If you know all versions of Peter Pan, then maybe this story will make sense. The first 200 or so pages were intriguing enough with some references to the classic tale, but the last 100 pages or so felt rushed, confusing. Jack seemed like such a annoying son and Holly was not a good main character. The first half was also written so vaguely/mysteriously that after a while the fun of the mystery wore off and it was just confusion and frustration for not being more direct or specific. I didn't understand the references to the classic tale which made the book difficult to follow along and a sexual assault warning at the start of the book would've been appreciated.

I was so excited to read this book even though I put it off for so long. (It was my BOTM pick a year ago). I love fairy tale retellings and I love when they’re dark and gritty too, like a homage to the originals which were meant to be dark and gritty. But this book was mostly disappointing. It took me a while to decide how to rate this, because some of it was actually well-written and I did feel like I was in New York and London. 

But there were things I really didn’t like and it wasn’t until reading the other reviews that I could put words to it. I will say that a main complaint of others is not of mine—BUT still check trigger warnings. There is SA in the book but I thought it was going to be more graphic based on the complaints and it wasn’t the main point of the book. The book is more about Peter Pan kidnapping children (which again is kind of a homage to the original). 
I think it had potential if we saw more of Peter and how he grew dark—or even got to see what Neverland has become! That would have been much more interesting than just chapter after chapter of Holly worrying and sad with very little action to fix the problem. 

Also, someone else said they were annoyed how Holly wanted to sleep with everyone she met, and honestly that was kind of annoying. Though I’m all for sexual freedom, I felt like this took away her agency. 

The author also tried to push a romance that didn’t work for me—there was very little burn in it, it was just 0-100. In a sense, my main complaint for everything is that. 0-100, details of worrying but no detail of the action and how they solved the problem. I’m not going to be keeping this book. 

I did not really like this book unfortunately. Im not sure if I just didn't get most of the story, because im not super familiar with the original Peter Pan story, or if this was just a very out there retelling. Overall I was just very confused most of the time, and I thought that the story was boring because of this. 

I found all of the characters expect for Jane, to be very annoying. Jane was supposed to be the strict, old fashioned, unlikeable character, but I feel like she was the only one with common sense and MANNERS. oh my god everyone in this book was so rude. I seriously got PISSED OFF when

Holly yelled and tried to FIRE nan for something that was absolutely in no way Nan's fault.

 

I also thought that some parts of the story were just completely uanessacry and just dragged the story along. for instance

Elliots whole character was just completely unnecessary when he just gets fired in the end because he was going to expose holly for all of the messed up experiments she was doing on her children.

And considering that Barry was supposed to be her best friend, he kind of sucked at it.

Overall the most confusing part was the ending. I  still have no idea why Jane went to Neverland. I mean I kind of know why Eden went, because she would have died otherwise, but it kind of seemed like Jane went just because she didn't want to be old again. Also it was kind of strange that Jane was so obsessed and loved Peter Pan her entire life and then all of the sudden couldn't care less about him because her daughter (who is very untrustworthy at this point) says that he raped her. And in the end when it is reviled that Holly and Christopher are kind of together, I just feel like there was no chemistry or anything leading up to that point. I feel like it was another thing just added to make the story longer, and add more connections to maybe the original story? but I don't even know.

Just went back to work at my summer job this week and THREE of my coworkers are reading different peter pan retellings as well, so it’s been fun chatting about different takes on the classic story with them. Darling Girl was a fun spring read that had a good mix of fantasy, family, and dark mystery. The Darling family is the focus of the book, and Peter Pan is the villain which I was exciting to see. I really like when retellings delve into the darker aspects of fairytales. I loved the exploration of protective parenting and grief in this novel as well. However, I think the character development was a little rushed for me at the end and I wish there was more time exploring the character of Christopher Cooke (bc he seems super sexy). The end was set up so a sequel could be possible, and I would love to see what happens with these characters next since there were a few loose ends when the book finished. Overall a fun read a good book of the month pick.