Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook

How it reads

Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook is historical fiction (dark fairy-tale retelling, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in several locations, in the historical past, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are identity, loss and grief and redemption. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 292 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.