REVEN

Swaim’s YA fantasy novel reimagines and modernizes Peter Pan.

When readers first meet 15-year-old Wendiaqui Darl, she’s desperately trying to hold on to her scholarship at the prestigious—and expensive—Unity Academy. Wendi is nearing the end of a pivotal Year Seven, and if she doesn’t score highly enough on her history exam, she could lose her tuition grant. It’s the worst-case scenario when the power in her home city of Othan goes out and her teacher simply cancels the test, leaving Wendi without recourse for improvement. As if things at school weren’t bad enough, she’s also isolated Rowan, her one close friend, after rebuffing his romantic advances. All these worries pale in comparison to the recent trauma of losing her mother to saffron fever. While out holiday shopping with her father, Wendi sees a man in red flee a docked ship and a group of children running after, calling him “Hook.” She largely forgets the moment until a young boy, Peter, shows up and offers her a new life on that same flying ship—a chance to escape the mess in which Wendi is mired. But Wendi soon discovers that there’s no fully escaping real life: Peter isn’t everything he seems, and the villainous Hook is in hot pursuit. Swaim has taken on a daunting task in her debut novel by attempting to bring a new perspective to the oft-told story of Peter Pan, which she does admirably in these pages. The imaginative, SF-ish technology she employs—headsets, personal screens, flying ships, and the like—paint fresh colors on an aging tale. The author plumbs real character depth in Wendi: “The attention was awkward, and the dress was uncomfortable, but discomfort was still better than loneliness. What if she simply played along? Tried to be normal? Maybe something would click.” The plot points may be largely borrowed from Barrie, but Swaim brings something all her own to the legend.

A fun, fast-paced update of Peter Pan sure to please a new generation of fans.