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A review by noirverse
Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise
2.0
I'll be honest, this book was around three stars for most of the book despite the flaws I picked up in it until the anticlimactic ending that made the story fizzle out for me. I did really like Wendy's relationship with Mary, and it was by far my favorite part of the whole book, but there were so many parts that dragged and needed another round of editing to tighten the story up.
Other things that I liked about this book was Wendy's time in the hospital in general, even if it was dark and fairly depressing. Peter and Neverland had their moments of being creepy in a fun way, especially with Jane being influenced by being on the island. It also gets points for working around the racist depictions of indigenous people in the original tale.
My big problem with this book is that for a premise that had all the potential to be suspenseful and scary, it ended up being weirdly lackluster and without much action going on at all. More than once I caught myself thinking, "Wendy, you're looking for your kidnapped daughter, why are you standing around reminiscing about Neverland for the fifth time?" It felt overly repetitive and circular without actually bringing anything new to the table. So much of Wendy and Jane's time on Neverland seemed to be them standing around thinking about things until suddenly the book knows it needs to end, and we're brought to the big discovery moment with Peter.
With Peter, the book makes it clear from the first chapter that he's evil and there's really no mystery to be found. Any questions about what's going on with him and Neverland doesn't get clarified at all by the ending. What happens to Neverland? Why is Peter the way he is, beyond the shadow that never gets fully explained? What about the other lost boys besides Timothy? The answer is apparently: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think this story was trying to go for a creepy open-ended vibe, but it fell flat with being emotionally effective and instead felt rushed and half-baked.
I was really intrigued by the summary of this book and was hoping for a great female focused story about Neverland that featured an evil Peter, but there wasn't enough plot development and suspense to make it rise above being "okay" for me. If you're interested in a trying out a different evil Peter story (that's more focused around male characters) I'd recommend Lost Boy by Christina Henry.
Other things that I liked about this book was Wendy's time in the hospital in general, even if it was dark and fairly depressing. Peter and Neverland had their moments of being creepy in a fun way, especially with Jane being influenced by being on the island. It also gets points for working around the racist depictions of indigenous people in the original tale.
My big problem with this book is that for a premise that had all the potential to be suspenseful and scary, it ended up being weirdly lackluster and without much action going on at all. More than once I caught myself thinking, "Wendy, you're looking for your kidnapped daughter, why are you standing around reminiscing about Neverland for the fifth time?" It felt overly repetitive and circular without actually bringing anything new to the table. So much of Wendy and Jane's time on Neverland seemed to be them standing around thinking about things until suddenly the book knows it needs to end, and we're brought to the big discovery moment with Peter.
With Peter, the book makes it clear from the first chapter that he's evil and there's really no mystery to be found. Any questions about what's going on with him and Neverland doesn't get clarified at all by the ending. What happens to Neverland? Why is Peter the way he is, beyond the shadow that never gets fully explained? What about the other lost boys besides Timothy? The answer is apparently: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think this story was trying to go for a creepy open-ended vibe, but it fell flat with being emotionally effective and instead felt rushed and half-baked.
I was really intrigued by the summary of this book and was hoping for a great female focused story about Neverland that featured an evil Peter, but there wasn't enough plot development and suspense to make it rise above being "okay" for me. If you're interested in a trying out a different evil Peter story (that's more focused around male characters) I'd recommend Lost Boy by Christina Henry.