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elnade 's review for:
The Adventures of Mary Darling
by Pat Murphy
Despite my misgivings that a Peter Pan/ Sherlock Holmes mashup would work I quite enjoyed this story. I did have some minor issues with the writing style and the pacing, but the character of Mary Darling and some of the others certainly made up for it.
There are many characters in this story, Mary and George Darling, Sherlock and Watson, plus all of the lost boys both past and present and a few others scattered around the story. All of them had very rich and detailed back stories that made for an interesting read. My favorite character was Mary Darling though. I really enjoyed both the adult Mary and the child, which we got to know through her flashbacks to her time on Neverland. Mary is a very smart and a very independent young wife and mother. She doesn’t let anyone define who she is though. She is out to defend not just her children, but herself and others as well. I loved her defiance of the social norms for women at that time. The book could have stood on its own very well with just Mary’s story.
The depiction of Sherlock and Watson was well done. I thought the author captured the dynamic between these two very well. Sherlock was an interesting choice to show the other side of fantasy and how logic can explain even fairies and mermaids. Although I did like the duality of the narrative that Sherlock brought to the story, I still don’t think his part in it was that important. As I said before, the story would have been fine without him. But he does bring a certain take on how society and England presented itself during this time period. The British perspective on other cultures during this time was an interesting one, and the author did a good job of presenting it.
All of the other characters were wonderful and I enjoyed their stories. I especially liked the three gentleman who as children were once Lost Boys. How their time on the island effected their lives was interesting. There is one other woman in the story, a Malagasy woman named Ruby, who was very important to the story. I really enjoyed her and would have loved to know more of her backstory. We also only got a glimpse of the Native Americans who also lived on Neverland and how they got there. That was a a really interesting story as well.
The writing style was a bit on the dry side, unfortunately. I think the author was trying to capture the writing style of the time period of the book, but it just didn’t quite work for me. The pacing could have been a bit faster, with maybe a little more action scattered throughout the story. I did really like everyone’s theories on who or what Peter Pan was, but felt that wasn’t explored as much as it should have been. Loved the ending though. Everything was very nicely tied up at the end. I highly recommend that you read the author’s afterward as it explains some of her choices and research that she did for the book. It was quite fascinating.
If you are at all interested in Peter Pan retellings this is one you should give a chance. It is very different as it is told from the adults involved points of view. It does start off a bit slow, and the pacing is not as fast as I would have like, but it was a satisfying and enjoyable read.