Wendy, Darling: a review

Q U I C K S T A T S

Characters-⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Setting-⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writing style-⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall rating-⭐⭐⭐⭐

// Content Warning: Abuse / Confinement / Death (of animal) / Death (of child) / Death (of parent) / Forced institutionalization / Grief / Medical trauma / Racism / Sexual assault / Torture / Violence //

Publisher: Titan Books (UK)

Age group: Adult

Genre(s): Fantasy

Pub date: June 1st 2021

P R E M I S E

For those that lived there, Neverland was a children's paradise. No rules, no adults, only endless adventure and enchanted forests - all led by the charismatic boy who would never grow old.

But Wendy Darling grew up. She left Neverland and became a woman, a mother, a patient, and a survivor. Because Neverland isn't as perfect as she remembers. There's darkness at the heart of the island, and now Peter Pan has returned to claim a new Wendy for his lost boys...

M Y R E V I E W

I know I said I love retellings, especially of stories that brought me up, but I didn't mean twisting and horrifying A.C. Wise.

This book follows Wendy (like the ACTUAL Wendy) as she navigates adulthood but is the only Darling (that's their family name for you uncultured swines) who is continually haunted by Neverland and can do nothing about it because her brothers, who grew up to be total arseholes by the way, had forgotten all about it. Well now she can't because lo and behold, Peter fucking Pan came back from the dead and had the audacity to kidnap her daughter Jane.

The book eventually shifts to dual POVs (all told in third person); Wendy's and Jane's. Wendy's is mostly told in fragments as she suffers the tortures of an asylum, she had been forced to stay in, while the memories of Neverland keep coming back to her. She had to remind herself of her daughter, of her husband, of everything because the torture had played with her memory and mind too much. Jane's was more claustrophobic and we follow her trying to grasp this new reality; Neverland, the lost boys, the talk of her becoming their new mother, Peter Pan.

The characters were just, wow. The author had intricately fleshed out and moulded the already well-known characters to fit the storyline perfectly. Reading about Wendy's struggles was painful and the added burden of Jane's yearning for her mother made it all together unbearable. I enjoyed the appearances of other prominent characters such as Tiger Lily and the mention of Captain Hook.

Also, if anybody asks, this is the Peter Pan I'm going to be reading to children when putting them to sleep.

T R O P E S

Retelling (Apparently this counts as a trope?)

S I M I L A R B O O K S

Lost in the Neverwoods by Aiden Thomas (Not as dark and spooky, well not even close to being dark and spooky, but it's a retelling of Peter Pan so yeah this is what you get).