I enjoyed the fact that Gwen and Bella are a little at odds in the beginning (just like Wendy and Tink), but they make up and become good friends which is a problem in the original that all the girls are jealous of each other and I’m glad Spinale took the time to fix that. There was never a moment where I though “Oh she just put that in because she felt like she had to because she’s retelling Peter Pan.” I also liked that she changed John to Joanna to add another girl into the mix and the switch worked within the story. I loved how she made all the elements work in her world and how a lot of the winks weren’t blatant, but buried in such a way that if you know Peter Pan by heart it jumps out at you right away. Peter Pan retellings are the one type of retelling that I am super picky about, and I absolutely adored this one! One of my favorite things that Spinale does with her version of Peter Pan are the little winks to the novel, play, and Disney adaptation. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. When Joanna gets captured Gwen meets the charismatic Pete and his band of Lost Boys and together they just might have a chance of getting her back and escaping Everland. A world where it seems only the children have survived and the villainous Captain Hook and his band of Marauders are rounding up the survivors for purposes unknown. SYNOPSIS: Gwen Darling and her siblings, Joanna and Mikey, are desperately trying to survive in a war-torn, disease-ridden England, now called Everland.

Everland by Wendy Spinale