This was a dark reimagining of Captain Hook and how growing up is never glamorous nor easy. I found the premise and start of the book incredibly promising, but the characters’ decision making towards the middle of the book started grating on my nerves to the point I started finding myself annoyed with them in the end. 😕

The story follows four POVs: Jordan, Baron, Chay, and Tier. I found the four as a whole incredibly dysfunctional but who isn’t dysfunctional with the kind of childhood they each experience? I found Baron to be very relatable on a personal level as someone who suffers from anxiety and panic attacks. The way Low describes his spirals feels real and you can get the all-crushing feeling he goes through when in the midst of an attack. I did find his reluctance to talk through his past traumatic experience a bit frustrating as it felt like he would open up about it to Jordan, but then never did. 😔

Jordan is reckless and stubborn. She doesn’t really think through her plans, and while I don’t mind this in characters, for some reason, I was just so fed up with her refusal to think about what her actions might come off to others. The one positive thing I found in her character overall was that she isn’t so stuck in her pain that she never learns. I also really loved how Low depicts the nasty side of addiction and what it makes people do. 🪝

Chay and Tier were . . . Odd to me. I didn’t really understand Chay other than her need to be wanted and appreciated and Tier’s desire to prove himself. Their subsequent interactions just gave me the weirdest ick feeling because while Chay is chronologically 19, the idea of a full grown man doting on a physically 13 year old girl just felt so wrong. 🤢

In general, the start was pretty good, but man did it fall apart for me pretty quickly. Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this early in exchange for an honest review, and to the author for writing a wonderful depiction of panic attacks and addiction. ✨

Publication date: July 9!

Overall: 3/5 ⭐️

This one was just okay for me. The things I loved were the setting. I absolutely loved this Peter Pan story taking place in Southeast Asia. I wish we had more time off the island. None of the romances really worked for me.

I really enjoyed about the first 50% of this book but then I feel like it really started to drag. The main problem is I found none of the romances in this book believable. I didn’t feel like there was chemistry between any of the characters that were supposedly in love and then felt the conflicts surrounding their relationships boring to read.
What I did enjoy was watching Hook become the infamous Hook from the stories of our childhoods. I love retellings but this is the first Peter Pan retelling I’ve read.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

While I liked the idea of this story, I did find myself getting bored after a while. The need to get to the Island and how, and seeing how things there work for this story, those aspects were all fairly interesting. Once that was in place, though, things started to lose their appeal. I do think there’s some cool ideas here, but the execution wasn’t for me.

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

These Deathless Shores is a Captain Hook origin story, where Peter Pan isn't the bright, happy, beloved kid you remember from the Disney movie. No, something incredibly sinister lurks behind that childish smile. It's darker than I expected it to be; it deals with, amongst others, addiction, eating disorders, childhood trauma, codependency, suicide ideation, gender dysphoria (? well, at least some discussion on gender) and extremely bloodthirsty revenge.

Because that last bit is Jordan's whole motivation, isn't it? To return to the island and to take her revenge on Peter Pan. Everything else is incidental, something to be utilised to serve her end goal of stealing Tinkerbell from Peter. If Low were to have focused only on Jordan, that would have made for a very boring story.

Fortunately, it's the cast of supporting characters that add colour to the story. Baron - whose love for Jordan makes him do difficult things. Tier - who's still trying to become his own man. Chay - who has somehow managed to stay on the Island past adulthood.

For a novel that the author touts as Malaysian-inspired (which was really what interested me, though it's not actually on the blurb), there's nothing that really screams "Malaysia" to me. For obvious reasons, the bulk of the book is spent on the Island, which is that magical-mystical Neverland brought to somewhere on the physical plane instead of up in the sky (and conceptually feels more Bermuda Triangle). The parts and flashbacks to Jordan & Baron's original home of Burima/Hanwa (I'm still not sure if Hanwa is a place or a language or both?) has a more generic Southeast Asia vibe in a Raya and the Last Dragon kind of way. Case in point: the opening fight scene feels more Muay Thai (Thailand); I do not know that I'd be able to find something similar in Malaysia.

Anyway, setting aside, if you're into dark fairy tale retellings, this might be of interest to you!

One thing about me is I’m a slut for a Peter Pan retelling

4.5?? 4.75?? 5?? I need to think on it

This is SUCH a strong debut novel. I’m very excited to see what P.H. Low writes next.

I honestly don’t think I really knew what “flowery” writing was until I read this book - I’m pretty sure this is like the definition of flowery writing. There were some times where I thought it was a little much, but for the most part I didn’t mind it. I do think some people will find it too descriptive though (like do we really need to describe the same thing 3-5 different ways every single time)

This had a great ratio of fantasy, action, romance, personal character growth. There’s something so familiar and whimsical about a Peter Pan retelling that I just fall in love with. I like how this story takes a darker approach to Peter Pan, more similar to the actual book vs movies. And the way these characters broke each others’ hearts while trying to find a way to both stick to what they believed in but also include the other in their story….it actually made my heart hurt.

If i was ever a character in a fantasy book (not who i would want to be but who I actually am as a person, anxiety and all) - it would be Baron. Baron is me i am Baron i loved him

I am not queer so I cannot speak on the representation, however from an outside perspective (if I can even say that lol), I do think it was well done. This touches on some pretty intense and important topics - pharmaceutical industry/drug addiction, ED, mental illness/suicidal thoughts, childhood abuse ((this is not an extensive list - I recommend looking into TW if you need them))

Thank you so much to Orbit and NetGalley for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are my own.

Based on the synopsis and cover, I was initially extremely excited to check this one out! I anticipated loving the premise, themes, and imagery, and I was intrigued to discover more about the plot.

Unfortunately, I have decided to DNF this book at 49%. I mean absolutely no disrespect to the author or story -- I've just realized it is probably not for me. Please keep in mind that all thoughts apply to this first half of the book only; I don't know what happens next!

Note: I'm not quite sure how to star rate this, given that I did not fully finish it, so I used the goodreads star rating system of 1 (did not like), 2 (it was ok), 3 (liked), 4 (really liked), 5 (LOVED all time fav).

Before I explain why I DNF'd, I want to highlight some elements I enjoyed. The general premise of the Island and how it seemed to work so far (details omitted bc spoilers) was very interesting and held a lot of potential. The snippets about the island at the beginning of certain Parts of the book established an excellent atmosphere that made me excited to dive in. There were many ideas and visuals that I found compelling and dark in a way that fit the vibe I had initially anticipated (ex: what Dust really is, what Tink looks like, the landscape of the island, etc.); although, there wasn’t as much development or focus on them as I think would have hooked me. I think I unintentionally expected the focus, pacing, and writing style of the story to be a bit different than it was, which is on me.

I have many thoughts about this book, but I know I have a problem keeping things concise, so I'll try to summarize my dnf decision in two primary points: 1. Telling instead of showing, and 2. Characters (mostly Jordan).

**Telling vs. Showing**
The writing often felt a bit impatient to me. Instead of showing us details and moments to flesh out character relationships, motivations, or past events, we were told general summarizing information in the characters thoughts or dialogues. The events in the characters' lives in the outside world felt a bit handwavy, and the past events of the island felt similarly summarized/thrown in as context. I think we could have gotten some very exciting, visceral, and interesting flashback scenes that would have helped me feel more immersed in and connected to the world & story. I would have loved to be made to feel and experience more alongside the characters.

Each character childhood was vaguely summarized here and there as the basis of their identity and fears. Maybe this is me not being particularly empathetic, but I didn't feel anything in those moments for the characters; I just noted the information as general context. It also grew a bit repetitive for some of them, as the same feelings and thoughts would come up over and over with minimal additional exploration or change, which in turn made them feel a bit single-minded or even one-dimensional. (Details redacted bc spoilers.)

I never bought Jordan and Baron’s connection: we were repeatedly told that they were best friends, but that’s not enough for me to believe it. Character connections can absolutely begin before the timeframe of the story, but I still think it's important to show moments that cement that connection in the mind of the reader early on & throughout. I felt that each of their moments relied on us having already bought them as close friends.


**Jordan**
Jordan in particular was difficult for me to read. Not only could I not take her seriously when she just went around punching people left and right for no reason, but it was honestly absurd and extremely aggravating. I understand that people react to their childhoods and things that have happened to them in different ways, but vague mentions of "bullies," her parents, and the island were not sufficient to make me feel for her -- especially because we see her younger self before the island behaving this way as well. We didn't get a clear or intense enough image of her past or substantial enough connection to her character in the present for me to tolerate the things she said or did (especially the way she and Baron interacted -- details redacted bc spoilers). And yet, it felt as though the writing was building her up to be a badass, a leader, or a hero, which didn't really make sense to me.

I couldn't stand the way she treated people, and I didn't feel particularly aligned with or drawn to her goals, so having her pov be so dominant was difficult for me as a reader.


**Conclusion**
Essentially, I felt like we didn't get enough showing instead of telling, which ended up making the plot feel stagnant so far, revelations feel uneventful, and characters feel somewhat one-dimensional with shaky motivations. 49% in, I was left feeling like I hadn’t really started the story. I was halfway through the book but never got past where the synopsis ended.

I never felt like the story had established much for where it was going; sadly, despite my curiosity about the premise, I feel like there weren't enough ominous plot seeds for past or future elements to induce a pull in me toward the plot or endgame or to keep me reading for the vibes.


Although this book didn't work for me, please keep in mind that I realized this halfway through and did not ultimately finish it. As a result, my thoughts are only partially informed; I may have felt differently about the rest of the story.

You may love this book! I've seen many reviews of people who said the ending was interesting and that they greatly enjoyed the premise, setting, and overall story, so take all of my opinions with many grains of many salts!

Blurb:
Jordan was once a Lost Boy, convinced she would never grow up. Now, she’s twenty-two and exiled to the real world, still suffering withdrawal from the addictive magic Dust of her childhood. With nothing left to lose, Jordan returns to the Island and its stories—of pirates and war and the heartlessness of youth—intent on facing Peter one last time, on her own terms.

If that makes her the villain…so be it.

Review:
A grown-up Peter Pan retelling? With dark subject matter? I’m in.

Although the retelling didn’t really *pan* out (haha), it is more of a re-imagining, These Deathless Shores was well written and engaging. While we don’t see a whole lot of the classic characters, Low’s choice to focus on the characters introduced does well. I enjoyed the multi-POV, it really helped move the story. I did also enjoy the bulk of the story being on the island.

These Deathless Shores shows more of the dark side of the island, while also exploring innocence lost and what happens when you do “grow up”.

You will also find great LGBT+ representation, and well-mannered handling of sensitive subject matter (addiction, anorexia).

Check your trigger warnings, but I would definitely recommend checking out These Deathless Shores!

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for an e-arc of These Deathless Shores in exchange for an honest review.

I love retelling so was super excited to read this and I did enjoy it! I love the twist on Captain Hook and the island it all felt very different but also had elements that you could connect to the original. I wasn’t as invested in the characters as I thought I would be but I still enjoyed and will be adding to our library!

DNF at 48%, ~207 pages

I am so disappointed by this DNF. I was so excited for this one - it's Peter Pan retelling where Peter is the villain, and it focuses on a genderswapped Captain Hook! It is marketed as a dark retelling, and ultimately that is why I don't think it is for me.

So These Deathless Shores is set in a Southeast-Asian inspired world and most of what I have read takes place on The Island. Peter's island. However, this Neverland is a much more brutal one than that in the stories. The "Pales" are white folk who have marooned on the Island, and they have reverted to cannibalism. The pirates are often Lost Boys who survived their death at Peter's hands for growing up, and rather than attempt to go home and live in the real world, they stay to eke out an existence on the Island where they are constantly assaulted by the Lost Boys and Peter. Jordan and Baron are two ex-Lost Boys. When they were taken by Peter as children, Jordan hid the fact that she was a girl in order to avoid being put in the role of Ama, essentially the servant for the Lost Boys, and instead took on the role of the Twins along with Baron. However, when her period comes, she is unable to hide that fact anymore, and she is left for dead, eventually washing up on the mainland. Baron leaves willingly and goes home, unwilling to stay without Jordan.

Some snippets about our main characters:
- Jordan was born with a congenital limb difference and uses a prosthetic hand. She is an addict after having gotten so addicted to Dust on the Island that she had to turn to drugs when she got home, and ends up fighting in the pits and running drugs
- Baron has extreme anxiety and suffers from panic attacks. He also deals with suicidal ideation quite frequently.
- Tier has a stutter, and was abused by his family as a result to attempt to "beat it out" of him. He is now an alcoholic in his attempt to manage his past and his stutter.
- Chay has been starving herself to keep her period from coming so that she is able to remain in the role of Ama on the Island for longer. She is 19 and has essentially remained a child as a result of her lack of nutrition.

All of the characters have extreme trauma in their background, and none of them are particularly likable at the point at which I stopped. I was really enjoying the plot - Jordan and Baron have returned to the Island with the idea to steal Tink, who is the source of the Dust, and defeat Peter once and for all. They join up with the pirates to do so, and we follow them on a few escapades as they fight the Lost Boys and attempt to bring about Peter's defeat. Tier was their pilot and ends up washed up on the Island when the plane crashes. Chay was the Ama who revealed Jordan's situation to Peter, which caused her to be attacked and left for dead. However, I kept getting to the point where I was having a hard time making it through the chapters because I really didn't enjoy being in any of the characters' heads. It already feels very repetitive and that it keeps harping on their traumas, almost as an excuse for their behaviors and their thoughts. I didn't enjoy that at all. Perhaps this is fixed later on in the novel, but at this point, I feel like their trauma, their disabilities or differences, and their poor decisions are literally the only pieces of their characterizations. So that was frustrating.

The other thing that I was really not a fan of at this point are the romances. Jordan and Baron start to have some type of romantic entanglement, but it feels very forced and like there is a power dynamic issue because Baron has been in love with her forever, and Jordan seems entirely indifferent and like she is using him? I don't know, it was uncomfortable. But even worse is the pairing of Tier and Chay. This one is extreme insta-love - she saves him and heals his wounds after he is marooned on the island, and they immediately fall in love. The thing that I have really been struggling with though is that yes, she is 19, but she has the body of a child because of her self-starvation, and this grown man is lusting after her. It made me deeply uncomfortable, especially because she has no personality to speak of, and he has very little interaction with her before he decides he's in love and is going to whisk her away from the Island, ASAP.

So ultimately, I had great hopes for this one, but I just have very little desire to continue because I don't get on with teh characters. The chapters are very short, but I found myself struggling to even get through those and was dreading the next chapter becuase I didn't want to be with that character.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for an eARC of These Deathless Shores. All thoughts and opinions are my own. These Deathless Shores releases on July 9, 2024.

[dropped at 26%]

Sadly this one was just not for me.

The story is interesting at first and Jordan’s character was incredibly intriguing. However, once she, Baron, and Tier end up on the island the story just kind of gets tedious and uninteresting. The grimdark tone stops working in the book’s favor and the way all the characters start acting gets irritating. The worldbuilding is also so much more interesting outside of the island and I wish this was a story set there.

(For some reason I also did not realize this was going to be a Peter Pan retelling when I picked this up, Which admittedly is absolutely my fault because I wouldn’t have picked it up if I knew. However I would love to read something else by this author soon hopefully.)

[Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy]

This book was a bit darker than I initially anticipated. The writing was great - for the most part. I enjoyed the retelling of Peter Pan from a wildly different perspective. The cast was diverse and the POV switch was helpful to get a feel for each characters personality and emotions while the story unfolded. I think the middle to end of the book was lackluster and didn’t keep pace like the beginning did. I was not wildly attached to this book or the way it ended.

thank you to net galley/the publisher for an advanced copy.

Unfortunately, while I was excited about the premise of this book, I DNFed at 25%. I did not find the set up for the plot to be believable and the characters and their motivations fell flat. I was also a little bit taken aback by this taking place in a fantasy world completely different from ours, yet the exact story of Peter Pan is known to everyone in that world.

Review: These Deathless Shores by P.H. Low

I received an advanced copy of this from Netgalley and Orbit, and I thank them for the opportunity to review this.


Releasing on July 9th, 2024

Quotes: "But she had always known it would return. Pain, after all, was the only thing that stayed."

"The Fear had come not all at once, but slowly: a thief without a shadow, stealing into a room without light."

"Stop, or this place will break you apart and rewrite you in its image, and you'll never be able to leave."

"The only way we'll get an ending to this story," she said, keeping her voice light, "is if we write it ourselves."

Review: I've gone back and forth on how I felt about this one. I like the idea of this story. Two "lost boys" who escaped Peter Pan and that island are drawn back to it 9 years later. There's probably a deeper meaning about wanting to go back to childhood after the realities of adulthood start to become clear. With a dark twist on pixie dust. It's definitely a dark take on Peter Pan and Captian Hook.

The main characters, Jordan and Baron. I liked at different points. But I felt one goes too far while the other is ignored. Again, I liked the idea of this one. Perhaps it's just my perception of the story. Some of the other characters, Chay and a couple of others, I didn't understand their choices. But I just kept it moving. I liked how it ended. I think this is worth checking out if you're interested in a dark fantasy story of Peter Pan and Hook. While dark at times, it does show perseverance of the main characters.

Overall, I'd give it 3 stars. It's well written. The story may have been a little darker than I anticipated, and that's on me more than the story itself.

Thanks for reading. 📖

"Yet none of them were awake to notice. Had they been, they might have seen the black rocks rising out of the water like avenging angels, the ice-dagger trees swaying and warm......But they slept on, their minds flitting petal-thin between fantasy and reality, landing light as butterfly feet in the shadows between nightmares."

I found P.H. Low's prose rather beautiful throughout the entire book and the overall concept exciting. A lost boy going back to the island for revenge on Peter? The concept of Tink's magic dust being addictive? I'm intrigued. 

The beginning started strong, as we witness Jordan's struggles with her withdrawal and overall ability to readjust to life outside the island. We're given a glimpse of her past, and why she was so eager to leave her family that she didn't seem to fit into. Then, the betrayal led to her barely escaping the island alive. 

We're introduced to her friend she escaped to the island with, Baron, who has suffered from intense anxiety attacks and overall difficulty readjusting to life. He's a bit of a pushover, especially regarding Jordan's dominating personality. 

We see the cruelty of Peter begin to unravel once they've returned to the island, and I find myself rooting for revenge. We've got representation of drug addiction, mental health, eating disorders, and hand prosthetics. 

But, things began to unravel from me...

- The awkward romance came out of nowhere - one minute they were "friends" who didn't even seem to respect each other, with zero sexual tension - the next minute there were sexual advances that had one of them just as confused as me. Pair that with another insta-love situation and I started to lose the excitement I had built up.
- With Jordan's main goal of capturing Tink, I thought Tink would be a major player in the story - but we barely even catch a glimpse of her. I wanted more Tink! 
- A character with a traumatic past usually has my heart - but literally, every character seemed to have a troubled past, so the impact got lost on me
- I read a lot of fantasy and understand not everything is realistic - however, I kept having a hard time accepting that adult pirates kept being killed somewhat easily by Peter and the other children. I understand they have the advantage of flying, but I still kept picturing my nieces and nephews who are the same ages, and I just couldn't buy in.
- The number of times people were near death for so long but miraculously pulled through somehow (sometimes more than once) truly lost me. I'm all for HEA but prefer that when it's realistic given the circumstance

Thank you, NetGalley for the eARC.

Thank you Netgalley for my eARC!

I desperately wanted to love this book. I’m a huge fan of Peter Pan and I did love that this was a retelling with a twist! I just couldn’t really bring myself to care that much about the main character in general and I’m not even sure I cared for the side characters either.

I do think the book overall okay. The plot was interesting but it just wasn’t what I was expecting it to be. The first 25% of the book had me confused and wishing there was more world building in the beginning to orient myself.

These Deathless Shores was exactly as eerie and haunting as I wanted it to me. P.H. Low is a brilliant and lyrical writer, capturing the beauty in the bizarre. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this spectacular novel—and learn of a new great voice.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for an ARC of this book! As someone who grew up with the Disney version of Peter Pan, this adult retelling was something that I really enjoyed. It definitely is much darker and includes a lot of complex topics such as well, growing up and relationships. Peter is definitely a very hateable villain in this book, as he essentially steals the Lost Boys from their homes, creates a dependence on “dust”, and when they become too old will force them out either by death or by fleeing.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

These Deathless Shores by P. H. Low is a third person multi-POV dark fantasy genderbent retelling of the story of Captain Cook and Peter Pan. As children, Jordan and Baron were two of the Lost Boys on the Island of Peter Pan. Jordan is a martial artist and addicted to Dust and feels the need to return to the Island now that her synthetics are not working well enough. Baron goes with her and they enroll Tier to take them back, but the Island and its inhabitants were waiting for them.

One of the things that was really cool was how P. H. Low integrated metafiction into the story. The Island and Peter Pan are very famous stories in this world, but the world thinks it’s just a story as the Island isn’t known to most. There’s hints here and there that Sir Franklin, who wrote the original novel, might have been a Lost Boy but there’s no confirmation. The Peter Pan stage production is also made reference to with the clapping for Tinkerbell to live. Lost Boys are free to leave the island as are the girls who act as mothers, but many of them seem to keep quiet when they go back home.

Captain Hook is not so much a person so much as a series of people who take up the mantle of the pirate captain who fights Peter Pan and may or may not use a hook. Hook is Peter Pan’s arch nemesis and the story is known to all on the Island with no deviation for however long it has gone on for. The villain origin story that paints Jordan, the latest Hook, in a very sympathetic light who has struggled with the confines of her gender, with her family, and with her addiction adds texture to the original and emphasizes Peter as the villain that he kind of is in J. M. Barrie’s work.

Not only Jordan and Baron, but also Chay, Jordan’s younger sister, was among the Lost Boys and is still there when Jordan and Baron return. Chay has been Ama, the mother, for years and refused to eat to keep her period from coming. When she came, Jordan was pretending to be a boy and Baron’s twin, the jig only being up when her period arrived, and it was time for Jordan and Baron to go while Chay remained to keep her immortality. As a Wendy, Chay is very complex, playing the Ama part well but also misses Jordan and struggles when Jordan returns.

There’s a lot to say about this book as a piece of metafiction, as an exploration of addiction and withdrawal, as a South East Asian adaptation of one of the most beloved British children’s classics. It’s probably the best Peter Pan adaptation I have ever read, watched, seen, etc.

Content warning for depictions of addiction, withdrawal, suicidal thoughts, and gore.

I would recommend this to fans of villain origin stories, readers looking for a Peter Pan adaptation, and anyone who watched the film Hook and wanted more.

Quite dark but whimsical at the same time.

The dark side of Peter Pan. The aftermath of never growing up then being sent back home. Rife with drug use and addiction. A mix of survival, depression, and avoidance.

I have mixed feelings about Certain scenes in the story. While I appreciate the accuracy in watching someone in withdrawal from drug use. It definitely stirred up some unsettling memories for me. If this is triggering for someone please be aware.