All children, except one, grow up. And it that exceptional one that has become such a legendary emblem of defiant youth and invincible spirit of adventure. Or something much darker. Depends on your interpretation. A.C.Wise’s interpretation is definitely down the dark path, but this book isn’t so much about the ageless boy as it is about his once upon a time friend (or, as Wise casts her, victim) Wendy.
Wendy Darling did grow up. And didn’t have the easiest time of it. While her brothers promptly conditioned themselves to forget their time in Neverland, Wendy was never able to do that, which causes much family strife and resulted in her eventual lock up in an asylum…because that’s what was done with difficult women at the time. Eventually she got out, conditional to an arranged by her brother marriage and had a daughter of her own. And was happy enough until a boy, that boy, showed up and stole her daughter away. At which time Wendy went into proper mamabear mode, remembered her flying lessons and took off to Neverland to save young Jane from the clutches of the evil boy/man. And evil is pretty much how Pan is presented through the entire novel. Not just general evil, but the oppressive MeToo era kind, for casting Wendy into the traditional mother role, for his expectations and manipulations. Most of the original story is recast in a light so sinister, you’d think it’s the original Nosferatu or something. Which is actually…fine. It’s understandable. There is indeed a certain darkness in Neverland just below the superficial fun and games. I’m not sure it was intended that way, in fact personally I’d wager it wasn’t, but it can be easily interpreted as such, specifically from a modern/woke brain perspective. Brom, the writer and artist, understood that and utilized it perfectly in his darkly luminous retelling of the novel. Wise didn’t want to just settle for horrortinged approach, she went for the feminist angle. Which worked to an extent, since women were treated (more) deplorably back in the day, especially women who challenged the societal norms, but there’s something about having such a beloved character (from one of my all time favorite stories no less) cast in this role of a vile oppressor that didn’t really sing for me. And there’s a lot here about oppression. The title itself (this is quite clever, actually) reflects how patronizing calling someone darling can be. Wherein our intrepid protagonist is very proud of being a Darling, she’s never happy about being darling. And I suppose babe/baby/bae was out of the question for the times and culture or she’s take that on too. Pan can be easily accused of being cruel, but his version of it was always more along the lines of the unthinking callous variety of arrogant youth, not the evil patriarch kind. And so all Wise tries to make those shoes fit, it just doesn’t quite work. In fact, one might argue her own brothers, one through control and one through indifference and both through denial might have harmed Wendy more than a boy who once taught her to fly. Wise’s is a hyperwoke perspective, she infuses modern sexuality, awareness and ideas into her narrative, Wendy’s marriage is most unconventional in real life as it was in Neverland, and she’s all about fighting the power once she gets back to Neverland, but in the end of the day the author’s messages come through as way too heavyhanded and nowhere near exciting or original enough to compete with the magic of Neverland, real or Wise’s version thereof. The Neverland always wins. The timeless appeal of timelessness simply cannot be denied. Outside of the fact that the author essentially utilizes one of my favorite stories as a message delivery platform, I also didn’t really love the writing. And I’ve read Wise before and enjoyed it, but this book, while technically perfectly decent, just seemed so overwritten. The approach to narrative was on a very microscale and it was (and this is as good as I can describe it) aggressively emotional and emotive. All the innards on the outside. Elaborately, exhaustively, exhaustingly so. Arguably appropriate for feminist fiction, but it did nothing for pacing and overall dynamism of the story. But otherwise (and I know that’s a huge but, but still) it was a pretty interesting read. Possibly because I love Neverland so much, any fictional revisit is fun, possibly because the fan of classic children’s tales and a fan of scary stories in me like the marriage of the genres. I didn’t love the book, that much is obvious by now, but it made for an intriguing, somewhat frustrating, but fairly entertaining read. Thanks Netgalley.
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