June Read: Dust by Kara Swanson

This month, I read Dust by Kara Swanson, a Christian retelling of the Peter Pan story. Peter Pan is not my favorite story by any stretch of the imagination, but I heard so many good things about Dust that I wanted to give it a try.

The Synopsis: (Taken From Goodreads)

The truth about Neverland is far more dangerous than a fairy tale.

Claire Kenton believes the world is too dark for magic to be real—since her twin brother was stolen away as a child. Now Claire’s desperate search points to London… and a boy who shouldn’t exist.

Peter Pan is having a beastly time getting back to Neverland. Grounded in London and hunted by his own Lost Boys, Peter searches for the last hope of restoring his crumbling island: a lass with magic in her veins.

The girl who fears her own destiny is on a collision course with the boy who never wanted to grow up. The truth behind this fairy tale is about to unravel everything Claire thought she knew about Peter Pan—and herself.

My Review:

Dust focuses on Claire–a girl searching for her missing brother who also suffers with a strange disorder that causes her skin to flake when emotional, and Peter Pan, who’s been kicked out of Neverland and lost his magic. Claire hates Peter, as it turns out he is responsible for her brother’s disappearance–but Peter needs her to return to Neverland and set things right.

The premise of the story drew me in, with Claire searching for her brother with total disbelief in the Peter Pan story. Peter himself is a fun character, although at the beginning, I thought he was maybe around thirteen or fifteen, since it’s mentioned that his magic is gradually wearing off and making him look older. Later it’s mentioned he’s closer to Claire’s age, which makes sense with the romance blossoming between them, but that threw me off since he acts much younger.

Claire was a strong lead character, who was still feminine despite her strengths, and the ally character of Tiger Lily was very well developed and acted as sort of a mentor to Claire as well as a steadying force of reason for Peter. I also liked the character of the Guardian, a descendant of the classical Darling siblings who is in charge of keeping the balance between Neverland and London. Peter had possibly the greatest character arc, growing from a selfish, manipulative boy to a thoughtful and (somewhat) responsible adolescent. There is a sequel to this story so I assume more development will happen in that book for him.

The romance between Claire and Peter was likable and seemed to be plausible, but part of me wondered if they’d really fall in love so quickly. They only knew each other for a few weeks? It worked, but just seemed a little quick to me. And again, I had to adjust Peter’s age mentally a third of the way through the book, which made the romance a little odd, at first.

The book took place mostly in London, so there wasn’t much worldbuilding for a fantasy book. However, there was plenty of worldbuilding in the Peter Pan lore aspect–Claire’s skin disorder is actually just her pixie dust, because apparently, she’s part pixie. That fact, however, confused me, because–how does a human marry a pixie? I mean, the size difference among other things just doesn’t make sense. Maybe this is explained in the sequel, but because Claire’s “dust” was such an important element in this story, I felt it should have at least been theorized how she might have gotten it.

The story itself was a good pace–wondering what happened to Claire’s brother and then how they were going to get him and wanting to see their reunion compelled me to keep reading. There weren’t many moments where some type of action wasn’t going on, especially when Peter and Hook kept battling over who would get Claire to help them get to Neverland.

However, my main disappointment about this book is that almost nothing got resolved. Claire didn’t even get to meet her brother in this book–it literally ended with her going to Neverland, and, spoilers, without Peter. So neither of the main goals set up in this book (Claire finding and reuniting with her brother and Peter getting back to Neverland and reclaiming his magic) actually happened. The whole thing felt like it was just setting up for the sequel. I at least wish the author would have let us see Claire meet her brother or see Peter reach Neverland, to feel like something got resolved in the story. Really, the only thing which got resolved was Claire getting to Neverland (or at least starting to Neverland–we never actually see her arrive). This docked at least half a star, if not a full one, for me in this review.

In all, I liked Dust. I liked it better than the original Peter Pan tale, and I read it all in one sitting, which is saying something. The author also employed some creative twists and turns, which I enjoyed. While certainly not my favorite book, nor, in my opinion, living up to the hype I heard about it, it is definitely worth a read if you enjoy Peter Pan retellings, Christian fantasy, and YA literature.

Rating: 3.75/5 Stars

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Thank you for reading my review. Have you read this book, or do you plan to? What did you think of it, if you have? What is your favorite fairytale, legend, or classic to read retellings of? Do you have any Christian YA Fantasy recommendations for me to try? Let me know in the comments below. God bless! ~ Kay Adelin