Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise

33 reviews

bellebookstitch666's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Animal cruelty, Torture, and Body horror

Minor: Bullying, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

_annabanana_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Sexism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Animal death, Grief, and War

Minor: Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Cultural appropriation

aea_hobbit's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Sexism, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Bullying, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Colonisation, and Confinement

samanthamoore's review

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Sexism

Minor: Death of parent

libraryofmoss's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Gothy Peter Pan sequel. Picked it up at the library and was hooked (no pun  intended) within the first few pages. Was incredibly dark so do note the content warnings, but sensitively written so there is a lot of bravery and hope woven in there.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Forced institutionalization, Child death, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, and Child abuse

epellicci's review

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

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

2.5

Unfortunately, I couldn't get along with Wendy. I found her very meek, her constant two-ing and fro-ing on Peter, her relationships with everyone in her family except Mary, and the repetitiveness of this process left me feeling very uninvested. The Victorian setting and the asylum was a massive missed opportunity to make the whole book much more sinister, and I found Wendy's eventual return to Neverland quite rushed after so much build up. 

It was ultimately quite an easy read, but the familiarity of the original tale is what I think kept me going to the end. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Confinement, Physical abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child death, and Kidnapping

vi_holmes's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Recently, I have fallen down the rabbit hole of fairytale retellings and recently picked up Hook at a shop not knowing it was a prequel/sequel. I quickly ordered this one and boy I was not disappointed!

Wise takes the story of the boy who refuses to grow up and found all the places to fill in and add lore and context in the most brilliant fashion!

The story bounces between the view points of Wendy and her daughter, Jane, who has been stolen by Peter from her room believing her to be Wendy. Demanding her to be. Wendy must venture to Neverland to rescue her daughter while battling the PTSD she suffers from her time in Neverland and more so from the aftermath of it.

Wise does an amazing job of depicting Wendy as a feminine heroine, battling mental illness while not letting that illness make her weaker for it, but rather more determined to protect Jane from the same fate. And bring an end to Peter's evil ways.

<spoilers below>

The scenery of the story is beautifully depicted, I felt captivated by the magical and dark world reimagined in this book. And there are so many amazing characters with so much depth, you will certainly fall in love with many, especially Mary and Ned!

I will say that there were parts that felt very slow to get to.  However, I very much get the impression that this was intentional.  It added so much suspense to the scariest and most mysterious bits of the story and honestly made it so thrilling when the pace suddenly picked up towards the end of the second act.

Also have to mention the LGBTQIA+ representation cause it is so amazing! I was struggling not to cry during those reveal scenes.

Definitely read all the trigger warnings that come with Wendy, Darling -- it is truly very dark and disturbing at times -- but I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys dark fairytale retellings! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Abandonment, Blood, Torture, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Violence, and Racism

oceanwriter's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I’ve never actually read Peter Pan and have only seen the play and Disney versions a couple of times, however, I enjoy Peter Pan retellings for some reason. Wendy, Darling has been on my TBR since reading Darling Girl. I can see that this is where some inspiration might have come from for that book, but it didn’t hit me quite the same. 

 

Past her days in Neverland and now a mother to Jane, Wendy is shocked to find Peter Pan looming over her daughter’s bed and watches horrified as Peter whisks her away to be ‘the new Wendy’. Wendy now must return to Neverland to save Jane. As she does so, shadows of the past come back to haunt her. 

 

There was a lot I enjoyed about the book, such as the writing/prose and real-world interpretations. I also liked the mother/daughter aspect. Despite this, I found myself struggling to get into the story past the first few chapters. I don’t think I was in the right mindset, so I would like to try this book again at another time. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Child death, and Confinement

Moderate: Grief, Racism, and Death

Minor: Colonisation, Death of parent, and War

mcmurdoc97's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Animal death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

nirima's review

dark slow-paced

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

1.75

Started strong, but after the first 80 pages I lost interest. Finishing it became a chore.

The writing style wasn't my taste, the characters felt a bit flat and although I enjoyed the flashbacks quite a bit, they took away from the main story. Although the rescue sounded like a big adventure, nothing substantial seems to happen at the present. And the ending left me hollow, only happy I finally finished the book.

It's just not my cup of tea, darling.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Kidnapping, Child death, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent