content warnings: violence, poisoning, loss of a loved one, period-typical transphobia/homophobia, dead naming, discussion of medical treatment for being trans
representation: trans mlm main character, gay amputee side character, m/m main relationship, side mlm characters


“The very world here bends for the sake of your stories, Pan. I see no reason why I, a mere man, should not.”


I read Coffee Boy by Austin Chant last month and loved it, and I had even higher expectations for this one knowing it was a Peter Pan retelling. Those expectations were definitely met.

This is basically Hook if Pan were a trans boy, less depressed by adulthood, and wanted to bone Captain Hook. I think we can all agree that the premise is amazing, and the book lives up to it.

The entirety of this book is almost entirely character-driven. It has dual POVs with Pan and Hook and I did genuinely enjoy both of them, though Hook's was definitely my favourite. Other prominent side characters were Tinkerbell

Spoiler

(who was completely wasted in this! Wtf Austin Chant, why'd you do that to me?!)

, and Ernest, the new leader of the Lost Boys.

The romance between Pan and Hook was so good. Hook's known for ages that he's gay (a few of his previous boyfriends/flings are brought up over the course of the book) and is very clearly into Pan from the start, whereas Pan has been too busy dealing with his gender not being accepted and wanting to fight pirates with the Lost Boys to think about romance - that is, until he gets pinned under Captain Hook.

There is one smutty scene in this which was fucking great, as should be expected from Austin Chant, but other than that this book just had a really solid enemies-to-lovers dynamic that I fell in love with.

One of the downsides for this book for me was the action. Fights between Pan and Hook were great because of the Tension, but anytime they were fighting the kraken or something I became kind of bored. It's not necessarily badly written, it just felt extremely underwhelming to me.

If you're looking for a retelling that doesn't actually suck, look no further because this is definitely one of the better ones.