him anywhere else, and I feel like the way he is is pretty important to the story, so I truly don't get it. Maybe I just remembered him differently? But then again, I don't think you can just forget that he is like that. I don't really have much else to say about him, just 10/10.
There was something so sad in the way Peter refuses to grow up, He's free and happy, but at the same time if feels like he's trapped and he doesn't even know it, because despite getting exactly what he wants, he has to do it on his own.
The whole book just felt so dreamlike. I saw somewhere that the story runs on childhood logic or something like that, and I love that, because it just makes sense. Like things happen because they're exciting or because someone imagined them, and somehow it all works. And Neverland feels less like an actual place and more like one of those childhood memories that you idealize a bit, especially in the way that the kids remember it years later.
So many hilarious moments that I don't even know where to start. I found it so funny that Wendy made Michael sleep in the basket even though he wasn't thrilled by the idea, just because mothers have babies, and he was the smallest kid, so that's that. And the lost boys building a house around Wendy instead of being remotely normal and carrying her to their existing house. This is kind of what I meant about the childhood logic thing. Also the whole thing with Mr. Darling at the end?? I feel like that was brushed over pretty quickly, because wth.
And the ending, omg. The book spends so much time celebrating childhood, which I loved, and while it's mostly in this carefree, funny and whimsical way, it also feels like the whole time there was someone saying "this will be over before you know it, you'll wish you could go back, and that's not necessarily a bad thing". Idk if I'm seeing things that weren't there, but that's sort of what it felt like to me.
Anyways this got much longer than I expected, but there's so many more things that I loved about this book. It's definitely gonna be one of those books that I reread every now and again, and I'm so glad you posted so much about it, which convinced me to give it a go.
