Recently I've been getting really into retellings with a focus on the villains, and this book was everything I wanted it to be and more. I was already in love with Captain Hook from the show Once Upon a Time and this gave the classic character a really interesting backstory. It was just so good I couldn't put it down. I found myself connecting with Jamie and sympathizing with him in a way I didn't expect. At the end of the book, I honestly felt like crying for Jamie and it's going to take a couple of days for me to get over this.

I wasn't expecting the brutality at first but then quickly realised that it was a necessity not only for the audience to understand Jamie and Peter as characters but also for the audience to understand the environment. I had never thought about exactly just how violent the island must be for children who are just figuring out how to survive in the wilderness with dangers at every turn.

SPOILERS: I mentioned I felt like crying for Jamie at the end and it was mostly from the last chapter when he would talk about Peter and the new boys he would bring. I doubt Peter ever ended up caring about any of them (some things never change) but he treated them completely differently than how he treated the person he proclaimed was the most important one to him. Honestly reading about how he let the new boys fly and learn all the secrets he had hidden from Jamie for so long made me ridiculously mad (I'm a pretty petty person). 

All in all, I loved this book and I am now emotionally scarred .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.