This book will break your heart, and it’s the empathy on every page that will do it. Henry believes in the vital humanity of this proto-Captain Hook, thus so does the reader. Reading this book, it’s not hard to understand why this is the first book that made Henry cry while writing it. And, obviously, Peter’s a charismatic leader. “One of the things I was trying to get at in the book,” said Henry, “is the way groups of boys can be both really brutal with each other in a careless way, but also really tender and how they’ll tend to follow the most charismatic leader. It’s this empathetic, relationship-driven question that drives the thrust of the Lost Boy narrative, and makes the book a fascinating exploration of boyhood, friendship, and the intersection of the two. “Why does this adult hate this kid?” It was a question that sparked a novel. “I always say, if there was no Henry, then there would be no Lost Boy.” “All those times I was experiencing Peter Pan with him, I started thinking, why does Captain Hook hate Peter Pan so much?” Henry said. They would watch the 1953 Disney animated film and read the story over and over again. Where did the idea for Lost Boy come from? Henry has an 11-year-old son who was obsessed with the story of Peter Pan when he was five. But, as Jamie begins to become disillusioned by The Island and Peter’s games, all of that changes. They have been together literally longer than Jamie can remember. When the novel begins, he loves Peter best of all. Jamie is that character, a nurturing type who looks after the other Lost Boys while Peter plays his games. Lost Boy is a gory, gutting retelling, one that would not work without a strong central character we know, like, and understand.

I wanted to know about who he was before he was Hook.”

“The ground of Hook as an adult has been walked by many other writers and filmmakers,” Henry told Den of Geeklast week at San Diego Comic Con. Here, Peter is not a reckless, innocuous youth who never wants to grow up he is a dangerous sociopath who values his games and eternal youth above all else.

Through his young eyes, we see Neverland and Peter Pan like never before. The story of Lost Boy.Īs advertised, Lost Boy tells the story of Jamie, the original Lost Boy and the boy who will become Captain Hook. The characters and world of Peter Pan is in safe hands. I should not have doubted author Christina Henry, who also successfully added to and commented upon Alice in Wonderland canon with her novels Alice and Red Queen. Not only is Peter Pan one of my favorite stories of all time, but I worried that this book was simply jumping on the Villain Retelling Bandwagon. I was predisposed not to like Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook, a Peter Pan prequel from the point-of-view of Captain Hook.

Hook peter pan full movie