This book was a twist on Peter Pan but focused on an adult Wendy whose daughter gets stolen. The most interesting part was that the book was written from the perspective that Peter is bad and a monster.

Overall, this book was really well written and covered many different topics and included all types of diversity including ethnic minorities and LGBT issues - particularly given the time period it was set. Unfortunately, I did find it a really slow read with not much action or excitement and it seemed a lot of it was story setting and character development than actual adventure that I would have expected.

Worth a read though if you enjoy Disney retellings.

Wendy, Darling by AC Wise (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

I was given an advanced readers' copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately I didn't get around to reading it fast enough, but it came out on 4 June 2021. And I wish I had read this earlier!

Wendy, Darling is just as intriguing as its cover. It's a feminist retelling of Peter Pan, from the eyes of a Wendy who has grown up and lived in the 1900s real world for a bit before coming back into contact with the magic. The retelling was well thought-out, not just slapped together or riding on the success of the original story. It didn't offend my nostalgic love of the original Peter Pan book - it expanded on it.

This book examined themes of gender, social expectations, childhood, growing up, motherhood, queerness and the general era of the early 1900s. I have to admit I just generally enjoy some of these themes, and it added to my enjoyment of the book as a whole. But it was also structured very well, with bits told from both Wendy and Jane's perspectives, cleverly organised to illustrate the author's point. It was enjoyable just being in the Peter Pan universe, but even more enjoyable seeing it through a different lens.

The characters weren't particularly remarkable, but they were good. The plot was enjoyable and I loved seeing all the little twists come to fruition, but it wasn't too hectic. It was eerie, and beautiful, but not straight-up horror, which I wouldn't have enjoyed at all.

If you love Peter Pan, and/or twists on traditional fairytales, I think you'll love this one.

Thanks again to @netgalley @a.c.wise and @titanbooks for giving me the opportunity to read this awesome book!

I had a bit of a hard time getting through the first few chapters. The plot could have started sooner. But after powering through the first 50 pages or so, it got really interesting, and I couldn’t put it down.
The retelling was really good, and I loved the ending. The original characters had good contribution to the storyline. There are a few details that alluded me and perhaps you (the reader) will have the same experience.

Thank you NetGalley and Titan Books for giving me the opportunity to read this for my candid review. #Netgalley
#WendyDarling

This is a really interesting, twisty, gothic follow up to the Peter Pan story. When the Darlings return to London, Wendy seems to be the only one willing to talk about what happened, ending up in a psychiatric hospital. When she eventually gets back to Neverland, after her own daughter is kidnapped, it turns out it’s not the idyll she remembers.

The writing is dark, rich and lush, and the scenes in the institution are great, but I found the bits in Neverland a bit lacking. Good feminist themes, and I enjoyed it, but kept dipping in and out rather than being driven to get to the end. Well worth a read, but not my absolute favourite.

Something I was never expecting to read! But something I needed in my life... This story means a lot to me because I grew up with Wendy and I felt like I needed an end and now I feel like I got it. Thank you AC Wise for your amazing words and hitting me in all the feels! Never knowing where it is going but loving every min of it.

I had such a blast reading this book! I love retellings. I was surprised this was an adult novel and not YA. Fantasy retellings tend to skew YA, so this was a refreshing change.

I love Wise's writing style- so much so that I immediately went and requested her upcoming book. It's a little dark and twisty, and very compelling- things moved along at a quick pace. The twisting of certain elements of the original Peter Pan in a totally new way was very original- particularly in the use of Peter's shadow. The addition of Wendy's life after Neverland, and addressing the "hysterical woman" trope in general was also a great use of the Peter Pan tale. Peter Pan himself is a totally different beast here, and we love to hate him!

I only wish we knew a bit more about the origins of Neverland in Wise's world- or a Peter Pan origin story....maybe another book to come from Wise???

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy!

This was a very depressing book. I hate Peter Pan now. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Wendy, Darling is at its core a story about love and growing up. It begins many years after the story we know, when Wendy is a mother herself and sees her own daughter, Jane, snatched by The Boy Who Never Grows Up. What ensues is Wendy’s fated return to Neverland, although this time the rose-coloured glasses are off. As she endeavours to rescue Jane, Wendy’s life after Peter and the Lost Boys is unravelled to the reader, revealing a history of trauma and violence, but also small kindnesses and unexpected alliances.

In this sequel, Wendy plainly takes centre-stage while Peter fades into the background, more an environmental factor than a fully realized character. Although Peter remains a one-dimensional personality who hardly strays from the characteristics for which he’s most known, Wise’s novel details the complex resonances of Peter’s actions – often harmful, haunting, and intergenerational. Does Peter mean to have this impact? Is it a darkness to his character, or is it a careless effect of his youth, his perpetual egocentrism fortified by the powers to be in command of his own life as well as that of others? Perhaps it’s too much to ask of a boy who never ages to bear the responsibility of preserving and cultivating an entire world and it’s natives. In any event, these are just some of the questions that are raised in Wise’s novel.

To be completely honest, I had a lot of trouble starting this book, and found myself with many reservations. Shortly into the book we learn Wendy was put into an asylum for her wild and relentless fantasies. Personally, I find the fairy-tale-turned-wicked genre an overplayed and obvious direction in which to go, especially when you mix in the sent-to-an-asylum twist. Nevertheless and overtime, I was definitely able to warm up to Wise’s execution, which gave a lot more density to an otherwise common idea. It was clear to me that the author had both the vision and insight into the original story to create what felt like an authentic extension of the classic tale while also building it’s own nuances into old characters and new.

All to say, if you’re a fan of J.M. Barrie’s original work as well as the many adaptations that followed, this is definitely a worthy addition that you shouldn’t miss.

My thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley for this thought-provoking read!

Holy cow, I didn’t expect this! It’s a very dark, twisted, revamp of a childhood tale! It’s dark and isn’t so much about the childhood tale, redone, but after the original takes place! If you ate one that might not enjoy your beloved classics being blown to shreds, I definitely should warn you to stay away! But if you are like me, and love a darkened version of a childhood favorite, this is your book! Written fantastically, with unique and brutal character development! Highly recommend!

I thought I would really enjoy this book because I love retellings. This was just way to dark for me and I do love some dark stuff. I think I went into this thinking it will be a easy and quick read. I had to stop reading it a few times just to process the parts I just read. I know there is an audience for this book and I do have a few friends that I would recommend this book to. I want to thank Netgalley and Titan Books for letting me read and review this book.

A fascinating and darkly delicious exploration into Wendy’s life post Neverland. Seeing Wendy in the asylum was heartbreaking and the strength of her determination to rescue her daughter showed us the Wendy we love!

3.75/5

After Wendy and her brothers returned from Neverland, things haven't been going well for her.
Her brothers have forgotten all of their adventures and her being the only one who can remember makes everyone fear for her mental state.
As a teen, her parents are among the victims of the Titanic and a few years later, her brother Michael enlists in the army, to fight in World War I, which lefts him a broken man, struggling with his demons.

The only thing that makes her feel better is the memory of Wonderland and the hope that one day she will be able to go back.
She even tries to make her brothers remember that time of their lives, something that causes multiple fights and ultimately leads John to lock her away in an insane asylum.

Inside the asylum, she is treated horribly by the doctors and the staff and her only solace is another patient, a woman called Mary, who looks exactly like Wendy's old friend, Tiger Lily.
As a result of the mistreatment there, Wendy clings to her memories as a way to survive, only to realize that it is because of Wonderland that she is locked here and Peter isn't coming back.

Jumping ahead a few years later, Wendy is now married to a man named Ned. She also has a daughter named Jane and has managed to free her friend Mary from the asylum as well.
She is relatively happy and loves her new family very much, but she still can't help but feel like her relationship with her brothers isn't fully fixed. She has left Neverland in her past, although she still worries that one day Ned and his family will find out the reason why she was locked away.

Neverland comes back in her life though in a way she never expected.

One night, while she enters her daughter's room, she finds that someone has broken in and is about to take Jane away. And that someone is no one else by Peter Pan himself.

After Jane's abduction, Wendy is determined to save her daughter and bring her back home. And not only that, but this time, she is going to defeat Peter once and for all.

My thoughts.

I am not going to lie, this was a very dificult book for me to get through.
Not because it is awfully written or because I am incredibly attached to the source material and any change upon it irks me.
It was hard for me to get through because there is alway too much going on. That and the fact that the e-book form was literally an endless wall of text.

Perhaps not unsurprisingly, this book tackles various different topics, such as feelings of abandonment, abuse by medical staff, the descrimination against people of color, PTSD, death and marrying someone of the opposite sex despite not being attracted to said sex.
And while it doesn't do a bad job at representing these, I still kind of feel like if some of these things were not part of the story, there would be time left for the rest of them to be explored properly.

The prose and the characters were nicely written and in a way that made you sympathize with them. I am going to admit though, that I prefered seeing Jane's point of view of Neverland. Because she doesn't even want to be there, so she doesn't see the place as paradise itself and it is through her that we learn about Peter committing atrocities. Seeing her mother returning to Neverland and finding it a shadow of its former self, was also something intriguing, especially when we meet Tiger Lily, but it poses this question: Why did Wendy fall in love with that place? Why did she even like Peter? We know that she has now fallen out of love with it because she blames it for her being locked in the asylum, but the other questions remain unanswered.

Also, since I just mentioned it, I liked how in this retelling we actually see Peter being a little piece of shit. I am not gonna mention any names, but around this time last year, I was reading another Peter Pan retelling where Peter was supposed to be the villain. Only in that book, he barely did anything before the main character decided to go up against him (and after that, he contributed to the main character losing his hand and eventually dying.)
Here, we see what happens to the boys who dare question his authority. At first, everything is just suggested but the truth is finally revealed to Jane by one of the Lost Boys.

Peter is even given an origin story, as told by Tiger Lily to Wendy. My feelings in regards to that story are a bit lukewarm, and to be honest, that was the point in the book where I was getting strong It (the Stephen King's book) vibes. But what came as a twist to me, was what happened after he was defeated. That part was indeed heartbreaking.


While I enjoyed most of the stuff in this book, besides the fact that there were way too many things going on and the backstory of Peter, I also had some complains and most of them have to do with the events of the story and the contradictions that some of them cause.

For example, we are shown that after Wendy returned from Neverland, she would try to fly, something that ended with her hurting herself. Same thing happens later on in the book where she tries to fly away from the asylum. So we know for a fact that Wendy cannot fly without Peter Pan and Tinkerbell's assistance. Then how did she manage to fly and get herself to Neverland when she realized that Jane was taken?

Also, upon arrival to Neverland and seeing the skeletons of the mermaids, Wendy said that 'nothing ever dies in Neverland' which comes to direct contrast with the original, in which Hook was killed and in the end of the book it is also mentioned that Tinkerbell has passed away, even though Peter is too self-absorbed to notice.

Finally, there seems to be some confusion on Mary's race. Wendy admits that she is the spitting image of Tiger Lily who is Indian (Native American) and then goes on to ask her is she is Indian (from India). Unless I have some of the facts mixed up, this exchange doesn't make any sense and in fact, makes the author seem a bit ignorant if you ask me.

Plus, I still want to know, what the author meant when she said that "Wendy would try for years to make her brothers remember Neverland" something that would lead to big fights between her, Michael and John and why having the main heroine pressuring her younger brother, who clearly suffers from PTSD after fighting in the war, into remembering that place, seemed like a good idea, because to me it was a low moment for Wendy.

Generally speaking, this was an enjoyable read, but not without its flaws.
The family dynamics are decent and the villain is effective and creepy.
I'd like to read more from the author someday.

If you made it this far, congratulations!
'Til next time, take care :) :) :)

I received a free e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As a fan of J.M.Barrie's Peter Pan, I was intrigued by the premise of this tale.

It's not a retelling, rather more of a sequel. Wendy Darling has grown up, we learn about what happened to her once she'd returned from Neverland and it's more grisly than you'd anticipate. Then as a grown woman, Peter returns and takes her daughter, Jane, thinking she is Wendy. The story follows Wendy as she seeks to find Jane, remembering the darker side of her time in Neverland and who or what Peter truly is.

If you don't mind a childhood classic being taken apart (in a good way) and shown to be a dark tale, then this is one for you, I certainly won't look at Peter Pan in the same way again!

Thanks to Netgalley and Titan Books for a copy of the ARC in return for my honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book for an honest review.

Having loved Peter Pan, I was captivated by this book. The story of what happened to the Darling children, particularly Wendy, following their visit to Neverland. It is dark, tortured and imaginative!

A good take on Peter Pan with POV of Wendy! Mix of adventures of emotions with this one. I hope I could also get to read these types of stories again.

I recently reread J.M. Barrie's 'Peter Pan' for the first time as an adult. I grew up with the Disney film version, and never looked much beyond the surface of the story or thought about any of the problematic elements. When I saw 'Wendy, Darling', I knew I wanted to read this retelling.

'Wendy, Darling' explores the Peter Pan story and goes much deeper, into the how and why of Neverland and Peter. It is told from Wendy's perspective, and gives her a voice that she lacked in the original story. It is told in two timelines: one after Wendy returns from Neverland, and one when Wendy is an adult and a mother herself.

When Wendy first returns from Neverland, she wants nothing more than to remember what happened and to return. She is not believed (even her own brothers, who were with her on her adventures, refuse to believe it really happened), and sent to an asylum.

As an adult, Wendy's young daughter is taken by Peter and she must try to get her back. As she does, some of her memories of her time in Neverland return, and they are not all as happy as she remembered.

This is a rich, dark and multilayered retelling of the classic story. Highly recommended.

This book was received as an ARC from Titan Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I have been looking forward to reading and for the release of this book since Peter Pan is one of my favorite tales. I am such a fan that I have read and seen so many variations and adaptations that I thought I have seen it all...until now. A.C. Wise is brilliant in how she crafted such a feminist take on this tale and how she has put her own twist on Wendy, John, Michael, Tink, Lost Boys, Jane and yes of course Peter himself. I have never read anything quite like this before and I have to say I have never been so excited to spread the word to my friends, family, and our library community. I can definitely hear some exciting conversations at our next book club and I can't wait to hear their thoughts.

We will consider adding this title to our Science Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars,

This was such a fun surprise. I really enjoyed this. I loved how it makes Peter Pan such a creepy and dark story, compared to Disney (which is the only thing I've seen/read). I loved the changes with the side characters, like Tiger Lily and Hook. I really enjoyed Wendy's story, how it was in Neverland, what happened to her when she came back and her experience in an asylum, and the present. She was super interesting to read about, and I loved reading about her backstory the most. I also loved the friendship she had with Mary. However, the ending was meh (I was shocked with a plot twist though, which I value), the beginning was slightly confusing and Peter's story needed to be developed more, in terms of his background story. Overall, super fun read, yet lacking some character development.

Series Info/Source: I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley. This is a stand alone book.

Story (3/5): I thought the beginning of this was very slow but enjoyed the second half of the book more. This book is about Wendy's daughter, Jane, getting taken to Neverland by Peter. This forces Wendy to venture back into Neverland and solve its dark secrets in order to rescue Jane.

It was an okay read, not great...but the ending does pick up pace. No ideas here that I haven't seen in other Peter Pan retellings though. I also felt like Peter and Neverland were kind of left in limbo, it felt a bit unfinished. The conclusion wasn't very satisfying and it kind of felt like the story just stopped.

Characters (3/5): I thought Wendy and Jane were okay characters. Wendy feels a bit distant from the reader, almost like she is in a bit of a daze the whole time. I did enjoy seeing glimpses of Wendy’s history but always felt like I was watching her from a distance. The reader spends more time watching her actions than getting to know her as a character. I really enjoyed Jane as a character but we don’t spend nearly as much time with her as we do with Wendy. I would have liked to read more about Jane. Peter is more of an idea than an actual character with dimension, history and feelings...he feels very unfinished. The lost boys are fairly interchangeable and were mostly just part of the background.

Setting (3/5): The setting alternates between London, Neverland and various timelines. Neverland is described to mainly look like the Neverland we all know and love. Again, nothing too earth shattering here. The settings were fine.

Writing Style (3/5): The book jumps around between Wendy's childhood, her time in an asylum, and her marriage. There are also chapters from Jane's POV. While the timeframe is printed whenever the timeline changes, the POV of the chapter is not. So, sometimes you have to read through a bit of the chapter to figure out if you are reading from Wendy or Jane's POV. As mentioned above it starts pretty slow but does pick up pace in the 2nd half of the book. The other thing I really struggled with here was how incomplete things feel. We never see what happens with Peter and Neverland in the end. There are also some strange elements, like where some of the lost boys come from, that are never tied in well with the rest of the story. The whole thing feels a bit messy and could have used some better editing. It also feels rushed at the end, like Wise wasn’t quite sure how to tie things up.

My Summary (3/5): Overall while I didn’t mind reading this it felt kind of slow and unoriginal to me. There are some interesting ideas here (a darkness in Neverland, where lost boys come from) but they’ve been explored in similar ways in other Peter Pan retellings. The POV you are reading from can be a bit confusing and the story is a bit of a mess and ends abruptly. There were a lot of loose threads at the end and I was left wondering why they were tied into the overall story at all. I am pretty sure this is a stand alone, however if there were to be a sequel then that would explain some of the issues I had with this book. I don’t plan on picking up any more books by Wise.

So this is a continuation of Peter Pan where Peter kidnaps Wendy's daughter and Wendy goes to get her back. I can't believe that Wendy's own brothers stuck her in an institution because they claimed Neverland never happened. This book was really enjoyable and I hope to read more from this author.