A.C. Wise

The mystery was weak, honestly. There had to be something to bring all these elements together, but that was all it did. It could have been doing something in its own right and it wasn’t.

That said, the world was fascinating. The horrifying new ways humanity interacted with religion and the divine – Quin’s family history, the ascension and creation of deities from humans, the eldritch domain of the Sisters of the Drowning Deep and their hidden god, everything to do with angels and what show more prayers meant and did to them, the addictive nature of some interactions with divinity – it was all compelling. I wanted much more than could be contained in one novella.

The story also did quite a lot with the three protagonists. I’d say Quin got the most focus with his push and pull of trying to escape his past (which leads to addiction and an unhealthy relationship with Murmuration) and trying to get clean from those habits (which lets fragments of his past resurface). But Scribe IV also got to reckon with the guilt of his past and the uncertainty of his future. He was by most accounts obsolete and just whittling away his days because it was easier than trying to make his own future; then his world came apart. The childlike Angel had the least history and the most to fear from the future, not knowing what xe might become now that xe was exercising xyr power. Those two, Scribe IV and Angel, had an interesting interplay with their similar fears and hesitations about becoming something unrecognizable from what they once were but very different pasts informing them.

To some degree, I think the story was hurt by trying to do too much. It was juggling, what, four? five? genres, three main characters with a web of relationships and baggage attached to them, and an intricate, galaxy and dimension-spanning world that was a major focus in and of itself, all in a less-than-200-page novella. I did like it, but it was scattered and sometimes rushed. show less

Wendy Darling has had a hard time since returning with younger brothers John and Michael from Neverland; well, they *all* have had difficulties of one sort or another. She, refusing to give up her memories of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, has been institutionalized; youngest brother Michael, serving in WWI, has returned shell-shocked and broken; and John, forced to carry the burden of his two siblings, has become very much a “company man.” Wendy is released from the asylum in order to show more marry the son of John’s boss, sight unseen, and against all expectations, the marriage is a success and she feels at least somewhat content. Content, that is, until Peter returns and, eschewing Wendy for having grown up, steals her daughter Jane away to Neverland, to be the new Wendy, mother to the Lost Boys. Wendy must summon all her courage, skills and memories to find a way to bring Jane safely home again…. If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the Darling children after the end of “Peter Pan,” wonder no more, for A. C. Wise has figured it all out for you! This is a much darker book than the original novel, and Peter is a much darker character than I remember him as being, but that is entirely in keeping with the British world moving from the early 1910s of Edwardian England to the eve of World War II. This is a beautifully imagined “sequel” of sorts, but beware, because all is not sweetness and light in either of Wendy’s two worlds, and you might find yourself shivering or tearing up (or both) while following her journey. Recommended. show less

I accidentally read this series out of order; this book does not suffer from being read before book 1 (Wendy, Darling) but I've not yet read book one, so don't know whether the reverse is true.

There are many inexplicable happenings, and the story carefully steps around explaining many things. One can make assumptions about how the story got from here to there, but there is also the possibility that the author has another book planned in the set. Although, as there is a somewhat happilly show more ever after epilogue, this might not be the case.

James/Captain Hook is never redeemed in the 'real' world, and I like that. Getting out of Neverland and the malign influence of Peter Pan did not make James a nice person. And he never quite gets out of the trauma responses.

Setting this in London in 1939, and including a character who came back from The Great War very damaged allowed the author to draw some fascinating parallels between war and Neverland, and explore themes of trauma and maladaptive responses. All five of the characters who get significant plot time are dealing with past events that impact negativelyon their present.

This is not a hopeful book, and despite the epilogue, I would say it does not end in a happy way.

content warnings: Drug abuse and Addiction, Death, Violence, Mental illness, War, Body horror, and Ableism show less

I was personally never a fan of Peter Pan. I always found him to be too fickle, spoilt, controlling and sometimes downright abusive to romanticise him or Neverland, so I tend to really enjoy any retelling where Peter Pan is not portrayed as a hero. Wendy, Darling fit right into that category, but at the same time did so much more by giving Wendy a voice and allowing her to tell her story - and this time it is not a bedtime story for children.

Wendy, Darling was beautifully structured, show more alternating between Wendy's first time in Neverland, her experience of life in London after returning from Neverland, and her return to Neverland to rescue her daughter Jane, whom Peter has kidnapped to become a new mother for the Lost Boys. We also get to see things from Jane's POV, as she tries to make sense of what is happening to her and work out how to survive Neverland and return home. I really liked this structure, and I thought it worked very well to really show all that Wendy endured while slowly peeling off layers of Wendy's memories to reach the truth of Neverland, Peter and the darkness lurking within.

This book takes some really dark turns, and I think after reading this no one will be able to look at Peter Pan or the Lost Boys in quite the same way again. Together with Wendy, we readers are brought to questioning everything we thought was true. But what is real and what is fantasy?

Wendy was a fantastic character. She is a survivor, having experienced suffering and abuse for years following her return from Neverland. Unlike her brothers, Wendy has not forgotten their time in Neverland, but she is disbelieved by everyone until she is finally committed to an asylum where treatments are brutal and dehumanising. The chapters recounting Wendy's time in the asylum were particularly harrowing, especially because of all the bullying and abuse she suffered at the hands of the staff so maybe be cautious in approaching this if that might be triggering for you. Knowing her pain gives so much more weight to Wendy's decision to go back to Neverland as a grown woman to save her daughter and is a testament to her strength.

Even though Wendy, as the main character, carried the show, all the characters felt really well developed, including the minor ones. I am all about the characters, and these ones really delivered! From Wendy's brothers to the Lost Boys, and from old Neverland friends to her new family, everyone has something to offer and I was totally here for it! Peter is of course a key character in this, and I really liked the author's take on him.

There were times when I got a bit frustrated as things seemed to be moving too slowly, but it somehow didn't feel as though there was an issue with pacing. The slower passages felt very deliberate, and especially in certain sections I could feel the characters' frustration, which I think was the point? The book takes its time, building a picture of all the characters bit by bit until we think we can see the whole of them... but can anyone ever do that?

Overall, Wendy, Darling is a wonderfully dark retelling that takes on a life of its own, almost independently from the original story, to explore very real and modern issues around misogyny, mental health, trauma and survivorship, family and many, many more.


I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way. show less