I am so excited to be hosting a spot on blog tour for UNHOOKED by Lisa Maxwell I loved this book if you haven't yet check out my review HERE. I have a guest post about the good and evil in Neverland to share with you! And make sure to enter the awesome giveaway!
Haven't heard of UNHOOKED? Check it out!
From “talented wordsmith” (Publishers Weekly) Lisa Maxwell comes a lush, atmospheric fantasy novel filled with twists and turns about a girl who is kidnapped and brought to an island inhabited by fairies, a roguish ship captain, and bloodthirsty beasts.
For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home. Her mother believes they are being hunted by brutal monsters, and those delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. Gwen’s only saving grace is that her best friend, Olivia, is with her for the summer.
But shortly after their arrival, the girls are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and dragged to a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey. And Gwen begins to realize that maybe her mother isn’t so crazy after all…
Gwen discovers that this new world she inhabits is called Neverland, but it’s nothing like the Neverland you’ve heard about in stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through your fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and tries to find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the captivating pirate who promises to keep her safe.
Caught in the ultimate battle between good and evil, with time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to finally face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But can she save Neverland without losing herself?
Now on to the post!
I asked Lisa. What made you want to flip Neverland on its heels? Why make the villain the good guy and Peter the bad guy?
I’m not sure that anyone is really good or bad in the moral sense in UNHOOKED. There are people who want to kill Gwen, and people who want to kill her more. They all have their reasons for wanting to kill her, and they all believe their own reasons are noble. Gwen, of course, disagrees.
Part of the reason I wanted to flip the usual understanding of good and evil in Neverland is that Barrie already did the job for me. If you go back to the source material—Peter and Wendy¬—Captain Hook is a nasty piece of work, but Peter Pan is not exactly someone you’d want taking your kids out the window. In Barrie’s book, Peter Pan is not a “good guy,” in the usual sense of the word. He’s the hero, but in the original story, Peter Pan only cares about his own amusement, not the lives of Wendy, John, Michael, or any of his boys. In fact, there is a line that suggests he kills off his own boys when they get too old or there are too many of them. The truth is, in Barrie’s story, most kids don’t come back from Neverland, and they also don’t go on living happily forever on those magic shores. In Barrie’s story, the lost boys are expendable—there’s always a new crop showing up.
Part of Barrie’s story that I think has gotten lost is that his Peter Pan has no sense of empathy. The character doesn’t care about human life—only about his own amusement and how clever he is. He’s manipulative and often lies to the children to get his way. In Peter Pan, Barrie created the perennial child—he’s joy and adventure, a child who laughs each time like it’s the first time he’s ever laughed and who still has all of his baby teeth. That’s charming, but Peter Pan is also basically an overgrown two-year old. If you really think about what it would be like to have a two-year-old the size of a ten-year-old? No thanks.
Someone once said that all toddlers are sociopaths, and I’m fairly certain from my own experience that it might be true. ;O) The thing is, when kids are that young, you have to teach and model empathy. For a two-year-old, it’s all about wanting things and wanting them NOW, and Barrie’s Peter Pan is very much like that. He’s not necessarily evil, but he is basically a sociopath—he wants what he wants, and the safety or happiness of others is irrelevant.
But another Part of Peter Pan’s heartlessness in Barrie’s book comes from the fact that his version of Neverland inspires forgetting. All of the characters—Wendy and her brothers, included—start to forget who they were before once they are in Neverland. Like most very small children, Peter Pan doesn’t have long-term memory. In the source book, Peter forgets about the three siblings on their way to Neverland, and leaves them flying along without a guide for days. After he finally kills Hook—his great nemesis—he doesn’t even remember him. “I always forget them after I kill them,” he says. In short, life in the Neverland of Barrie’s book is all about the moment, not about the past or future. That means it’s full of adventure, but it’s also full of darkness.
In my Neverland, I wanted to play with that idea of the island inspiring forgetting—something that most popular versions of the story do away with—because I wanted to explore what makes us human. If you can’t remember the emotional impact of a death, can you value life? If you lose your memories, who are you and who might you become? My Pan has been in Neverland for a loooong time. But then, so has the pirate. While there’s definitely a character you probably will root for more, the lines between good an evil get blurred in UNHOOKED. All that’s left is what you can do and what you will do, and it’s a question that each of the characters wrestle with in their own way.
I’m not sure that anyone is really good or bad in the moral sense in UNHOOKED. There are people who want to kill Gwen, and people who want to kill her more. They all have their reasons for wanting to kill her, and they all believe their own reasons are noble. Gwen, of course, disagrees.
Part of the reason I wanted to flip the usual understanding of good and evil in Neverland is that Barrie already did the job for me. If you go back to the source material—Peter and Wendy¬—Captain Hook is a nasty piece of work, but Peter Pan is not exactly someone you’d want taking your kids out the window. In Barrie’s book, Peter Pan is not a “good guy,” in the usual sense of the word. He’s the hero, but in the original story, Peter Pan only cares about his own amusement, not the lives of Wendy, John, Michael, or any of his boys. In fact, there is a line that suggests he kills off his own boys when they get too old or there are too many of them. The truth is, in Barrie’s story, most kids don’t come back from Neverland, and they also don’t go on living happily forever on those magic shores. In Barrie’s story, the lost boys are expendable—there’s always a new crop showing up.
Part of Barrie’s story that I think has gotten lost is that his Peter Pan has no sense of empathy. The character doesn’t care about human life—only about his own amusement and how clever he is. He’s manipulative and often lies to the children to get his way. In Peter Pan, Barrie created the perennial child—he’s joy and adventure, a child who laughs each time like it’s the first time he’s ever laughed and who still has all of his baby teeth. That’s charming, but Peter Pan is also basically an overgrown two-year old. If you really think about what it would be like to have a two-year-old the size of a ten-year-old? No thanks.
Someone once said that all toddlers are sociopaths, and I’m fairly certain from my own experience that it might be true. ;O) The thing is, when kids are that young, you have to teach and model empathy. For a two-year-old, it’s all about wanting things and wanting them NOW, and Barrie’s Peter Pan is very much like that. He’s not necessarily evil, but he is basically a sociopath—he wants what he wants, and the safety or happiness of others is irrelevant.
But another Part of Peter Pan’s heartlessness in Barrie’s book comes from the fact that his version of Neverland inspires forgetting. All of the characters—Wendy and her brothers, included—start to forget who they were before once they are in Neverland. Like most very small children, Peter Pan doesn’t have long-term memory. In the source book, Peter forgets about the three siblings on their way to Neverland, and leaves them flying along without a guide for days. After he finally kills Hook—his great nemesis—he doesn’t even remember him. “I always forget them after I kill them,” he says. In short, life in the Neverland of Barrie’s book is all about the moment, not about the past or future. That means it’s full of adventure, but it’s also full of darkness.
In my Neverland, I wanted to play with that idea of the island inspiring forgetting—something that most popular versions of the story do away with—because I wanted to explore what makes us human. If you can’t remember the emotional impact of a death, can you value life? If you lose your memories, who are you and who might you become? My Pan has been in Neverland for a loooong time. But then, so has the pirate. While there’s definitely a character you probably will root for more, the lines between good an evil get blurred in UNHOOKED. All that’s left is what you can do and what you will do, and it’s a question that each of the characters wrestle with in their own way.
Check out a teaser graphic or two!
About Lisa:
Lisa Maxwell is the author of Sweet Unrest, Gathering Deep
(Flux, Fall 2015) and Unhooked (Simon Pulse, Spring 2016). When she's not
writing books, she's an English professor at a local college. She lives near DC
with her very patient husband and two not-so patient boys.
Giveaway
Details:
(1) winner will receive a
signed finished copy of UNHOOKED, a large Neverland map, and a Funko Pop Captain
Hook, US Only.
(5) winners will receive a swag pack containing a NVR sticker,
bookmark, postcard, other stickers, US only.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
1/25/2016- Supernatural
Snark- Interview
1/26/2016- Seeing
Double In Neverland- Review
1/27/2016- Please Feed the Bookworm- Guest Post
1/28/2016- Stories & Sweeties- Review
1/29/2016- A Glass Of Wine- Interview
Week Two:
2/1/2016- A Reader Under The Sea- Review
2/2/2016- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post
2/3/2016- Owl Always Be Reading- Review
2/4/2016- Lili's
Reflections- Interview
2/5/2016- Mundie Moms- Review
