Hooked
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
He is not Captain Hook.
His name is Jonathan Stuart, and he’s just an ornery post-alcoholic bookstore owner from Pasadena with a mania for fencing and a bad habit of disappointing his girlfriend. He doesn’t want to be in the Neverland, impossibly trapped aboard the Jolly Roger with a horde of greedy stinking pirates. He was tricked there by Peter Pan.
Pan happily invites children to come to his wondrous magical island, but no adult in their right mind would go willingly. Adults, you see, don’t have a very good time in the Neverland. The fairies and mermaids are against them. The island itself is against them. Most of all, Peter Pan is against them.
In particular, Peter Pan is against Jonathan Stuart. Why? Jonathan had better figure that out, and he’d better do it fast before his mutating memories insist that, not only does he indeed belong in this nightmarish hell of bloodthirsty children, ticking crocodiles and vengeful boy gods, but he’s never existed anyplace else.
So you see, he’s definitely not Captain Hook.
Well, not yet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This revisionist fantasy with provocative philosophical verve and depth incites empathy for a most engaging anti-hero while revealing the primal maliciousness imbedded within the tale of Peter Pan. Reclusive Jonathan Stuart inherits a living nightmare when he's bequeathed an ancestral sword and the personal log of Jas. Hook, captain of the Jolly Roger. Prophetic nightmares, crumbling romance, and an unexpected pregnancy are only the start of Stuart's problems. Soon he's dragged into Never Land, a place where cruelty spreads with smiles and adults are denied death. Icons Wendy, Pan, and the Lost Boys are stripped of syrupy sentiment, and Stuart is forced to play pirate in a demon boy's escapades. Weiss emphasizes the horrific heart of Faerie in a poetically lush expos of fragile reality and tormented psyches. While awkward narrative structure and flashy dialogue occasionally hamper suspense, this acrobatic juggling of archetypes challenges preconceived notions of right and wrong and highlights the fear at the heart of children's frolic. (BookLife)
