I am so excited to have Lisa Maxwell on The Reading Geek today! Lisa is the author of the upcoming novel, Unhooked. I love Peter Pan retellings and this one sounds really good and dark!
1. ) How would you describe Unhooked in three words?
LM: Dark, Magical, Pirates
2.) What inspired you to write Unhooked?
LM: The short answer is that I’d just read a book with a pirate
and watched Pirates of the Caribbean IV, and I really wanted to write a book
about pirates. But I didn’t want to write a straight-up historical, so I came
at it from a different way. When I thought of doing a retelling of Peter Pan, OUAT
hadn’t started their Hook storyline, and I thought it would be fun to make the
pirate in the story not exactly the bad guy.
3.) What makes your version of Neverland so dark?
LM: When I was thinking about writing a retelling, I went and
actually read the original Peter and Wendy, to get ideas for how I might
approach the story. What I realized is that the original story is actually
really dark. The musical and the Disney versions of Neverland have really
stripped away the menace of the place itself. In those versions, Captain Hook
is the bad guy, but most versions have turned him into an almost comic villain.
But in Barrie’s original, Hook is out for blood and the place itself is filled
with dangers—including Peter Pan. In the book, The Neverland is an island
that’s basically made from the imaginings of children. When you consider how
horrible nightmares can be for a child, you get a sense of just how dark
Neverland can get. I wanted to go back to that forgotten aspect of the story and
breathe some new life into it. Some of the most dangerous and horrible things
in my Neverland (the loss of memory, the dangerous beasts) are taken from or
inspired by Barrie’s original story.
4.) If you were given the opportunity to go to Neverland,
would you go?
LM: Probably not. I’m not exactly a nature girl, so surviving on
an island without air conditioning and room service doesn’t really sound like
that great of a time—no matter how good looking the pirates or the fairies
might be.
5.) Do you have a favorite film, television, or theatrical
adaptation of Peter Pan?
LM: I grew up watching the old Mary Martin musical, because my
mom loved it, but probably my favorite adaptation of Peter Pan is Hook. Robin
Williams—the whole cast really—is just so good, and the movie weaves so many
lines from the actual book in so seamlessly. I watched it in, maybe middle
school? And *cough* *cough* years later, when I introduced my kids to it, it’s
still just as good.
6.) Do you have a favorite spot to write in?
LM: I write on my couch in my office. My office is actually a
formal living room that I’ve taken over as my own. It has a fireplace and
bookshelves, and it has lots of windows that look out onto wooded hill out
back, where there are always deer and fox running around. I’m a sit with your laptop
on your lap type of writer, so the couch is perfect for me.
7.) What are some of your top favorite books?
LM: There are so freaking many! Outlander is probably one of my all-time
favorites, as are all of the Harry Potter books. I’m a sucker for a good
historical romance, especially those by Eloisa James, Sarah MacLean, and Julia
Quin. But I’m a professional English major, so I also love Toni Morrison,
William Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Woolf. Basically, if a book has pretty words, I’m
in.
Thanks so much for having me! If your readers preorder or request
UNHOOKED at their local library, I have some awesome free gifts, including a
limited edition map of Neverland I had commissioned for the book! They can get
more information at www.lisa-maxwell.com/preorder
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About the Author:
Lisa Maxwell is the author of Sweet Unrest, Gathering Deep, and
Unhooked (Simon Pulse, 2-2-16). When she's not writing books, she's an English
professor at a local college. She lives near DC with her very patient husband
and two not-so patient boys. This July, she will be teaching a writing workshop
for a week in western Ireland. You can check out more information at http://www.irelandwritertours.com/
Links:
About Unhooked:
For as long as she can
remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home—all
because her mother believes that monsters are hunting them. Now these
delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had
finally started to build for herself. The only saving grace is her best
friend, Olivia, who’s coming with them for the summer. But when
Gwen and Olivia are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and taken to a world
of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey, Gwen realizes her mom might
have been sane all along. The world Gwen finds herself in is
called Neverland, yet it’s nothing like the stories. Here, good and evil
lose their meaning and memories slip like water through her fingers. As
Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and find a way home, she
must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all
the right things and the roguish young pirate who promises to keep her
safe. With time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is
forced to face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But will she
be able to save Neverland without losing herself?
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions, Lisa! I personally can't wait to pick up a copy of Unhooked!