{Synopsis} – The only way to grow up is to survive.
London has been destroyed in a blitz of bombs and disease. The only ones who have survived the destruction and the outbreak of a deadly virus are children, among them sixteen-year-old Gwen Darling and her younger siblings, Joanna and Mikey. They spend their nights scavenging and their days avoiding the deadly Marauders—the German army led by the cutthroat Captain Hanz Otto Oswald Kretschmer.
Unsure if the virus has spread past England’s borders but desperate to leave, Captain Hook is on the hunt for a cure, which he thinks can be found in one of the surviving children. He and his Marauders stalk the streets snatching children for experimentation. None ever return.
Until one day when they grab Joanna. Gwen will stop at nothing to get her sister back, but as she sets out, she crosses paths with a daredevil named Pete. Pete offers the assistance of his gang of Lost Boys and the fierce sharpshooter Bella, who have all been living in a city hidden underground. But in a place where help has a steep price and every promise is bound by blood, it might cost Gwen more than she bargained for. And are Gwen, Pete, the Lost Boys, and Bella enough to outsmart the ruthless Captain Hook?
{My thoughts} – Gwen is a sweet fifteen year old girl that has been forced to grow up extremely fast. England was bombed and her parents never came back. She then became the caregiver of her younger sister and brother.
All the times she’s been out looking for supplies she rarely encounters other children. Then twice in the same day she encounters the same to children. Pete and Bella are two other scavengers that are out looking for supplies.
Pete distracts the people out hunting for children so that Gwen can get away. Then him and Bella follow Gwen to her hideout. When they get there they start trying to walk off with all the supplies that Gwen had for her and her siblings, but then Pete talks her into joining them.
However, while Gwen was gone her sister had been captured. So, now Gwen only has one goal to rescue her from the palace. It turns out that Pete promises to help with that rescue mission and they all go off to the Lost City together.
The Lost City is where Pete and Bella and all the other lost kids live. There are so many orphaned kids since the bombs dropped releasing a deadly virus that no one seems to be immune from. All the adults have seemingly died and nearly all the girls. Boys are dying too but not as quickly, it seems to have been released to wipe out mankind.
When Pete found Gwen he realized she showed no signs of the virus and needed her. It appeared as if she may be immune to it. He wanted to take her back to the Lost City so their doctor could look at her and see if she’d be able to help in the creation of a cure.
I have to admit when I’d learned this was a dystopian remake of Peter Pan I was fully intrigued. It is obvious when you read the book which characters are meant to be which etc. I enjoyed how the author was able to pull it all together and help the storyline to run seamlessly. I also look forward to reading the next book in the series very soon.
I highly recommend this book for avid dystopian readers as well as fans of the original Peter Pan story. I promise it’s worth the read and you most certainly will be intrigued and pulled into it pages.
{Quotes I Enjoyed} –
{01} – Dozens of stinging raindrops, each carrying a memory, invade my thoughts. Nights of sneaking from my bed and into hers to tell her stories of fairies, pirates, and mermaids. Pinkie-sworn promises to never grow up. Promises I couldn’t keep.
{02} – Our parents are gone. We are trying to survive, and this is not a childhood game or make believe. This is real life. It’s time to grow up.
{03} – Immunes: the vile name they’ve given to children who have not died from the Horologia virus. We are the survivors of the outbreak and valued for our antibodies. The Marauders are our abductors.
{04} – Like all the Marauders, he, too, will eventually succumb to the Horologia Virus, his fingers and lungs ravaged by the disease. A virus that took a life of its own the day the first bombs dropped, destroying Europe’s largest biological weapons lab.
{05} – Although no one is older than eighteen, they fight on with fierce determination until it is their turn to meet their maker, a fate none of us will escape.
Final Conclusion: 5 Star Rating.
