by Kara Swanson
Claire Kenton hates Peter Pan.
Ever since her twin brother Connor disappeared, leaving nothing more than a note saying he was with Peter Pan, Claire has despised the boy who never grew up.
But Claire can’t let herself get caught up in her loathing of Pan. She’s busy trying to track down Connor and control the strange dust dripping from her fingers.
Peter Pan has a problem. He’s growing up.
Ever since Peter was flung out of Neverland, he’s being trying to figure out a way back, all while dodging rogue Lost Boys, evading Captain Hook, and trying to ignore the fact that he’s aging.
The way back to Neverland? The girl with magic in her veins and pixie dust at her fingertips.
The girl who hates Peter Pan.
But Claire’s and Peter’s paths will cross. And there is more to what is going on than Claire knows.
(apologies in advance for the length of this review. It is a rough summary of my Amazon review… which was very, very long. So I tried to make this just very long to long)
For those of you who don’t know, Kara Swanson is one of my writing mentors, so I was super excited for Dust. I even got to get an eARC of it, which was super cool!
Also, can we all take a moment to admire the cover? Kara has such great covers!
Now, onto the book itself. Dust is a Peter Pan retelling and continuation because Kara picks up years after the original Peter Pan ended. There are several references to things in J. M. Barry’s Peter Pan throughout Dust, which help Peter and the story feel connected to the original.
The plot of Dust moves along nicely. It’s a little slower than what I normally read, but still fine. The pace might just have to do with the nature of the plot.
And the characters! Oh my, these characters are great! Peter was definitely my favorite character. After just a few sentences in his POV, I was hooked. His character voice is amazing. Claire was a great character too. Even the side characters felt like there was so much more to them! No flat characters here.
I do wish that Kara had made the setting feel a little more London-ish. I have been to London, and therefore “know” the feel of the city and little things that would make it feel more authentic, though, so this could just be a me thing. I do know that Kara doesn’t been to London, though. All of the taxi riding did bug me a little. The Tube needed to make an appearance!
Dust is written from the perspectives of unreliable narrators, meaning that they either lie, have a distorted view of what’s going on, or don’t know enough of the pieces to give the reader the correct story. So beware of plot twists!
Also, Dust ends on a horrible cliffhanger. I need Shadow now.
Content: mild romance; two kisses; brief violence; a few darker moments
Hailey Huntington 