I found this more child-friendly but also less compelling than Peter Pan, aka Peter and Wendy; it has less of a cohesive narrative arc (it's more a collection of tales), and I'm pretty sure some of the lore is inconsistent with what's presented in Peter Pan. The main selling point is the Kensington Gardens setting, as you might have guessed from the title; it's lovely in its way, but certainly not as interesting as Neverland. Lots of sexism and rigid gender roles; despite the narrator's assertions, I'm still not sure whether we're really meant to be laughing at Peter or with him as we explore his inaccurate performance of human-boyhood.

Still, not an unpleasant read, just not an especially enjoyable one.

★ 3.5 stars ★

content warnings:

Spoiler

on-page panic attack, classism, bullying, mention of underage drinking

rep:

Spoiler

WLW Chinese-American major character [Iris], WLW secondary character [Paige], F/F B-romance, major character with epilepsy [Noah]

The non-romantic relationships are definitely the heart of this story (pun intended):

Spoiler

Claudia's friendships with Iris and with Zoe, Claudia's sibling relationships with her brother Alex and sister Julia, Claudia's relationship with her parents, Gideon and Noah's toxic-masculinity-defying best-friendship-since-birth, Gideon's warm inclusion of everyone in his orbit

. Each dynamic is distinctive, with its own ups and downs, and for the most part these arcs feel organic, not contrived for angst/drama or narrative structure.

But I wasn't a huge fan of the romantic setup. It was simultaneously overkill and underwhelming to have

Spoiler

three major romance arcs (Claudia/Gideon, Iris/Paige, Zoe/Alex), two of them very heteronormative and the third pretty underdeveloped; I also wasn't sure if there was any chance Claudia/Iris was endgame, since their relationship seemed to be the main one: I love platonic relationships as much as romantic ones, but YA books don't tend to really differentiate the buildup of each, despite not generally valuing them equally

. That said, I did appreciate that there's no overt homophobia; among the characters we meet, everyone just accepts non-heterosexuality.

While I liked a lot of the elements — strong sibling relationships, MMORPG gaming, boyband fandom, theater-kid culture, putting on a Shakespeare play, friendship-centered narrative, and more — the short chapters and relatively large main cast made it a bit difficult for me to really feel immersed in the narrative. The overall plot progression is also super tropey, which makes it predictable, but also a comfortable read if that's what you're into.

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CONVERSION: 9.2 / 15 = 3.5 stars

Prose: 6 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 7 / 10
Emotional Impact: 5 / 10
Development / Flow: 6 / 10
Setting: 7 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: 3 / 5
Originality / Trope Execution: 3 / 5

content warnings:

Spoiler

mention of severing a finger, experimentation on sentient creatures, (believed) major char death(s)

"Myles is the smarty-pants, but I [Beckett] am the smarty-fists."
"I do apologize for my brother's egregious mangling of the language, but he is, in essence, correct. I think, and he does."

★ 3.5 stars ★

With the caveat that I am significantly older than the market audience, I found this is a quick, fun read and an enjoyable return to the world of Fowl and fairy (friends forever).

You don't need to have read the Artemis series to keep up, but I appreciated the references to Artemis's schemes and it definitely did help to have that base familiarity with the worldbuilding and a preliminary fondness for the twins. Also, I imagine that

Spoiler

all the mentions of Artemis, who never physically appears in this book,

might get a bit tiring if you don't care.

Beckett Fowl is a sweetheart, mischievous and deceptively smart; he's got such a big heart and lots of creativity. Myles Fowl is neurotic and brilliant and ambitious ... and somehow even worse than his older brother ever was. Honestly I wish the narrative had focused even more on them than on Lord Teddy Whatever; they're the titular characters after all, and I would've loved to see so much more of Fowl Argot, their relationship with each other and with the rest of their family (especially, of course, their infamous brother), how they're coping with their first save-the-world adventure.

(An aside: It is so weird to realize that Artemis is a young adult now, in his twenties. But in any case I find it difficult to believe that

Spoiler

eleven-year-old Myles is actually running rings around my favorite ex-criminal mastermind, even if Colfer is trying to set up the "Look out world, now there's two Fowls on the loose, and they have even more potential than their brother"

. Also, just to put it out into the universe, I would absolutely read about Artemis's adventures

Spoiler

in space/on Mars

.)

Lazuli is basically the second coming of Holly,

Spoiler

sans control over her magic

— her character is less exciting or revolutionary, but she's likable enough.

Spoiler

Whistle Blower the toy troll

is absolutely fascinating, and I hope he'll stick around through the series. I was delighted by the cameo appearance by

Spoiler

Holly Short herself, now a Commodore

.

By all metrics, though, the unsung hero here (to borrow Foaly's words) is absolutely

Spoiler

NANNI: Nano Artificial Neural Network Intelligence (system), designed by Artemis with help from Myles, voiced by Holly, with a personality reminiscent of Tony Stark's JARVIS

; I look forward to seeing how she continues to grow and snark and quite probably save everyone's bacon.

I am a bit concerned about the fact that, with

Spoiler

the (Eurasian) Butlers barely present: Domovoi only mentioned in passing and Juliet completely absent from the narrative

, the only people of color are villains:

Spoiler

the murderous Hispanic nun who randomly switches out Spanish for English (often cognates, and the grammar of her poor English feels more contrived than natural), and a Japanese tech supplier who sells primarily to criminals

... though the main antagonist is an English duke.

And the writing style is a bit more intrusive than I remember, with the narrator often pausing to editorialize about an upcoming plot development or backtrack to explain the mechanics of a plan or wander off on a tangent. Overall it's still funny — good to know my own sense of humor hasn't changed much since elementary school, I guess — though if I wanted to spend so much time in the head of a vainglorious power-chasing rich dude, I'd reread [b:The Eternity Code|227865|The Eternity Code (Artemis Fowl #3)|Eoin Colfer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327945417l/227865._SY75_.jpg|1333018] instead.

-----------
CONVERSION: 9.2 / 15 = 3.5 stars

Prose: 6 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 7 / 10
Emotional Impact: 6 / 10
Development / Flow: 5 / 10
Setting: 7 / 10

Originality / Trope Execution: 3 / 5
Rereadability: 3 / 5
----------------------
[pre-review]

Between this and [b:The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages|44077476|The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages (The Mysterious Benedict Society, #4)|Trenton Lee Stewart|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1552326165l/44077476._SX50_.jpg|68539523], apparently 2019 is The Year My Childhood is Resurrected. And that's definitely okay by me.

FRTC.

(As an aside,

Spoiler

Teddy What's-his-face

is not nearly as compelling a Recurring Big Bad as Opal Koboi. And I say that as someone who preferred the odd-numbered Artemis books, i.e. the ones that didn't involve Opal.)

RTC, if I ever manage to muster all these feels into coherent thoughts.

content warnings:

Spoiler

rep:

Spoiler

Taiwanese-American major character, Black minor character, Desi minor characters

-----------
CONVERSION: 11.7 / 15 = 4 stars

Prose: 8 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 9 / 10
Emotional Impact: 9 / 10
Development / Flow: 7 / 10
Setting: 8 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: 3 / 5
Intellectual Engagement: 4 / 5
Originality / Trope Execution: 4 / 5
Rereadability: 3 / 5
Memorability: N/A

(Going in, I wasn't sure whether I had read this before in full, or just a section; I vividly remember the

Spoiler

kiss/thimble

scene and the part where

Spoiler

Tink gets the boys to shoot the Wendy, which I know I remember from the book and not the movie because Peter's "kiss" saves her life

and

Spoiler

clap your hands to save Tinker Bell

. Having finished it, I'm now pretty sure that I hadn't.)

I think it's pretty common knowledge at this point that the original Peter Pan is much, much darker than the Disney cartoon (as well as many of the Pan adaptations that have come since). But seriously, there is so much killing and brutalization, just for fun, between Peter & Lost Boys vs. Hook & the pirates vs. Tiger Lily & the Indians; there's also quite a lot of heteronormativity / sexism / rigid gender roles — I was particularly exasperated by

Spoiler

the constant insinuations that Tinker Bell, Wendy, and Tiger Lily are all in love with Peter so they're catty towards each other, and all the while he's oblivious because boys, amirite

— and the portrayal of the Indians is highly problematic — including offensive terms and a scene where Tiger Lily speaks like a racist Asian caricature.

Peter Pan himself is not a particularly lovable character either, truth be told. He's selfish and arrogant and takes joy in humiliating and/or endangering others. To be fair, this isn't necessarily endorsed by the narrative, but there is a sense of little boys will be little boys which, again, is problematic by more modern standards. (That is, it was always a problematic mindset, but it was generally accepted by society and literature of the time.)

And yet. Barrie's storytelling and worldbuilding have the whimsy and charm that I hoped for, though the narrator's voice can get a bit stronger than I prefer — "Shall I tell you this anecdote or that one? Let's flip a coin. Okay, the second one it is." — and at times I was confused by outdated terms or phrasing. Overall, I can't say I didn't enjoy this despite all its flaws; though I'm more likely to rewatch the animation than reread this book, my background knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of Barrie's creation have certainly been expanded.

content warnings:

Spoiler

past major character death, post-war trauma & guilt, grief, major character death(s), on-page murder-suicide, bullying, mention of being burned alive, impalement, mention of being drawn & quartered, mentioned torture, on-page gutting of a fish, cancer, ableism, fat-shaming, on-page killing of wolves (self-defense), blood, corporal punishment, infanticide in the face of starvation, past sexual assault, selling a child into arranged marriage, mention of scalping, repeated forced impregnation, mention of miscarriages and stillbirths, addiction

rep:

Spoiler

bi/pan fat MC recovering from addiction [Nina], amputee secondary character [Adrik], WLW secondary characters [Tamar & Nadia], Asian-coded secondary characters [Tamar & Tolya], secondary F/F relationship [Tamar/Nadia], diverse minor characters incl. Asian-coded [Shu]

"If we don't dream, who will?"

It's almost a shame that this draws more from the Grisha trilogy than SoC/CK, because I didn't make it through the former while I really enjoyed the latter. So I kept putting this one off because I wasn't sure how I would like it. And going into this, I was really only familiar with (and attached to) Nina Zenik — but it's hard not to be won over by Nikolai's charisma and Zoya's terrifying competence. (Though it does mean I wasn't overly impressed by the ending twist, wherein

Spoiler

the Darkling returns

.)

It also means I'm not totally sure which characters are brand-new and which are returning or upgraded from guest star to series regular. But I do like the cast overall: both as individuals and for the way they challenge and complement each other.

Thankfully, there's enough recap of past events to get you up to speed (or remind you if you've forgotten), but not so much that it overshadows the narrative at hand. In large part this is accomplished by giving some context but focusing on the lasting effects on the characters: their trauma, guilt, grief, fears, hopes for the future.

My main complaint would be that the narrative felt a little unbalanced especially at first, switching between the POVs that it did, mainly because

Spoiler

Zoya and Nikolai are always in the same plot arc, experiencing almost all the same things

. But each narrator has a distinct personality and set of values/motives, and brings something different to the story.

There is a lot of banter; while some of it made me laugh, some of it just made me roll my eyes and wish certain characters could just take things seriously for once. And an overabundance of quotable lines, including quite a few echoed from previous books and other characters in this 'verse.

Fans of Bardugo's other work likely won't be disappointed with this one, and I know I'm looking forward to the sequel. It's consistent with the preceding books, with all the pros and cons that entails.

[Note: There are definite romantic arcs in this, but they're not at all a focus of the plot so I'm still shelving this as minimal romance.]

-----------
CONVERSION: 11.15 / 15 = 4 stars

Prose: 7 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 8 / 10
Emotional Impact: 6 / 10
Development / Flow: 7 / 10
Setting: 9 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: 3 / 5
Intellectual Engagement: N/A
Originality / Trope Execution: 4 / 5
Rereadability: 4 / 5
Memorability: 4 / 5