I’ve never read a book like this one in all my life. It’s not pretty. It’s dirty, gritty, and all kinds of complicated. But I have to applaud how fabulously queer and trans the whole thing is. Gender is a big part of the story, and also, it’s not. Anyone can be a lost boi. Gender doesn’t have anything to do with it. 

I never had to live a life like this, I never struggled with my family or homelessness due to my identity. But I do understand the power of found family, and the power of magic. This book makes me feel sick and sorry and somehow glad all at once. 

Part of me wants to be creeped out by Pan, by the idea of Neverland and never growing up - (themes which I do not think should be associated with such heavy kink and drug use, yikes) But somehow I was still rooting for him by the end. Somehow, the magic of being a baby queer street kid sleeping in a warehouse and having adventures with “pirates” and “mermaids”… it really crept up on me and nestled it’s way into my heart. There is an essay about how queerness subverts time and space, which I think helped me get over any personal “icks” I had with the themes of this book. Our lives are not divided into cis/het milestones of time such as getting married, having kids, getting a job, growing old. That’s why I think it is, actually, the perfect metaphor to put the world of Pan and then make it so shamelessly unabashedly queer. I have never read the original Peter Pan, but now I can’t imagine reading it any other way. 

I just really enjoyed it. I’m giving it 5 stars because I’m shocked by how much I enjoyed it.