Peter Pan

Reader reviewed by Chantele

Now, everyone knows the story of Peter Pan, mainly from the Disney
movie. I was expecting it to be similar, but it was quite
different. I know a lot of people love this book, and I did find it
magical, and very interesting, but I also thought it a bit disturbing.
Peter Pan was cocky, wild, and seemed to like killing pirates more than
anything else. Honestly, if I met him, he probably would have
frightened me!;)
The characters were ok. Wendy kind of drove me
nuts. What young girl would fly out the window, and leave her poor
parents for weeks, and watch her brother's kill pirates and such?
Captain Hook was creepy, just like the movies, and Tinkerbell was such a brat!;)
All
things said, J.M. Barrie told the story very well, and must have had
quite an imagination to think of the wonderful place of Neverland. I
read it quickly, and I did enjoy it, though I will probably never read
it again.:) I do recommend everyone reading it at least once! It is a
classic of course!

Reader reviewed by FlooCrookshanks

I read this book because, simply, it's a classic. I've seen numerous film adaptations, and after seeing Peter Pan (2003), loving it, and hearing that it's probably the closest adaptation to the original novel, I was excited to read it.

My first thought was, 'My my, Peter's a bit of a nasty so-and-so, isn't he?'. I know he's meant to be mischievious and so on, but the book portrays him as being quite the heartless, spiteful little brat and I found him to be not the least bit endearing.

I'm glad the book was written because it prompted so many other versions of it which I enjoy very much, but the original itself just didn't gel with me. I didn't feel compelled to read to the end - I've never liked the fact that Wendy decides to leave Neverland and grow up. Seriously, what was she thinking?! Growing up is boring and Peter's awesome - I can't believe she actually convinced herself that living a normal humdrum life without pirates, faeries, swordfights and flying would be better.

Tsk tsk, Wendy. And I'd thought so highly of you until then.

I can't bring myself to give this book a rating of one or even a two, because it's NOT a bad book, it's just that I didn't like Peter's character at all, and that really put me off it because he's my favourite part of the whole thing.

It's worth reading if only just to see how it all started. But if you've seen movies and loved the character of Peter, I do warn you that you might hate him after reading this book!