Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise

16 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

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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

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Sexism

Minor: Death of parent

thebooksanctum's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.0

A brilliant take on Peter Pan, I loved how creepy the whole thing felt, and the twist around the original tale! Wendy was a badass of a character, and I loved seeing her daughter's POV too!
I'm not entirely sure I understood what Peter was in the end, but such a good book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Child abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, War, Kidnapping, Murder, and Racial slurs

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. 

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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! 

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Content Warnings

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

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

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

silvernfire's review

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Violence, Kidnapping, and Child death

Minor: Death of parent and War

chaptersofamylea's review

DNF @ page 97

While I like the idea of this book and how it was imagined, I just couldn’t gel with the writing style. There was nothing gripping about it and I’ll be honest and say that I’m genuinely gutted about it as I had high hopes for this. 

TWs up until this point: death of a parent, kidnapping, non-consensual hospitalisation, abuse, ref to PTSD

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization and Kidnapping

Moderate: Physical abuse and Emotional abuse

Minor: Death of parent

kadtide's review

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Child death

Moderate: Grief and Death

Minor: Death of parent, Blood, Racism, War, and Sexism

bookmark3brodi's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Gore, and Racism