Chrissy’s Review: Wendy Darling: Volume One Stars by Colleen Oakes

Wendy Darling: Volume One Stars (Wendy Darling #1)
written by Colleen Oakes
published by SparkPress, 2015

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange  for an honest review.

Did I enjoy this book: I did enjoy Stars, volume one in Ms. Oakes’s new Wendy Darling series.

I can’t remember if I ever read Peter Pan when I was younger, but I’m interested in reading it now. This was an interesting take on Peter Pan. I loved that it was from Wendy’s point of view. It had action and adventure. It had fun and excitement. It also had some very scary and depressing moments. And there were definitely parts that made me want to cry. Peter Pan isn’t the happy-go-lucky boy that never grows up. He runs an interesting operation in Neverland. There’s a heirarchy to the lost boys–from pips to generals to those given the gift of flight from Peter. Tinker Bell is in this book, and she isn’t very nice at all. I’d love to know how she became the last fairy in Neverland. That would be a great story. (We’re big Tinker Bell fans in our house. They are great movies!!) Anyway . . .

Michael and the rest of the pips really broke my heart. They clearly missed their mothers. It made me want to cry. My boys are around the pips’ ages, and I couldn’t imagine. John was a complete jerk–both before Neverland and while in Neverland he got worse. I couldn’t believe he could hate his sister so much. Peter isn’t very nice at all. He showed some very dark sides throughout the book. We didn’t see too much of Captain Hook. And I was saddened by the deaths that occurred.

This is not a book for kids. It is dark, and a bit twisted. But I will say that once I got about halfway into the book, I was hooked and wanted to see how it ended. I can’t wait to read the next installment.

 

Would I recommend it: If you like retellings classic children’s books, then yes, check out this book.

About the book – from Goodreads: From the Best-Selling Author of Queen of Hearts comes a dark and mesmerizing twist on the beloved Children’s Classic, Peter Pan.

Wendy Darling has a perfectly agreeable life with her parents and brothers in wealthy London, as well as a budding romance with Booth, the neighborhood bookseller’s son. But while their parents are at a ball, the charmingly beautiful Peter Pan comes to the Darling children’s nursery and—dazzled by this flying boy with god-like powers—they follow him out of the window and straight on to morning, to Neverland, a intoxicating island of feral freedom.

As time passes in Neverland, Wendy realizes that this Lost Boy’s paradise of turquoise seas, mermaids, and pirates holds terrible secrets rooted in blood and greed. As Peter’s grasp on her heart tightens, she struggles to remember where she came from—and begins to suspect that this island of dreams, and the boy who desires her—have the potential to transform into an everlasting nightmare.