‘Never After’ puts new spin on ‘Peter Pan’

  Sixteen-year-old Ricky, being a typical moody teenager, would like nothing better than to get away from home and school.
  After having dreams about a beautiful, lush island, Ricky is surprised when a mysterious boy appears at his window, offering to take him to the exotic land.
  It’s an offer too tempting for Ricky to refuse.
  It doesn’t take long from his arrival on the Island for Ricky to realize the strange boy’s promises are untrue. He awakens bound in a cave, and after screaming in panic, is rescued by another boy his age. This boy, too, had been lured to the Island, and there are more kids as well, all teens going though a troubling time, drawn to what they thought would be paradise through the trickery of a flying boy named Peter.
  Yes, “Never After,” puts a new twist on the “Peter Pan” tale.
  This time around, Capt. Hooke leads the small band of escapees. And Peter’s Lost Boys are kids who weren’t lucky enough to escape Peter’s clutches and now serve as his zombie henchmen.
  Dan Elconin began writing “Never After" at the age of 14, and though the story idea may be a clever one, the dialogue and language quickly reveal the author’s youth.
  For instance, take this conversation between two of the teens while they are sparring:
  I took a breath, suddenly feeling energized, and picked up my sword.
  “All right, Alex, I’m ready.”
  Alex cocked an eyebrow at me, looking half skeptical, half impressed. “You wanna keep going?”
  “Yeah. I’m not gonna be able to walk in the morning, but let’s do it.”
  He grinned. “That’s what she said.”
  The crude humor — including juvenile “your mom” jokes — pales in comparison to the swearing. The teens drop F-bombs left and right.
  While this type of vulgarity might not shock the young adult audience to which the book is aimed, it most likely will turn off adult readers, limiting the book’s crossover appeal.
  There’s a lot of young adult fiction on the shelves these days, and most of the writing is not as immature as “Never After,” but given the author’s young age at which the novel was written, the book is still quite an accomplishment.