Peter and the Star Catchers, and the subsequent novels by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson are treats, especially for those who fell in love with the story of Peter Pan years ago. It’s the first of their prequel novels, and the Pearson/Barry combination expertly weaves all of the magic and playfulness into a story that explains the magic and playfulness of Peter Pan, itself. I’ll post a few of my favorite quotes from the book here and in a couple of future posts.
Here, let’s look at the clever physical descriptions. To me, finding a way to describe a person in a way the reader wouldn’t expect is what sucks me in. For example, the bully nemisis:
“He ducked then, avoiding the hamlike right first of Edward Grempkin. He was always keenly aware of where this fist was; he’d been dodging it for seven years now. “
Immediately, we understand the owner of the hamlike fist and the relationship between the characters. No much more is needed. Just the meaty fist. In the next passage, we meet the villain:
“He was a strikingly unpleasant figure, with a pockmarked face and a large red nose, like a prize turnip, glued to his face. His long black hair, greasy from years without washing, stained the shoulders of the red uniform coat he’d stolen from a Navy sailor on the high seas, just before escorting that wretched soul over the side of the ship. He had dark, deepset, piercingly black eyes, overshadowed by eyebrows so bushy that he had to brush them away to see . . .”
The nose like a PRIZE turnip is a fantastic description. His nose wasn’t an ordinary turnip, it was PRIZE. That made me want to look up characteristics of a prize turnip:
- smooth, globe-shaped or uniform root contours
- clear color separation (bright purple top where exposed to sunlight)
- an optimal size of 2 to 3 inches in diameter
- Perfectly symmetrical, round, or slightly flattened depending on the variety, with a clean taproot.
Of all the ways to describe a nose, a prize turnip is a fun one. In Peter and the Shadow Thieves (Book 2), the villain gets the following description:
“Nerezza’s cheeks and brow were deeply cratered amd scarred from a disease he’d picked up in some godforsaken port. His eyes were small, close-set, ratlike; his teeth, a disaster. But these weren’t the most distinctive features of his ravaged face.”
And in the next sentence, it gets worse. Fast. I won’t spoil it for you. But it’s good. It’s a description worthy of the villain.
Soon after, we get a detailed, and humorous, description of the character who would become known as Captain Hook:
“The hook was a nasty-looking semi-circle of shining steel fashioned from a dagger by one of Black Stache’s handier crewmen, and bound to the captain’s wrist stump by a stout leather strap. It was sharp as a razor, so sharp that Black Stache had several times cut himself in unfortunate places by absentmindedly scratching.“
If you recall Peter Pan fondly, you’ll love Peter and the Star Catchers . . . and the other books in the series. You can find more about the novels and authors on Goodreads.
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