Never After, by Dan Elconin

Since his first appearance back in 1902, many people (including Steven Spielberg) have attempted to produce a follow-up to J. M. Barrie’s iconic fairy tales about Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up – the most recent being the officially sanctioned sequel Peter Pan In Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean (2006). Whereas that novel beautifully understood and refined both the darkness and child-like innocence of the original – a reality where you can genuinely become someone else simply by putting on their clothes – Dan Elconin’s Never After is a disaffected teenage take on the tale, where Peter is the bad guy, kidnapping alienated teenagers, bringing them to the dream-like island and turning them into zombie ‘lost boys and girls’. Much of the drama in the novel comes from bad-guy Peter also being the main characters’ only return ticket back to reality. Yet, while the plot has all the obligatory twists, turns and set-action sequences, the novel’s first person narrative dampens much of the tension, particularly during several ‘tell not show’ passages. The result is a so-so tale, adequately told, but with enough penis jokes to ensure this isn’t the grown up sequel it wants to be. [Paul F Cockburn]