Everland, by Wendy Spinale

Hey all! 
I just finished reading Everland, by Wendy Spinale! 

"London has been destroyed in a blitz of bombs and disease. The only ones who have survived are children, among them Gwen Darling and her siblings, Joanna and Mikey. They spend their nights scavenging and their days avoiding the ruthless Marauders -- the German army led by Captain Hanz Otto Oswald Kretschmer.

Unsure if the virus has spread past England's borders but desperate to leave, Captain Hook hunts for a cure, which he thinks can be found in one of the survivors. He and his Marauders stalk the streets snatching children for experimentation. None ever return. Until the day they grab Joanna. As Gwen sets out to save her, she meets a daredevil boy named Pete. Pete offers the assistance of his gang of Lost Boys and the fierce sharpshooter Bella, who have all been living in a city hidden underground. But in a place where help has a steep price and every promise is bound by blood, it will cost Gwen. And are she, Pete, the Lost Boys, and Bella enough to outsmart Captain Hook? "





I got this book in May’s Owlcrate! Isn’t the cover just beautiful! Points to the one who designed it! :D 

Everland is a re-telling of a childhood classic - Peter Pan... 
But its with steampunk, in a plague-and-war-ridden apocalyptic London, known as Everland, with a virus killing thousands, children living underground and the Mauraders kidnapping them to look for the cure to the virus. 

Yeah, not your typical bedtime story. 

The way Wendy took the story of Peter Pan that we all know and love and laced it with dark steampunk was so cool! I loved the idea behind the story, where there were actually real consequences of every action around every corner. 

What I had a harder time with was the characters - they all felt a little flat to me. However, I really, really liked Hook’s character! I mean sure, he’s not as awesome as he is in the show Once Upon a Time (Captain Guyliner, haha), but I really liked his point of view on things - he maybe had a bad way of taking on things, but in the end he just wanted to find the cure to the disease being spread. I never thought him as an awful antagonist. I also really liked how he was actually the half-brother of one of the lost boys, so was probably quite young, younger than we imagine him. He was quite angsty yet strong-minded, which I enjoyed.

My favorite thing about the book was really the world it was set in - the whole idea of a post-apocalyptic England with hidden cities, chases, steampunk and mauraders was just such a good idea! 

Sorry for the short post, by the way! 
Overall, I’m giving this a 3.5/5 stars. A great debut! I just really wish the characters were elaborated a bit more! 

Have you read Everland? What did you think of it? Let me know! :D