Title: Unhooked
Author: Lisa Maxwell
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Release Date: February 2nd, 2016
For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home—all because her mother believes that monsters are hunting them. Now these delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. The only saving grace is her best friend, Olivia, who’s coming with them for the summer.
But when Gwen and Olivia are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and taken to a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey, Gwen realizes her mom might have been sane all along.
The world Gwen finds herself in is called Neverland, yet it’s nothing like the stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through her fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the roguish young pirate who promises to keep her safe.
With time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But will she be able to save Neverland without losing herself?
Summary from Goodreads.com
My Review: I picked this book up because I am a huge fan of Once Upon a Time and the way that Hook is portrayed on that show, so when I saw a book that also has a “Hook” that has redeeming qualities I was very excited. The book starts out with Gwyn settling into a new place to live after her mother has uprooted her again. She is trying to adjust to her nomadic life and not really doing very well with it. I thought that the first couple of chapters moved very slowly and I found myself putting it down to go do other things quite a bit. I know there needs to be some set-up for the plot, but this one just seemed to drag a little in the beginning.
One aspect in this book that I found intriguing were the two stories that were going on simultaneously. At the beginning of every chapter there was a small snippet of a story being told about a boy and his brother. I actually found myself much more interested in that story in the beginning then the story about Gwyn. I knew the two would intersect at some point, and I really love how they did, but I did find myself wanting more of the tale of two brothers rather than what was going on with Gwyn at some points. Following along that same line, the chapters were very short, which can be a good at times, but I felt like sometimes they would break at points in the story that did not make sense. Many of the chapters could have been combined into larger ones that would have helped the story flow better.
As for the characters, I loved Rowan, he was a perfect Hook and I loved how he was portrayed. I was picturing a younger Hook from Once Upon a Time most of the time when he would appear on the pages and the mystery that clung to him contributed to his appeal. I wanted more of him throughout the novel and in the final chapters. I liked Gwyn most of the time, but she did get a little whiny at points and it would grate on my nerves. I know she was thrust into a new world, but I felt like she needed just a little more backbone at some points and I would have loved her more. Maxwell portrayed Pan very well, which made for an interesting twist on the whole Peter Pan tale. I love a good retelling, but this was more a reimagining of the stories we know and love, which appealed to me even more. So much so that I wanted more from the ending. The climax was great, but the resolution of the story fell flat for me. I wanted more pages to wrap up a couple of things, more time spent in Neverland exploring this strange world, or even another book. I don’t think this tale was quite complete and since Maxwell has no plans as of now for a sequel I was left unsatisfied.
The book is classified as a Young Adult and while that did fit, I wish the boundaries had been pushed a little more to make this a New Adult or even and adult book. The characters needed more room to push the boundaries and I felt like Maxwell needed to make it just a tad darker in some places to push the book from good to great. There were also strange descriptors in Unhooked, such as “The green-gold scent of the jungle”. The scent of green –gold? Not really sure what that is supposed to smell like. It was moments like that, that took me out of the story that I wish were more polished.
I know it sounds like I am being really hard on this book, but I did actually like it. I just did not love it and I wanted to love it so badly! It had everything I look for in a book, it just needed to be more. I enjoyed the authors’ style and I will look for more of her work in the future, but I am not itching to get into a new book by her anytime soon. I will always remain hopefully that there will be a sequel to Unhooked, maybe that will answer some of my questions and satisfy me with how Gwyn’s and Hook’s lives turned out.
