Book Review: Second Star

Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Publication Date: May 13, 2014
Source: Netgalley

A twisty story about love, loss, and lies, this contemporary oceanside adventure is tinged with a touch of dark magic as it follows seventeen-year-old Wendy Darling on a search for her missing surfer brothers. Wendy’s journey leads her to a mysterious hidden cove inhabited by a tribe of young renegade surfers, most of them runaways like her brothers. Wendy is instantly drawn to the cove’s charismatic leader, Pete, but her search also points her toward Pete's nemesis, the drug-dealing Jas. Enigmatic, dangerous, and handsome, Jas pulls Wendy in even as she's falling hard for Pete. A radical reinvention of a classic, Second Star is an irresistible summer romance about two young men who have yet to grow up--and the troubled beauty trapped between them.

I don't quite know what to even think about this book. I love fairy tales and fairy tale re-tellings, but I don't feel like this was either, really. There were names and a few other things borrowed from Peter Pan, but it wasn't quite a re-telling of it. There were just too many things that were way off.

Wendy's two brothers have disappeared and are presumed dead. Her parents are understandably grief stricken, but beyond that I just don't get them. Their remaining child is all over the place, gone for weeks at a time (maybe?), and they don't really do anything about it for a long time.

And then there's the whole what the heck is really going on aspect of it. Without giving spoilers away, I'll say that it all just didn't work. Whatever was going on, it's very hard to reconcile the events of the book with what was supposedly happening. It almost feels like the author had an idea for the book, but wasn't sure exactly where she wanted to take it, and hadn't gotten all the details fleshed out quite yet, and then went ahead and published it anyway.

I was hoping for a more fantasyish, fairy tale like book. If that's what you're hoping from this, move on. If you're looking for an insta-love, complete with love triangle, teenagers doing stupid thing type book, this one is for you.