Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - The Never King

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Never King by Nikki St. Crowe

9 reviews

tacochelle's review

dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

Edgy dark romance retelling of Peter Pan, there's something like a good idea here. It just can't get past the terrible characters and sex scenes. The main character nymphomaniac 18 year old girl, her willingness to get down with her kidnappers is played like an empowering thing, but it's not! It just comes across as cringy and immature. And everyone here is horny for the weirdest and/or grossest shit. Eating pancakes? Sure, they're ready to bone. Descaling and gutting a fish to eat? She's thinking about anal. I don't care how well you write it. It's not sexy.

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alisacress's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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glutenfreemaggie's review

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This book was just soooo not for me

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gdwilliams019's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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amanda_reads13's review

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Peter Pan is a villain the Darling women are warned about by those who came before them. On their 18th birthday, all Darling women are taken by Peter Pan. They all come back eventually, but broken. Winnie's mom came back more broken than most and Winnie assumed that her mom's paranoia was part of her mental illness. Winnie's mom has been trying to keep her "safe" all her life. Try to keep her hidden from Pan. Even her mother can't protect her from Pan. On her 18th birthday, just like the Darling women before her, she is taken to Neverland.

Pan believes that a Darling woman from his past has stolen something from him. His shadow. For years he has been without it and the island is slowly dying. So any time a Darling woman turns 18 he takes them hoping that her ancestral memories will contain the secret to where the shadow is hidden.

Winnie has spent her life taking care of herself and surviving any way she can. She refuses to back down from Pan and the Lost Boys, she has been through worse and won't let them break her. She is determined to get through this no matter what she has to do. She has suffered through so much and has come out a survivor.

Pan and the Lost Boys have one rule. Do not touch the Darling women. Well that rule is very quickly broken as the men begin to fall for Winnie. She is unlike any other Darling women they have taken. Now they will do anything to protect her.

This is a very dark retelling of Peter Pan. Its a pretty basic storyline, but I do appreciate the growth of the men throughout the story and the strength of Winnie.

I thought the way the characters were created was pretty clever.

The twins are portrayed as the rightful hiers to the Fae throne, but have been banished from their land. Their mother Tinkerbell, was actually a villian. She was in love with Pan and when he rejected her, she killed the Darling woman Pan loved.

Vane possesses a dark shadow from his home island. Like his brother Crocodile, it is revealed that he is actually a shape shifter.

Tropes: retelling, reverse harem, touch her/you die

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fangirljeanne's review against another edition

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2.5

CW: Incest, ableism, poor handling of mental illness, kidnapping, degradation kink, anti-sex work language, internalized misogyny.

Narration review: Shane East, Stella Hunter, Diontae Black, Curtis Michael Holland, and Roxy Isles all did an amazing job. I’m usually not a fan of a large cast for audiobooks but here it really helped me keep trade of the many povs and made the characters feel more distinct. Despite my issues with the book itself the audiobook was a wonderful listening experience.

M/F polyamorous smutty retelling-ish of Peter Pan.

What I liked:

• The little bit of world building we get is very interesting. I enjoyed the twist on the world of original story.
• I like that there were attempts to give Winnie agency over her sexuality and her attempts to use it to get the upper hand.
• I liked Vane (I’m aware that might reflect poorly on me).

The Problems

• The incest (twincest). While the twins don’t have sexual with each other, they have sex with Winne at the same time and even seem to get off on watching each other. That’s incest in my book. There was no trigger warnings present j. The audiobook and it’s not listed on the content warnings on the authors website. I had no warning and it’s presented very explicitly as sexy for everyone involved.
• The world building was under developed. Much of the promising potential felt wasted. It was jarringly different from the world of the source material but never =.

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