Reviews with content warning for Violence - Darling Girl

I enjoyed this immensely, even though I had no idea what I was in for.

This tale is set in a world where Peter Pan and Wendy were real. The main character is Wendy’s granddaughter, Holly. The story focuses on her, along with her 2 children and mother.

Peter isn’t a good guy in this one- he’s far from it. He’s the reason the story takes a dark turn- this book didn’t come with any trigger warnings for me and I was very surprised.

Content Warnings

micaelamariem's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense 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? It's complicated

2.0

I was so excited to read this book even though I put it off for so long. (It was my BOTM pick a year ago). I love fairy tale retellings and I love when they’re dark and gritty too, like a homage to the originals which were meant to be dark and gritty. But this book was mostly disappointing. It took me a while to decide how to rate this, because some of it was actually well-written and I did feel like I was in New York and London.

But there were things I really didn’t like and it wasn’t until reading the other reviews that I could put words to it. I will say that a main complaint of others is not of mine—BUT still check trigger warnings. There is SA in the book but I thought it was going to be more graphic based on the complaints and it wasn’t the main point of the book. The book is more about Peter Pan kidnapping children (which again is kind of a homage to the original).
I think it had potential if we saw more of Peter and how he grew dark—or even got to see what Neverland has become! That would have been much more interesting than just chapter after chapter of Holly worrying and sad with very little action to fix the problem.

Also, someone else said they were annoyed how Holly wanted to sleep with everyone she met, and honestly that was kind of annoying. Though I’m all for sexual freedom, I felt like this took away her agency.

The author also tried to push a romance that didn’t work for me—there was very little burn in it, it was just 0-100. In a sense, my main complaint for everything is that. 0-100, details of worrying but no detail of the action and how they solved the problem. I’m not going to be keeping this book.

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prof_pelon's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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sfbookgirl's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I am sad to report that Darling Girl missed the mark for me. And while Peter Pan is my favorite children's fantasy story, evil Peter Pan just doesn't do it for me. In this tale, we learn more about Wendy's granddaughter Holly and her daughter Eden who suffers from a rare aging disorder. After Eden mysteriously disappears, Holly knows immediately who is responsible: the one and only Peter Pan. Sent on a wild goose chase, Holly frantically looks for her daughter with the help of a private detective named Christopher Cooke (hmm look at that coincidence).

I found the plot of Darling Girl to be all over the place and ultimately, boring. There are quite a few trigger warnings like kidnapping, rape, and abuse that just did not sit well with me, nor do they seem necessary. The elements of romance were downright strange and oddly disturbing...and also did not seem necessary. Other readers have enjoyed Darling Girl, but this retelling of Peter Pan just didn't sit right with me. I am curious to hear your thoughts if you have read it!

Content Warnings

mamaquiereleer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

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lbris2484's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.5

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brittanyboston18's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

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

2.5

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cchedest's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

3.5

If I didn’t love the original story so much, and if I wasn’t such a sucker for a dark retelling, I honestly don’t think I would have enjoyed this book one bit. It felt young, and maybe it was supposed to be more YA even though it include rape, sex, drugs, and other mature topics. The writing style felt simple, I wanted it to be more detailed and less rushed. But it was still fun and a quick enjoyable read!

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