A.C. Wise

A lush, feminist re-imagining on what happened to Wendy after Neverland, for fans of Circe and The Mere Wife. For those that lived there, Neverland was a children's paradise. No rules, no adults, only endless adventure and enchanted forests - all led by the charismatic boy who would never grow old. But Wendy Darling grew up. She left Neverland and became a woman, a mother, a patient, and a survivor. Because Neverland isn't as perfect as she remembers. There's darkness at the heart of the island, and now Peter Pan has returned to claim a new Wendy for his lost boys...

Wendy, Darling

Beatrice

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, 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.

For this and more reviews, visit Book for Thought.

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.

A. C. Wise

A lush, feminist re-imagining on what happened to Wendy after Neverland, for fans of Circe and The Mere Wife. Find the second star from the right, and fly straight on 'til morning, all the way to Neverland, a children's paradise with no rules, no adults, only endless adventure and enchanted forests - all led by the charismatic boy who will never grow old. But Wendy Darling grew up. She has a husband and a young daughter called Jane, a life in London. But one night, after all these years, Peter Pan returns. Wendy finds him outside her daughter's window, looking to claim a new mother for his Lost Boys. But instead of Wendy, he takes Jane. Now a grown woman, a mother, a patient and a survivor, Wendy must follow Peter back to Neverland to rescue her daughter and finally face the darkness at the heart of the island...

Brian Walborn

Conceptually this would have worked better had there been some character development. More disappointing was a noticeable lack of warmth and imagination. Peter Pan was merely a shadow, indistinct without visualization or form, as forgettable as Neverland itself it would seem.

Jennifer

A.C. Wise's Wendy, Darling is probably one of the best Peter Pan retellings that I came across in ages!! I love this dark, heartbreaking, and grown-up reimagining of Peter Pan: it's emotionally engaging and atmospheric. Digging deep into the core psychological wounds of the characters, A.C. Wise's debut is a feminist flavoured story about loss, love, and motherhood. 


  "Nothing here is what it seems. Peter may look like a regular boy, but in truth, he's a dangerous thing. He may not be human at all."


One thing I love about reimaginings is exploring the original fairytale from a fresh perspective. A.C. Wise makes this clear that Wendy, Darling is no fluke: it probes deep into the dark side of Peter Pan (both the essence of the original fairytale as well as Peter Pan the character). The foreshadowing early in the novel suggests the sinister elements to be slowly unravelled in the course of the novel - the exploration of dark psychology associated with this reimagining of Peter Pan.


  "She is a creature made of skin wrapped around a core of ice, solid and immovable. She is a girl in a bathtub. She never climbed out. She is frozen through and through."


There are many ways in which I connect to a character's headspace, it could be sharing similar life experiences but it could also be me feeling the pain that a character is going through in the novel & overcoming the difficulties associted with their hardships. While I never experienced motherhood like Wendy does I nevertheless felt very compelled of following through her emotional headspace: the brutal emotional scars left on her when she left Neverland as well as the intense feelings she experienced through loss & separation (from her brothers), and motherhood.

Another thing that impressed me with Wendy, Darling is that the support characters are also quite interesting (a rare feat as I often just care about the main character when I'm reading books). While Wendy takes the spotlight, I also found John and Michael's characterisation pretty decently developed: on how their collective decisions convey the sense of loss that Wendy is experiencing & how that silenced Wendy's narrative to a certain extent.


  "Loving something means having something to lose, something that Wendy understands all too well and Peter never will."


Ultimately, despite the darkness of this reimagining the most potent messaging in Wendy, Darling is the notion of love. That while growing up is a tough process and involves growing pains, it's also because of growing up that you learn to cherish something or someone who you care about and learn from the experiences along the passage of time. Personally I think this novel showcases that love and loss often comes hand in hand: the emotional experiences I had while reading this book felt very real to me.

As I usually do in my book reviews, I think it's also worth talking about a few things to be aware of / a few drawbacks:

- Multiple timelines: the past vs the present. While this isn't a big issue to me (it helps convey the storytelling aspect), I can personally see why the flashback scenes can be a tad difficult to follow through to some readers. I did spent a few chapters to realise that some of the chapters are written from Jane's (Wendy's daughter) perspective.

- Multiple perspective: while this is mostly centred from Wendy's POV there are a few chapters told from Jane's perspective (in the middle portion). This is just something to be aware of.

- This is a pretty dark reimaging and contain following major triggering content: emotional coercion, grief / loss, death, emotional trauma, separation, and violence. So this is something to note if you plan to read this novel.

A few drawbacks aside, I'm pretty impressed by A.C. Wise's Wendy, Darling. It's an atmospheric and beautifully written Peter Pam retelling. It feels both familiar and new to me, and it feels substantial in that the themes & storytelling are well explored. If you enjoy fairytale retellings and character-driven novels, I would highly recommend this!

danielle bush

I really enjoyed this new take on he Peter Pan retelling. A new adventure with a twisted center that made me question everything I thought I knew about Peter. 

I loved that not only did we get to see the story from both Jane and Wendy's point of view, but we also get to see what happened after Wendy and her brothers returned from Neverland. How her brothers forgot, but she never could which led to alot of tension between her and her family.. Especially between her brothers. 
Wendy did whatever she could to survive her life both in Neverland and at home. and when her daughter gets taken she dredges up her old memories and takes a leap of faith with her happiest memories to find her self on her way to saving Jane. Once she gets there she begins to remember.. remember that everything wasn't always great in Neverland.. 

I don't want to spoil anything so ill just say that in this dark retelling not everyone survives Neverland, and Peter is definitely not what he seems.

Nikki van Zoom

This book was a lot darker than I thought it would be! I ended up really enjoying it and read it cover-to-cover in one sitting! Jane was definitely my favorite character. She's so strong-minded and doesn't back down. She really did remind me of Wendy Darling from the Peter Pan stories that I grew up with. I was missing a bit of the "magical Neverland" feel, and I really wish we would've seen Hook, Mr. Smee and Tinkerbell. Overall enjoyable reading experience. I've given it 3/5 stars.

 Thank you so much Edelweiss, NetGalley and the author for gifting me an eARC, in return for an honest review.

sara louise

“this is the place her heart belongs; this is the place that stole her daughter away.”

I can’t recall having read any peter pan retelling prior to this one, but I grew up with the 1953+2003 film adaptations, as well as hook and finding neverland. I also watched pan a couple of years back, and read the original book by jm barrie. so I’d say I’m quite familiar with the world and characters, and ac wise has managed to bring a fresh perspective to both. 

I loved it. 

[mild spoiler below]

“she could show him mercy. she believed him to be her friend once, after all. but the world already makes too much room for boys like peter, boys who under normal circumstances grow up to be men like ned’s father, who start wars and send boys like michael home broken. boys who never face consequences. she can’t be his mother, or protect him from what he is any longer.”

Elke Maasbommel

Read the analysis on my blog : http://the-openbook.com/2021/11/21/by-the-book-36-wendy-darling-by-a-c-wise/

I have never given a rating this low before. I might be biased, since Peter Pan is my favourite book in the entire world, and as a result a retelling has to be pretty good in order for me to even appreciate it. It was all the more disappointing, therefore, that this wasn’t only a bad Peter Pan retelling; it was simply not a good book at all. The writing was cringeworthy, the characters flat, and the focus was completely off. It was supposed to breathe new life into Neverland, but instead it feels rotten, now. Wendy deserved better. 

Heather Harrington

*I received a copy of this via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

When Wendy Darling was a child, she went on a journey to a magical place called Neverland. Along with her two younger brothers, they ran and jumped and played with an impish boy named Peter and his band of Lost Boys. There were no adults to enforce any rules, and Wendy felt free for the first time. But then Wendy did the unthinkable-- she grew up and everything turned upside down. After leaving Neverland, Wendy went from asylum patient to wife to mother, never once forgetting her time with Peter. A part of her always wished to return to that special place, but Neverland isn't as serene as she remembers. When Peter steals her daughter away, flashes of memories start to come back to Wendy of a darkness that lives at the center of the island. Now, Wendy must face the wickedness of Neverland and the sinister boy she'd once do anything for if she hopes to rescue her daughter from a dark fate.

I've always loved the story of Peter Pan, but this is not the idyllic Disney story we're all familiar with. Wise takes a story that most everyone knows and completely flips it on its head. It's a darker more malicious take on Neverland and it works so well. Peter is still this fun-loving boy, but there's an underlying predatory feeling to him that makes you feel very uneasy. The way he interacts with Wendy, her daughter, and especially the Lost Boys is almost unhinged in a way. I also thought the way Wise tied him to the darkness of the island was very clever. My favorite part of this though was Wendy. She went through so many hardships after coming back from Neverland, but she never let anyone break her spirit or make her second guess herself, it just made her resolve that much stronger. I liked seeing her come back to Neverland as an adult and confront her past while fighting for her daughter. There were bits of this that felt slow and dragged out, but overall, this was a fun one.

Maddie

Although this wasn’t one of my favorite books of 2021, I still enjoyed reading it! I think that any sort of retelling or re-imagining of a classic fairytale or book is interesting because you get to see someone’s perspective and interpretation of that story. However, I don’t think that this was the kind of book I’m looking for right now, so it took me longer to read it than it might have a few years ago. There were some points where I felt like the book flowed strangely because there would be action happening or you would start to discover something with the characters at present time and then there would be a flashback to Wendy’s past in the middle of it, which kind of annoyed me, so the pace wasn’t the best for my taste. I also went into this book expecting a lot more action, but most the action happened in the last 50 pages. I decided to give this book 3 stars because while it wasn’t my favorite and not exactly what I was expecting, I still enjoyed reading it for the most part and would recommend it if someone who likes fantasy asked me about it! I think I would have liked this book a lot more when I was around 14/15, but if you like Peter Pan, then I definitely think you would like this book!

Kaeli Wolf 

I absolutely love the idea behind this story, and it doesn't disappoint. This is definitely a book I would pick up in a bookstore and purchase without having read more than a few sentences of description. I will definitely be trying anything else this author writes!

Pippa 

This book! It was good. To be honest, my expectations weren't that high and i was not expecting to like this book as much as i did. The writing was absolutley breathtaking, some sentences like from another world.
The story was suuper dark and had some really serious topics, but they were well written. 
I also loved the way the different stories from different times in Wendys life and Jane's POV all came together the further you got into the story. The only thing i didn't love was the ending. It was slightly rushed and i would have liked to know what became of certain people and places after the grand finale.

caro(lee)na

It’s a feminist story about what happens to Wendy after the events of Peter Pan. What more could you ask for? 

But seriously, one of my favorite “retellings” of all time. Even though it is set around the 1930s (I think), It dealt with topics like sexuality and feminism. I loved Wendy and how her character is portrayed. Also Jane, Wendy’s daughter. 

Overall I really recommend this book if you like Peter Pan or just creepy retellings in general.

Wendy, Darling

Reviews