Peter and the Starcatchers

September 14, 2012

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Berry and Ridley Pearson, is the book I finished yesterday. I was originally drawn to the book by a snip-it of the Broadway show of the same name I saw a little while back on the Tony Awards... The scenes I saw were funny, sarcastic, and I liked it.

Sadly, the play doesn't seem to be anything like the book which is a bummer.

The impression I got from this book is that it was a Young Adult book, that just didn't measure up, so it was published as a kids book. Reading this book, there were things described in the story that were not appropriate for a kid to read. The instances that stand out to me is, the descriptiveness of what an adult would know as a make out/sex scene, but to a child is the sound of odd noises adults are making in a party for two. The the descriptive detail of people being stabbed or having appendages chopped off is also not that necessary for a children's book.

I'm getting ahead of myself... Peter and the Starcatchers is another telling of the take of Peter Pan. This story doesn't having you flying through space, second star on the right, and Tinkerbell doesn't make an appearance till the end. This story takes place for 3/4 of the book out on a boat in the middle of the ocean. It's an unending trip and it seems like an unending book. The story dragged. The dilapidated state of the people and the ships can only be described go so far.

Peter is an orphan that is put on the ship with several of his friends from the orphanage and they have no idea where they are going or why. There is a little girl but on this dilapidated ship, while her dad goes on the more luxurious ship. We learn that the girl, Molly, and her dad are part of an order of people, the Starcatchers, and they watch after this stuff that falls from the sky, stardust. It is a powerful magic and if it falls into the wrong hands, bad things can happen. Molly finds out that a trunk that contains the starstuff is on her boat, instead of her dads and she spends her time trying to protect it as best she can for a girl of 12/13. Throw in pirates, a savage tribe on a deserted island, a huge croc and mermaids, and you have new take on Peter Pan.

I had to fight my way through this book to finish it. It was a depressing, dark, read. Inappropriate for the age it was written for. Not to read!

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