Review: All Darling Children

 

All Darling Children reads like Peter Pan meets Dark Shadows. It’s more than a little twisty and picks up many years after Pan takes the Darling children to Neverland. This time he takes Madge Darling, Wendy’s granddaughter and the story unravels her mysterious lineage and dysfunctional family (Rumors of Wendy killing one brother while the other became an alcoholic). Madge is a street-tough girl with a mouth and the desire to get away. When she finally succeeds at escaping the clutches of her villainous family she is whisked away by an odd boy to can fly.

All the important figures are present in the book, along with the tension and relationship drama one would expect from a YA novel. Excerpts from the diary of Wendy Moira Angela Darling bare wide the sometimes bipolar mood swings of Peter (and his narcissism, too,) and the depths of Wendy’s pining (and both of their ignorance to romance—it certain feels authentic in that regard).

One thing is certain as Madge spends time with Peter and his tribe: Madge is not Wendy.

Katrina Monroe’s writing is tight and engaging. The dark overtones and subterfuge interweaving Barrie’s original ideas updates them with the right amount of flair so that the story is not merely derivative, but wholly her own. As a big fan of the original I was pleased that she had done such a good job with the material.

 

You can find the book at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/All-Darling-Children-Katrina-Monroe-ebook/dp/B01LYDW0U5