Fun fact: I love Peter Pan retellings. More specifically I LOVE Captain Hook. Not Disney Hook, but the Hook from various other retellings, movies, and TV shows. Most specifically of all, Hook from Never Never by Brianna R. Shrum.
> Describe Never Never in a word.
Magical.
> Peter Pan retellings have become really popular lately. What do you think it is that brings people back to that story over and over again?
I think Peter Pan is one of those stories that just encapsulates this particular magic and danger of childhood, and there is this combination there that EVERYONE can relate to in some way. It’s this dark but also hopeful and childlike story that basically embodies magic.
> Never Never has such excellent worldbuilding. It’s so vivid! Was there anything other than Peter Pan that inspired Neverland?
Thank you!! For Neverland, I mostly just sat around and thought for like 4 days haha, just coming up with weird, magical stuff. The nymphs did come from this glowing beach in the Maldives that I was totally mesmerized by.
> Peter was truly psychotic. Please tell me he’s not based off a real person?
HA thank the lord, no. I basically just pulled out the darker elements from the book that adapters typically gloss over and emphasized those.
> How much research went into Never Never?
A LOT. Into the original story, and into England at the time, and what tiny references a young English boy would understand, the distance between Kensington Park and Eton College–it was just a TON of little details through every step.
> What were some of your favorite books growing up?
Oh man, let’s see. I adored The Hobbit, Where the Red Fern Grows (don’t ask me why; it’s the saddest book ever), but the book that made me LOVE reading SE Hinton’s The Outsiders. #StayGold
> How has your experience been working with a small press?
It’s been good! I mean of course you have a smaller advance, lesser distribution, that kind of thing. But I still regularly to see my story in Barnes and Noble, and the editing and cover was fantastic, and yeah, it’s been a good experience for me.
> Are you a pantser, a planner, or the hybrid plantser?
Hybrid absolutely. It COMPLETELY depends on the book; sometimes I plot a ton and sometimes I just say and see where it comes. For Never Never, I plotted out everything and actually wrote the last line before anything else.
> Where can we find you online?
My website: http://briannashrum.com
And Twitter: twitter.com/briannashrum
And Instagram: instagram.com/bchrumby
Title: Never Never
Author: Brianna R. Shrum
Publication Date: September 22, 2015
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Pages: 368
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My Review
James Hook is a child who only wants to grow up.
When he meets Peter Pan, a boy who loves to pretend and is intent on never becoming a man, James decides he could try being a child—at least briefly. James joins Peter Pan on a holiday to Neverland, a place of adventure created by children’s dreams, but Neverland is not for the faint of heart. Soon James finds himself longing for home, determined that he is destined to be a man. But Peter refuses to take him back, leaving James trapped in a world just beyond the one he loves. A world where children are to never grow up.
But grow up he does.
And thus begins the epic adventure of a Lost Boy and a Pirate.
This story isn’t about Peter Pan; it’s about the boy whose life he stole. It’s about a man in a world that hates men. It’s about the feared Captain James Hook and his passionate quest to kill the Pan, an impossible feat in a magical land where everyone loves Peter Pan.
Except one.
