Wendy, Darling by A C Wise

I would like to thank Lydia from Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for affair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – Out Now

Price - £8.99 paperback £4.68 Kindle eBook

For those that lived there, Neverland was a children's paradise. No rules, no adults, only endless adventure and enchanted forests - all led by the charismatic boy who would never grow old.

But Wendy Darling grew up. She left Neverland and became a woman, a mother, a patient, and a survivor. Because Neverland isn't as perfect as she remembers. There's darkness at the heart of the island, and now Peter Pan has returned to claim a new Wendy for his lost boys...

This weekend we have discussed coming of age tales already so as an interesting counterpoint lets think about never growing up. A great Doctor once asked whats the point of being a grow up if you can’t be childish sometimes but who wants to be a child forever. Part of our culture is J M Barrie’s Peter Pan – the idea od Nevrland and just constant jolly adventures with no grown ups as a child is attractive. As an adult a place with no responsibility too doesn’t half sound good but too much of a good thing can be a problem. Hide as a child, take no responsibility and not learning to not always out yourself first is dangerous. In A C Wise’s fascinating Wendy, Darling we see what happened after the Darling Children returned from their adventures.

Linking into the ending of the original novel Wendy Darling is now married and has her own young daughter Jane. Peter arrives and takes Jane to Neverland. But this time Wendy now remembers Neverland differently and decides to try herself to get to Neverland to rescue Jane. While Jane finds a slightly wilder and more chaotic Neverland with Lost Boys forever bound to Pan’s mercurial mood and the games seem nastier and Jane is now just the Wendy to serve the Boys. A final dark secret of the island is about to be revealed.

This is a wonderfully constructed story. With Wendy Wise has opted to imagine how would a young girl with memories of this amazing place be realistically treated in the early twentieth century and her early life as a woman is dominated by how a woman is made powerless. From being such a key part of the adventure of a lifetime she is back to a world where woman has little agency and in fact as her brothers get older and in the light of losing her parents, we find her confirmed to an asylum for treatment. These scenes are hard hitting – cruelty and sexism abound.

Here the idea of Neverland acts as a place where you can try to escape to in daydream but eventually Wendy has to learn her own way to keep herself together helped by the excellent Mary a woman of native american ancestry confined to the asylum by her stepfather. Wise gives Wendy huge depth and strength and watching her navigate the perils of life including an arranged marriage to a stranger is an empowering read. Wise gently subverts our thoughts of the time as we see for example Michael recovering from PTSD in WW1 and even Wendy’s husband gets re-appraised as we see more about his life. The real world we see has more dangers and joys than Neverland can offer alone

But Neverland and Pan is the heart of the tale and here rather than the bright colours we remember of our use we find a world a lot darker (or perhaps we never noticed this before). The Mermaids lagoon is now filled with bones, the pirate ship is marooned and deserted and the Lost Boys have learnt to obey Peter’s demands and Games or they may suffer punishment. Pan in the stories was noted for being cruel and selfish and here those sides to his personality get emphasised more. Wendy leaves him and so he never comes back even when she is locked up for years and now he takes her daughter (could such a fun character be capable of revenge?). Wise starts to make us see Pan as something more than human revising our understanding of him as someone who steadfastly refuses to grow as a person who becomes tiresome and spiteful. Jane sees he defines her simply as a role in a game just expecting her to just mother his boys - not a real part of the family. Applying an adult perspective we see the sexism of the old story highlighted – boys have all the fun and women should be rescued. Wendy’s return though starts to put in motion a reason for changes and Wendy also starts to remember the secret Pan one day revealed that she’s hidden from memory for years leading to a very sombre climax as the characters finally re-meet.

What I love about this story is it doesn’t seek to completely revise the past but looks at it with a different perspective. Never growing up has attractions but you can’t stay there forever. You’re missing out on other parts of life even if there are other battles to face – Wendy has made her own life on her own terms, Jane wants to be a scientist not a mother to boys and Neverland’s stasis starts to lose appeal. This is a thoughtful revisioning and compelling reading. Well worth your time and for you to decide who really has the great adventure.