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janieke's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I really liked this adaptation of the story of Peter Pan. Never leaving my window open again ;)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Confinement
lrose02's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping
abominablesnowaro's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Misogyny, Violence, Gaslighting, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Animal death
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Classism, Colonisation, Grief, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
anniereads221's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
I enjoyed this dark retelling of Peter Pan
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Misogyny, Torture, and Toxic friendship
Minor: War
booksthatburn's review against another edition
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
WENDY, DARLING is a retelling which takes the original’s commentary on early 1900’s England’s sexist expectations for women and girls and leans into them, examining and contextualizing them rather than merely reproducing them.
It's tempting to dismiss this version of Wendy as passive, inactive. Not very many things actually happen in one sense, and she spends most of the book not doing things, or talking in circles around the things she did as a child in Neverland long ago. But that rumination, that early passivity is the point, and it forms a sharp contrast with the last quarter of the book where she leaves to rescue her daughter, Jane, stolen by Peter nearly as soon as the book begins. It's about the time stolen from her by sexism and institutionalization, the agency take from her by men who dismissed her as a girl then as a woman, and the way that Peter in his ageless boyhood is an echo and a concentration of the forces that twist every statement of Wendy's into a way she must have been female and therefore mistaken. Wendy doesn't do much in an action sense but she makes the most of every moment she can, talking with Mary as they sew secret pockets into their clothing, plotting ways to get back at her tormenters in the institution.
Jane's sections feel more robust than the flashbacks to Wendy's time in Neverland, but they're tied together to illustrate Peter's efforts to treat Jane as literally interchangeable with her mother, brought there to be his "mother". He needs her to protect him and make it all better, but to never stand up or point out that his treatment of the other boys (and everyone on the island) oscillates from active abuse to petulant neglect. Because of adult Wendy's thoughts about her daughter we have more context for what Peter is trying to strip away from Jane, it's easier to notice what he's removing.
The narrative treatment of Mary White Dog in England and Tiger Lily in Neverland attempts to address some of the harm of the original by grounding Indigenous people as real with specific tribes and origins, not just something from Peter's imagination, while also showing how harmful it was to Tiger Lily and the rest of her tribe to be trapped by his whims on the island, discarded when he grew wrathful or bored. There's a contrast drawn between Mary knowing the tribe she's from while having an awareness of how much knowledge she lost by being removed from her homeland, versus how little Tiger Lily can remember since she's trapped in Neverland. Tiger Lily doesn't remember any other name for her tribe. Given Peter's penchant for renaming people, it's probable that "Tiger Lily" isn't even her original name in this version, though it's all we get.
It's tempting to dismiss this version of Wendy as passive, inactive. Not very many things actually happen in one sense, and she spends most of the book not doing things, or talking in circles around the things she did as a child in Neverland long ago. But that rumination, that early passivity is the point, and it forms a sharp contrast with the last quarter of the book where she leaves to rescue her daughter, Jane, stolen by Peter nearly as soon as the book begins. It's about the time stolen from her by sexism and institutionalization, the agency take from her by men who dismissed her as a girl then as a woman, and the way that Peter in his ageless boyhood is an echo and a concentration of the forces that twist every statement of Wendy's into a way she must have been female and therefore mistaken. Wendy doesn't do much in an action sense but she makes the most of every moment she can, talking with Mary as they sew secret pockets into their clothing, plotting ways to get back at her tormenters in the institution.
Jane's sections feel more robust than the flashbacks to Wendy's time in Neverland, but they're tied together to illustrate Peter's efforts to treat Jane as literally interchangeable with her mother, brought there to be his "mother". He needs her to protect him and make it all better, but to never stand up or point out that his treatment of the other boys (and everyone on the island) oscillates from active abuse to petulant neglect. Because of adult Wendy's thoughts about her daughter we have more context for what Peter is trying to strip away from Jane, it's easier to notice what he's removing.
The narrative treatment of Mary White Dog in England and Tiger Lily in Neverland attempts to address some of the harm of the original by grounding Indigenous people as real with specific tribes and origins, not just something from Peter's imagination, while also showing how harmful it was to Tiger Lily and the rest of her tribe to be trapped by his whims on the island, discarded when he grew wrathful or bored. There's a contrast drawn between Mary knowing the tribe she's from while having an awareness of how much knowledge she lost by being removed from her homeland, versus how little Tiger Lily can remember since she's trapped in Neverland. Tiger Lily doesn't remember any other name for her tribe. Given Peter's penchant for renaming people, it's probable that "Tiger Lily" isn't even her original name in this version, though it's all we get.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Grief, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Blood, Animal death, Child death, and Death
Minor: Torture and Death of parent
wardenred's review
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
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
4.75
Because that’s what Neverland is—running away, cowardly, without even saying goodbye. It’s leaving behind everything you claim to love to embrace purely selfish joy. No responsibilities, no consequences, and nothing matters or ever changes.
I love Peter Pan retellings, especially when they delve into the darker side of the Neverland. Because let's face it, you hardly need to change anything about the original story to read it as a horror tale; you just need to look at it through adult eyes. Which is pretty much exactly what this book does. There's maybe one part changed about the original experience Wendy had in Neverland, and it blends so seamlessly in with everything else that I keep wondering if maybe that detail has been there all along. Maybe, when I was reading Peter Pan as a kid, I simply overlooked it.
I absolutely enjoyed the way the story is constructed, with the events from several timelines being explored out of order: Wendy's journey to bring her daughter Jane home, her life between her own original Neverland adventure and Peter's return to her life, snippets of her childhood memories about that original adventure. I think that the part about Wendy's life "in-between" was my favorite: in any grand adventure, I'm always most fascinated by the aftermath. Reading about Wendy's experiences in St. Bernadette's asylum was sometimes a difficult experience (things like forced institutionalization and abuse from medical workers, especially in the mental health field, are always difficult for me, especially when I know that what I'm reading is based on actual things that happened to actual people). But her inner journey, her focus on rebuilding herself and learning to look forward through all the hardships, the way she gradually changed her perception of Neverland without ever letting go of its realness—every part of it was haunting. I loved the conclusion she got, the somewhat unconventional, half-hidden-in-plain-sight family she built for herself.
Another part of the story that I know is going to stick with me for a while are the Jane interludes. Even though Jane got only a small part of each lengthy chapter, she was a fully realized character throughout, firmly her own person, no matter how much Peter tried to twist her into a copy of who Wendy used to be—or rather, of who he used to want Wendy to be, back when her life was his to rule.
The writing itself was beautiful and flowed well, although at times it was somewhat repetitive. There were numerous turns of phrase that felt lovely and clever the first time I saw them, then got old less than a quarter into the book. For me, that's a pretty minor flaw, but there were moments when it did grate on my nerves a bit, so I thought I'd mention it. That's the main part of the reason why I gave 4.75 stars to an otherwise 5-star read. A smaller, highly subjective part of the reason: I think the story might have benefited from a tad of a bigger focus on what happened to the pirates and Hook in particular.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse
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