In some ways, I would have liked this book to dig a bit deeper into the things that really fascinate me about Peter Pan’s story, namely how messed up everything about Neverland is once you look closely. Which I think is made fairly clear from the blurb, but worth a mention in case people missed that.) (The sexual element of the book is fairly minor and, while unambiguous, isn’t explicit as such, so I doubt it’d offend anyone except homophobes, but it’s there. That said, there are some crucial differences between this and the original story, namely that JM Barrie’s story is a children’s book and this isn’t: the romance element makes that quite clear. The idea that belief can save a fairy, for example: it’s the power of thought that controls what happens and who lives in Neverland, and this is the same in Peter Darling. In some ways, this meta telling is true to the ideas of the original story. It gets quite meta in places, treating Neverland as a story more than a real place, and without giving any spoilers, this comes with the knowledge that it is essentially controlled by Peter (and to a lesser extent, Hook) in whose minds it was created. So you can tell from the beginning this is going to be quite a different take on the story, and it continues to be so in other ways. Peter is trans, and Wendy is his deadname / past self that he has left behind: Neverland is the place where he can be himself. Peter Darling has a very cool concept: it’s a Peter Pan sequel/retelling where Wendy and Peter are the same person.
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