Like The Tomato
Nothing here but my musings about daily life, books, anime, and food.
Roma Reacts to Darling Girl
- Title: Darling Girl
- Author: Liz Michalski
- Genre: Fantasy
- Pages: 352
- Publisher: Dutton
- Published: 2022
I would like to assume that everyone has heard of Peter Pan. Or at least familiar with it. I never watched the Disney movie, Peter Pan. I have not read the book. However, the Peter Pan I knew was from an anime adaptation of the novel by JM Barrie. I enjoyed this anime while growing up in the Philippines. So for this purpose, let’s just say that I am familiar with Peter Pan. This book followed Holly, the granddaughter of Wendy Darling – yes that Wendy from the fairy tale. Holly had to take on the infamous Peter Pan to save her daughter’s life.
What made me pick this up? When this book showed up on Book of the Month, I had to get it. The premise itself was interesting. I mean, you cannot go wrong with a dark Peter Pan. And I enjoyed that aspect of the book. It was nice to see Peter Pan not being the golden boy. Let’s just say that this book would definitely give you a different idea of the boy himself. I loved it. And honestly, it made me continue reading the book. Heads up though, trigger warning for the depiction of sexual assault.
However, regardless of the premise, I had issues with Holly. The protagonist. She was not likeable whatsoever. There were decisions she made that I questioned and hated her for. I was livid for the most part when I was reading. And that made me struggle a lot since the book was following her. There were some questions about morals and ethics for sure. All I could think of was “What the fuck is wrong with you”.
What really made my skin crawl? Holly’s tryst with Peter. Sure, it might not be a prolonged affair. But she was doing sexual things with this boy. The excuse? He looked older than what was described in the fairy tale. But how old? One thing that stood out to me was the concept that Peter Pan gets old, he just does not grow up. So you’re saying this man-child has a handicap? And then what annoyed me more, just to justify the actual sexual act in this book, it was put in as a sexual assault. Peter assaulted Holly and that resulted in her getting pregnant.
There was also a private investigator in this book that made me smile when he was on the pages. The way he was introduced made me swoon, and from then, I was just swooning.
The book was good, I found the premise really interesting. However, I did not enjoy the book as much as I thought I would. And that was because the MC was just so darn unlikeable. I really do not like her. It was so hard to read because I found her decisions and rationales so infuriating. The ending was fine. I just wished I saw the big showdown between Peter and the investigator. And I somehow felt cheated because Holly was not in the final showdown so I missed the whole climax of it. Would I reread this? Probably not. But hey, I would keep this on my bookshelf regardless.
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