PopSugar Challenge: Peter Pan

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2015

Read a Book that's over 100 years old

Peter Pan by J.M Barrie

This is my first time reading Peter Pan by J.M Barrie and it has obviously been a long time coming. I finally decided to pick it up because of the recent release by K.R Thompson called "Hook". "Hook" is about Captain Hooks early life and how he got his beginnings as a fearsome pirate. I am a Once Upon a Time fan so naturally I would be excited to read anything about my favorite character from the show. I felt though that it was important to read the original story of Peter Pan before I could read this new book about Hook.

I have very mixed emotions about this book which makes it extremely difficult to rate or review. On one hand, many parts of the book are very entertaining and have you wishing that you could live in Neverland. Battling pirates, meeting mermaids, befriending an Indian tribe, and flying all sound pretty spectacular to me. On the other hand, there were times where I found all of the characters to be annoying and juvenile to a ridiculous degree. For example, it is quite aggravating how Wendy is constantly acting like a little mother even though she is a child herself while Peter Pan is also constantly forgetting every event and every person that has ever come into his life. 

I understand that the annoying traits of Barrie's characters were purposely written in order to show the reader how polar opposite being a child and being an adult is. However, it does make it a slightly more tedious read to read about characters that you don't necessarily even like all of the time. 

I usually read books purely for entertainment value but I found myself liking that this book had me thinking about deeper issues. The writing makes you remember yourself as a child and how wonderful it was to be innocent and carefree. It also shows you though that not growing up also has it downsides. In the end what I got out of the book is that childhood is a great thing to be enjoyed immensely but that there is also merit in growing up and that both of these states of being have there perks and there downsides. 

I was going to give this book a 2.5 stars out of 5 but considering it's depth and the way in which it made me think, I will say that it deserves a three star rating. 

*My favorite character in this book was surprisingly not Hook. While I really enjoyed him, I just ended up liking Peter better. He certainly had his downsides like I wrote about earlier but I loved that he was the embodiment of good form. He was a fair fighter, a loyal friend, and a overall good little boy.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder… or forgetful.” - J.M Barrie

Have a great day bookworms!