Breathtaking Reads: Never After by Dan Elconin

Never After - Dan Elconin

Released: October 20, 2009

Pages: 320

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Age Group: YA

Summary(From Amazon/Back Cover): There is no place like a dysfunctional home.

Leaving everything behind for the Island was Ricky's dream come true. When his happily ever after is not quite what it seems, he discovers that running away means running toward bigger problems.

Trapped on the Island, Ricky must join together with the only people he can trust to help him face his fears and return home. But the only way off the Island is to confront the person who trapped Ricky and his friends in the first place. With countless enemies and true peril staring them down, Ricky's mission to leave this so-called paradise will become a battle for their very lives.

Let me first start off by saying this is a remake of Peter Pan with a twist. If I would have known this, I would more than likely have not even taken a second look at this book. That being said, I think the back cover description should atleast allude to the fact that this is like Peter Pan, maybe say Peter takes Ricky to the island where he can become a lost boy and live forever or something like that.

This book was different than how I thought it would be, but I don't necessarily call that a good thing. The book was laced heavily with dirty jokes, but I can't say that that was completely inexpected as the book was written by a 19 year-old. Don't take that the wrong way, I'm not saying that teens are bad writers and sick minded people because that would be a false slam against myself, but I just think given the circumstances, the dirty humour didn't surprise me.

I think the pure want to like this book is what kept me reading but really it was not a book that I would pick up and read again. The characters for me were also a little too underdeveloped. Sure all of there deep, dark backgrounds were disscussed but I really didn't feel like I got to know any of them, even Ricky.

The action sequences had to have been my favorite part which is odd because I usually cling onto the smallest hint of romance and look for it throughout the book, but with Never After I just really enjoyed the action more than the "romance".

Overall this book didn't really meet my expectations but it was a descent read. Would I read Dan Elconin again? Maybe in a few years. This book was pretty easy to follow, no insane side plots or anything but the epilogue STILL has me confused as to what happened at the end.

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