This was such a fun read. Not to give away any spoilers, but I love Peter Pan’s story and to get it not only from a different perspective but also with such a twist on the classic tale. I devoured it!

What a dark take on Peter Pan, but I couldn't put the book down!Wendy Darling moves to Chicago and falls in with Peter Pan's gang for a night of adventure that she could never have imagined. This YA novel would be a great read after the original story, in order to compare the 2.

On Wendy Darling’s first night in Chicago, a boy called Peter appears at her window. He’s dizzying, captivating, beautiful—so she agrees to join him for a night on the town.

Wendy thinks they’re heading to a party, but instead they’re soon running in the city’s underground. She makes friends—a punk girl named Tinkerbelle and the lost boys Peter watches over. And she makes enemies—the terrifying Detective Hook, and maybe Peter himself, as his sinister secrets start coming to light. Can Wendy find the courage to survive this night—and make sure everyone else does, too?

WOOOOW I did not anticipate where this book was going AT ALL. And to be honest, I loved it. There are a lot of dark topics in this book so be sure to check out content warnings on Kayla's website. (This contents of this review does not mention or go into detail on any of those topics).

I did not find this as lyrical as Ancrum's other books but I think that's to be expected given the prose structure. This is a singular narrative story whereas The Wicker King consisted of vignettes. I only mention this because I think some people may go into this expecting Kayla's beautifully lyrical writing and may be disappointed to find a more straightforward storytelling prose. All of this is to say I still really enjoyed the writing here.

This book gets an A+ for diversity. There were so many groups represented here and honestly you just love to see it. Though I don't think the characters were as fleshed out and identifiable as they could have been, especially the lost boys. I had a really hard time telling them apart. The female characters were a bit easier to distinguish between but I'm not sure if that was because there were fewer and we spent more time with them than they were better written.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes thrillers and mysterious characters. Just know that it gets very dark in the last 30%!

Wendy thinks they’re heading to a party, but instead they’re soon running in the city’s underground. She meets a punk girl named Tinkerbelle and the lost boys Peter watches over. And she makes enemies, the terrifying Detective Hook, and maybe Peter himself, as his sinister secrets start coming to light. This is a great spin on Peter Pan in the 21st century and I enjoyed reading it.

*Thank you very much to Imprint, K.Ancrum and Netgalley for giving me a copy of Darling in exchange for an honest review *

I've been excited about "Darling" since Kayla announced she was doing a Peter Pan retelling. This is one of my most anticipated books, and Kayla did not disappoint. She takes the Peter Pan tale, gives a modern twist, while throwing some excellent reinvention of things people love about the original tale. (The Shandow, Mermaids Lagoon,ect.) As a Chicago native, Kayla did throw out some places that someone who lives on the city may be familiar with (or the thirty seconds it'll take you to Google it. *shrugs*). I particularly loved the interaction between Wendy and Detective Hook. I LOVED everything Kayla has written and this continues with Darling. Fans of Fairytale Retelling MUST have this one their shelves.

K Ancrum is my favorite author, so this was a very anticipated read for me. Unfortunately, it fell short for me. I’m bummed to have to write anything short of a glowing review, but I had some struggles with this one. That might not be the case for you, but here are the reasons I struggled with this one.

I feel like K’s first two books were very character-driven and emotionally rich. This book is very different. It is definitely more plot and world driven than character-driven. The the rep within the characters was great. I loved Fyodor and it was amazing as an ace person to see a flirtatious and charismatic ace love interest. I don’t see that rep a lot, if ever. However, I felt like there were so many characters that none of them were really given the strength to breathe and live. If you aren’t as character-focused, this won’t bother you. But it kept me from connecting with the plot. I felt like the characters were being held at a distance from me and I wasn’t allowed to get too close. Now, Wendy barely knows these people, so that would make sense. She really is only getting a glimpse into this world, but it just felt too removed for me and it pulled me out of the story.

Additionally, I felt like this book did more telling than showing. The writing also felt very different to me than K’s other work. This isn’t necessarily bad, just another thing that didn’t work for me. I have read a few Peter Pan retellings now, and while I felt this had the best concept out of the ones that I’ve read, it just felt...distant to me. I don’t know how else to describe it. I almost felt like too much and too little was going on at once. I just couldn’t connect with it.

I did appreciate the dark side of Peter and that Peter was not the love interest in this story. Pretty much every retelling I’ve read romanticizes Peter, and while I do enjoy those stories as well, it was refreshing to acknowledge the abuse Peter perpetuates and the ways in which he hurts young people.

I’m not sure what would have made me enjoy this more. More fleshed-out characters, less telling....I think overall this just needed more. I think maybe if it was longer that would have helped that happen more.

Overall, I loved the concept and the ideas of the characters I just wish they felt as real as the characters in K’s previous novels. I will definitely recommend this to Peter Pan lovers, and to teens who enjoy queer found families. I think this book has a great aesthetic and concepts. I just wanted a little more. I just didn’t feel the same magic in this one that I did in this author’s previous novels. However, I still highly recommend this author and I think K is continuing to produce stories that are fresh and unique.

I have never really felt strongly about Peter Pan, and I decided to read this wholly because its K. Ancrum. WOW am I glad I did. I absolutely loved this book and these characters and absolutely everything about this. Wendy, Tinkerbelle, Ominotago, Fyodor, Eleanor and all the rest. Pick this up when its out in June.

Darling
by K. Ancrum
Pub Date: 22 Jun 2021

I'm glad I stuck with it because I ended up really liking it, but it was an early struggle to get there. I loved the modernization of the story and was intrigued by some of the new characterization (hint: Shadow). Because of the nature of the story, however, I do think it is better for the 13 and up, i.e., it's not a children's story. Without spoiling the story, the fact that Peter doesn't want to grow up takes on a new perspective in this modernized version.

The author supported the characterization of the characters' intelligence quite well with direct references to artists that "painted" the settings with their allusions. On the other hand, it's setting is Chicago, and some references would only be known by someone from that area.

In spite of the dark nature of this retold tale, there was a positive, empowering message also portrayed: choice. The reason I said I was glad I stuck with it was the backstory; the author exposed the backstory toward the end, and it was truly engaging.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I adored this book! I love Peter Pan retellings. I collect them because Peter Pan is my absolute favorite fairytale and I am always searching for more unique versions of this story and this one is definitely going to make it to my top five retellings!
I don't want to say to to much about this book at the thriller aspect of this book really needs you to go in not knowing to much. I will say I loved the diversity in this book. I have read dozens of retellings and I have never seen one where Wendy is black. In fact I have hardly seen any variation beyond the white narrative of the original story. This book was a great change just for that alone.
That being said I do have a problem with this book labeled as LGBTQA+. Yes this book does have some amazing queer side characters and I loved that but Wendy herself is not queer. The side characters queerness is not expressly mentioned beyond a few characters which is absolutely fine but that does make me feel like this book should not be labeled as LGBTQ. None of that changes my love for this book I just wanted to point that out.
This book was a great thriller and retelling of a classic children's tale brought to the moder world and given some great dark twist!