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katymat18's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Child death
Moderate: Grief, Car accident, and Kidnapping
lovelymisanthrope's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
"Darling Girl" follows Holly Darling, the granddaughter of the infamous Wendy Darling. Holly's life is going as well as can be expected, until she receives a phone call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for the last decade, is missing. Desperate to find Eden, and to protect her son, Jack, Holly might just have to face Peter Pan himself.
This was a really fun, new take on the Peter Pan story. In the original "Peter Pan" story, Peter Pan is much more sinister than the Disney story, so I enjoyed seeing a story play more into that side of Peter Pan. I also really appreciated that this is not a retelling, but rather a new story that expands upon what could have happened years after the original story. No matter how the original "Peter Pan" ended, the Darling family would have been greatly impacted by what happened for decades afterwards, and I really enjoyed getting to see a new generation of Darlings have to face Peter Pan and his evil ways.
Holly's life has been filled with a lot of tragedy, and her reasoning for her decisions felt a little skewed in my opinion. The reader learns fairly early on that something about Eden is helping to keep Jack alive. This small fact feels kind of wrong, and it made me question Holly as a mother. Why did she value Jack's life over Eden's? I wish she would have fought harder to figure out what was going on with Eden and try to help her more. Additionally, I do not understand why she had to keep Eden from Jack. Jack was too young when the accident occurred to remember Eden, but I feel like Holly could have talked about Eden with Jack as he got older.
This story was fine, and I had a fine time reading it, but I probably will not think about it much in the future.
Graphic: Medical content, Death, Child death, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Kidnapping and Mental illness
Minor: Rape
grandduchessbartok's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Rape, Kidnapping, Death, Child death, and Murder
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
taylor13's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Kidnapping, Blood, and Rape
Minor: Car accident, Drug use, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail
kaelizaco's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Graphic: Grief, Rape, Child death, Death, Drug use, Confinement, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Car accident, Kidnapping, and Murder
cassiecraycray's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
This isn't an innocent tale of Peter pan, this was a very twisted story.
Holly Darling is the granddaughter to Wendy Darling, yes that Wendy. She grew up hearing the Tales of Peter pan but instead of wonder she felt unease. She grew up and left thoughts of Neverland behind her until she lost part of her family to an accident. After the accident (and for the entire book) Holly says that everything she did was for her children. That's her telling us because she sure didn't show us how everything was for her kids, most of her actions seemed pretty selfish.
Graphic: Car accident, Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Kidnapping, Rape, and Sexual assault
emilyjeanne's review
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
Main character is a textbook helicopter parent, and can’t figure out why her kid keeps pushing her away. She’s described as having multiple PhDs, but is somehow so, so stupid. She also kept mentioning she’d do ANYTHING for her kids, but never actually did anything, just threw money at other people to do stuff for her.
I could not root for her as a protaganist because I really just could not stand her character, and all the other characters fell completely flat. They had no personalities, and none of them really progressed the plot at all.
Also, this book has a huge amount of content that should come with content/trigger warnings but doesn’t.
CW: sexual assault, drug use, death of a minor, forced medical testing on minors, suicidal ideation, death of a spouse, kidnapping.
Honestly there’s probably more but this book was so bad I can’t even remember them all, since most of them had nothing to do with the plot anyway.
Graphic: Grief, Child abuse, Rape, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Child death, Death, Car accident, and Gaslighting
ggreen1379's review
2.5
Graphic: Rape, Medical content, Child death, Grief, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Drug use, Murder, and Child abuse
Moderate: Abandonment, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Blood
audreyreadz's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Self harm, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Grief, Drug use, and Car accident
saramoser's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
After reading a lot of reviews, I was so worried I would not like this book. But the book is exactly how it’s described-a dark and twisted Peter Pan, while I think the author could’ve done more to give back stories and further some character development, I still was stuck wanting to find out what’s next. I was deep into the book by the first chapter, and was wanting to do nothing but read the book and find out what happens by the end.
I would suggest for someone who wants the dark and twisted (not just dark) side of Peter Pan.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Car accident, Child abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Grief, Kidnapping, and Murder