I had high hopes for this one, which may be why I'm disappointed, now that I've finished it and didn't quite find the masterful retelling I was looking for. 
 It's not a bad story, really, it's well written, for one thing. And overall it shows respect for J.M. Barrie's original work. I also have to give it credit for its portrayal of Smee, which I liked a lot better than the one in Tiger Lily, which just made him a strangling psycho. 
 Unfortunately, this book also left a lot to be desired. 
 First off, I didn't care much for James Hook in this, even though he was supposed to be the protagonist. I liked him better in the original Peter Pan, where he was more of a mysterious figure, and in the TV show, Once Upon A Time where his "I'm not actually a villain" deal was much more believable. 
 I liked the boy James, mildly, at the beginning of the book, even if he was touched with a bit of special privileged snowflake characterization, but this affection quickly waned as the story went on. It seemed to me all he does in the entire book is get himself into one scrape after another and blame Peter Pan for all of his problems. 
 Despite the fact that the pirates are MEGA-nice to him from the get-go, and Hook doesn't even have to do anything to earn their respect and forgiveness, he treats his crew little better than servants he finds more irritating than helpful. Starky gives him advice, he throws a childish tantrum insisting that he's captain so shut up Starky, and that's that. This happens repeatedly. With both Starky and Smee. Because Hook seemed so annoyed with Starky for most of the book, I found it hard to believe he was as heartbroken over Starky's fate at the end as the prose suggests. 
 And then there's Peter Pan. 
 To be honest, from all the reviews for this book, I was really excited to read about an evil Pan. Here's the thing though. Peter Pan in this book? Not all that villain-like. 
 Sure he kills lost boys and pirates, lies, is rude, forgets stuff... But that's just typical Peter Pan behavior! You want to see a villainous Peter Pan, you're better off reading Stars or just watching the first half of the third season of Once Upon a Time. 
 And getting back to what I was saying about Hook before, he really did bring a lot of his problems on himself. 
 Pan might have flown him to Neverland under false pretense, but it WAS still James' own choice to come, he didn't HAVE to. And it was his choice not to try and seek shelter with the pirates early on. Remember, they were willing for him to be their captain from the SECOND THEY SAW HIM, even though he was just a child. So he could have manned the ship long before Peter attempted to "thin him out". 
 Also, if he was so darn in love with Tiger Lily, there was a LOT he could have done. He could have talked to her instead of just assuming she felt a certain way and hated him and blah blah blah. He could have been faithful to her, and not slept with every living breathing woman he could find when Peter Pan left Neverland. Just because he thought she was angry with him for accidentally stabbing her with his hook didn't give him the right to be a drunken man-slut. Just saying. 
 And because of this it was hard to take his "Oh woe is me, Pan stole everything from me" tirade seriously. 
 Because frankly, Pan didn't need to mess up this guy's life, he was doing a splendid job destroying it himself. 
 And another thing, if he really loved Tiger Lily, he wouldn't have killed her people, or kept trying to hurt Pan once he realized that Tiger Lily's life force might be tied in with Pan's existence. I mean, just because he can't have Tiger Lily he no longer cares if she lives or dies? And we're supposed to think he still loves her just because he ordered his men not to kill her or her father? Oh please. 
 I was disappointed by Wendy's appearance in this. It seemed to have no point. I liked her portrayal in Tiger Lily (where she also only came in towards the end of the book) better. Heck, I even liked her better in Tigerheart overall. 
 So, in short, a decent, fast read, but not the wonderful book I was hoping it would be, thanks to a dislikable main character and a villain who just wasn't evil enough.