Synopsis
In this beautiful dive into the world of J. M. Barrie’s classic, one woman must take on the infamous Peter Pan—who is not the innocent adventurer the fairy tales make him out to be—to save her daughter’s life…
Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy—yes, that Wendy. That is, until she gets a call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for nearly a decade, has gone missing from the estate where she’s been long tucked away. And, worst of all, Holly knows who must be Peter Pan, who is not only very real, but very dangerous.
Holly is desperate to find Eden and protect her son, Jack, from a terrible web of family secrets before she loses both her children. And yet she has no one to turn to—her mother, Jane, is the only other person in the world who knows that Peter is more than a story, but she refuses to accept that he is not the hero she’s always imagined.
Rating
★
Thoughts
Beautiful dive? No. Not in any sense. In Darling Girl, Peter Pan is a kidnapping, raping, drug dealing, poor excuse of a man-child. And speaking of characters, they have no depth. None of them. This story’s characters fit into three buckets: physically or mentally broken, always moaning, or completely dull. And sometimes all of the above.
I read for a happy escape and mostly happy endings, but I am not opposed to darkness, if done well and with purpose. In my book, if there is darkness, there should be light. And the light here is almost nonexistent. I’m feeling edgy as I write this review, even after sleeping on it. I feel like I should reread Barrie’s Peter Pan in order to cleanse my soul and counter the dull, pointlessly depressing book that I just read. If you read this book, I advise adding a singing bowl (pictured), some crystals, candles, sage, warm cookies and milk—something to counter the ick this story can invoke.
I seldomly rate a book a one-star. I needed more depth of character and scenery. I needed some excitement or suspense. I needed a lot more goodness than was offered. I needed to feel connected to the main character. To anyone! Pity, as the cover and premise drew me in. I thought it’d be an interesting contemporary twist on a story many of us love. Perhaps I should have DNF’d this one. But I like to F. Apparently Peter did, too.
Question
Do you finish a book you are not into, or do you DNF?