Unhooked - Lisa Maxwell

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell
Published on February 2, 2016 by Simon Pulse

For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home—all because her mother believes that monsters are hunting them. Now these delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. The only saving grace is her best friend, Olivia, who’s coming with them for the summer.

But when Gwen and Olivia are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and taken to a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey, Gwen realizes her mom might have been sane all along.

The world Gwen finds herself in is called Neverland, yet it’s nothing like the stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through her fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the roguish young pirate who promises to keep her safe.

With time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But will she be able to save Neverland without losing herself?

Unhooked is a adventure that features some of our favorite faces of Neverland, like Captain Hook and Peter Pan but everything is given a new look by twisting the childish fairy tale into something dark. Neverland in Unhooked isn't the land of never growing up, play every day and having fun like Disney presented us, this time around it looks much more like a land of nightmares with evil faires, a magical and manipulative Pan and a not trusty worthy Captain Hook (or is he the only one that can be trusted, who knows).

My favorite aspect of this story was the pace, it just never slowed down. Since the start, we are only a few chapters in and them boom we already go to Neverland, and after that is just one thing after another. We have a lot of things to explore on this island and so much secrets to undercover that there is just not a time to stop and breath, it truly is an adventure for the reader.

What I would have liked more is to the characters to be more developed, specially Gwen, she is overall a good main character that doesn't wait around for the answers to come to her, she isn't naive or too focused on the Captain's pretty features to forget about her mission but she isn't all that unique or memorable, this unfortunately happened with all of the characters on this one, while Pan and Hook are deliciously twisted and full of shades of gray still, their personalities never surpassed surfaced level.

There is a small romance on this one that was nice, since it goes from a hate to slowly start to trusting to partnership to love, I would have like more if I enjoy the characters involved on it more but it was a nice addition. It was entertaining for me because I kept picturing Hook as Captain Hook from Once Upon A Time and they are definitely similar on their personalities.

Overall this wasn't a favorite read and I would recommend it with some restrictions but it was still pretty enjoyable and always kept the adventure going. Probably a best read for fans of retellings, Peter Pan, Once Upon a Time and those who love a good adventure book.