[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/return_to_neverend.png]]
''Return to Neverend'' by J. M. Sloderbeck is a story about [[MommasBoy David Inari]] and the [[DreamLand world]] he created with his mother. Naming it 'Neverend' (since David hoped his mother would get well so that the story would "never end") he abandoned it after her death.

Twenty years later, he receives a message from Aya, the girl he left behind to manage it, who begs him to come back to Neverend. Returning to Neverend (with his sister Sara unknowingly following him), he soon discovers that Neverend isn't ''quite'' how he remembered it...

!!This book provides examples of:
%%* TheAgeless: Aya and the kirin seem to live this trope, or they at least age very slowly.
%%* ArchnemesisDad: [[spoiler:Kell, aka ''My Kell'', aka David's father, Michael.]]
%%* BerserkButton: Sage finds his not long after his HeroicBSOD.
%%* BigBad: The Queen.
%%* BigBrotherInstinct: Begins to develop between David and his half-sister, Sara.
%%* BreakTheCutie:
%%** David's entire life is focused on his mother and the hope that she'll get better.
%%** [[spoiler:Aya gets the treatment during the 200 years David is absent.]]
* CharacterDevelopment: David starts out as a selfish, self-absorbed man who can't let go of his mother's memory. He learns how to stand up for himself and put the past behind him. [[spoiler: It's the key to how he defeats the Queen.]]
%%* AChildShallLeadThem: Neverend was created when David was 8, so he's the 'logical' king for it.
%%* CoolSword: The Kusanagi.
%%* CrapsackWorld: The results of David's abandonment of Neverend.
%%* DeadpanSnarker: Myajo, and Sage to a degree.
%%* FieryRedhead: Sara.
%%* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen!: The Queen.
%%* GreenThumb: Green Willow.
%%* HannibalLecture: The Queen shows some of this.
%%* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Green Willow sacrifices herself to renew Neverend.]]
%%* TheHighQueen
%%* ItMustBeMine: The whole reason the Queen wants to capture David in the first place.
%%* InterdimensionalTravelDevice: The Door.
%%* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler:How Sage kills Kell.]]
%%* LastOfHisKind: [[spoiler:Sage.]]
%%* LeftJustifiedFantasyMap: Inverted. Neverend is bordered by an Eastern Ocean.
%%* MayflyDecemberRomance: David and Aya.
%%* MedievalStasis: A centuries-old example.
%%* MirrorScare: The Ayrlin/Aya uses one to beg David to come back to Neverend.
%%* MommasBoy: David is still an emotional wreck 20 years after his mother dies.
%%* LivingMoodRing: Aya, whose eyes change depending on her mood.
%%* NamedWeapons: A justified use of the trope. Naming a weapon is what gives it power.
%%* NarniaTime: How time flows between Earth and Neverend.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: David ''really'' should have considered what would've happened when he abandoned the world he created. [[spoiler:He pretty much invents the main villain, so it's all his fault Neverend became a CrapsackWorld.]]
%%* NoNameGiven: The Queen.
%%* OurMonstersAreDifferent: Our unicorns are, too!
%%* PlantPerson: Kell. Also the kodama, after a fashion.
%%* RedOniBlueOni: Well, there ''are'' red oni, anyway. Sage and Sara might apply as well.
%%* ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers: Deconstructed. David has the power to create an entire world from nothing, but he doesn't [[spoiler:remember having it or]] know how to use it.
%%* TalkingAnimal: Sage is one, although there are implied to be others.
%%* TheDragon: Kell
%%* UnderdressedForTheOccasion: [[InnocentFanserviceGirl Green Willow and the kodama, who never wear clothes.]]
* {{Unicorn}}: A bit different from their traditional portrayal. The unicorns are the guardians of Neverend. They have the ability to [[PlayingwithFire conjure/control fire]], and one doesn't need to [[VirginPower be a virgin]] in order to ride one (although [[ChivalrousPervert Sage]] seemed awfully happy to meet one).
%%* WhenTreesAttack: More like 'when trees defend'.
%%* WickedWitch: Myajo, although she's willing to offer David needed advice.
%%* WildWilderness: The Western Wood.
%%* WishFulfillment: The whole reason Neverend exists in the first place.
%%* YearInsideHourOutside: For every year of Earth time, ten years pass in Neverend.
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