Book Review ~ Lost Boy by Christina Henry

I fast became a Christina Henry fan when I read Alice last year. Christina takes the fairytale and throws some dark magic over it and you get the fairy dust less version of the story. 

BOOK REVIEW

I have always been enamoured with fairytales, be they the Disney version, the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christina Anderson or even just retellings. I simply cannot get enough.  
This time Christina tells us the story of Peter Pan and his lost boys, before Wendy, before Michael and John and even before Tink and the 'magic' that we know. In fact we meet a lost boy we never expected to meet, one we classed as the villain and made us think Peter the hero, until we very quickly realised that Peter lied...
Jamie has been a lost boy for the longest. He was the first and that makes him special. Lots of boys have come and gone since Jamie arrived. Jamie has lost count of how many seasons he has been on the island with Peter, but he knows he has not grown proportionally to that amount of time. The longer Jamie is there though the more he feels responsible for the boys, if he doesn't look after them he knows that Peter certainly won't. 
You will know from the original stories how selfish Peter can be, but this Peter Pan is a whole new level of selfish and Neverland is not quite the magical island that we knew. Christina truly shakes off the Disney version of the story to give us a darker retelling and one that is truer to the original story. I will say that I am so glad that I didn't see the subtitle explaining what this story was exactly about as it would have taken away some of the story. I did figure it out halfway through, but that was through my own assumptions. I still think you will enjoy it if you know exactly who's story it is, but for me the guessing and the twists felt more mysterious.
Every time I read a book of Christina's I am instantly gripped. Her writing is so engaging to the point that I have to take a moment to come to my senses when I stop reading. When a writer can do that it really shows how immersive their storytelling is.
Immersive, compelling and another fantastically dark fairytale retelling from Christina.
Lost Boy is out 4th July