THE LOST ONES

This entry in Disney’s freshly reimagined backstories for signature villains follows Robin Benway’s The Wicked Ones (2023) with a look at Peter Pan’s archnemesis.

James and Marlene, English twins from a town on the North Sea, are close despite their differences in temperament. Shy, timid, methodical James dreams of higher education and life in London—not inheriting their father’s struggling fishing business. Outgoing, fearless, impulsive Marlene rejects the demure role their mother, nanny to a wealthy London family, cherishes for her. Swept out to sea on their 15th birthday, the twins surface on the beach of a tropical island, where Peter Pan rules a loyal band of fairies and the Lost Boys. Marlene’s thrilled with Never Land and fascinated by Peter, while James is increasingly anxious to leave before Never Land erases their memories of home. They clash over their next steps after discovering a rival band of Lost Boys, exiled by Peter following a failed coup, and the twins’ sibling bond continues to be tested. This intermittently entertaining tale suffers from jarring inconsistencies in James, its linchpin character, whose motivations and actions shift abruptly; lively Marlene is engaging, if underdeveloped. The generic historical English setting is vaguely fleshed out. While many of the Lost Boys seem to be younger than the twins, some sparse but pivotal violence that is not foreshadowed makes the book skew older. Most characters are cued white.

An origin story that will leave readers with more questions than answers.