Darling by K. Ancrum shows why you shouldn’t risk it all for Peter Pan

First and foremost, Darling by K. Ancrum is a crime thriller, but the magic of this young adult novel is that it masquerades as a coming-of-age fantasy. Not because Ancrum is pulling the wool over the readers’ eyes but because we fall into the trap of our own expectations.

Why? Because Darling is a Peter Pan retelling. As such we see what we want to see. It’s confirmation bias, and Ancrum is deft at exploiting that tendency.

Even as it’s made clear that she is exploring the darker elements of J.M. Barrie’s classic children’s tale, there will be readers like myself who can’t shake the memory of Disney’s Peter Pan. The fun-loving, mischievous Peter who means well even as he gets everyone into heaps of trouble.

Fair warning, that is not Darling’s Peter Pan.

Darling is a rollicking retelling that transforms Peter Pan into a teen crime drama

When Wendy Darling–a new transplant to Chicago whose protective parents are keeping her from visiting her best friend Eleanor–sneaks out with Peter, it’s an act of rebellion.

She told her parents her window needed fixing, they put it off, and then in climbs Peter when they’re out of the house. He’s charming, pretty, and offers to show her the city after she’s sewed the sleeve back onto his jacket.

It’s the kind of warm, slightly heart-pounding moment that teen contemporaries are made of, the stuff that has teenagers hungrily digging into books that promise adventure with a side of disobedience.

That’s the fantasy element, and Ancrum wastes little time yanking the sheet off that ghost to reveal the truth of the situation. Wendy, a young Black girl who doesn’t know the area, has just snuck out of her house with someone she doesn’t know. Someone whose charisma hides a dark secret.

Ancrum adds canon bits from the classic tale like Tinkerbell’s jealousy, the Lost Boys, Captain Hook, and even the mermaid lagoon. But, they’re all turned on their head, shaping this story that gets darker and darker as Wendy is pulled further into Peter’s web.

These twists bring a freshness to Darling that helps lay the groundwork for the insidious nature of Peter’s dealings as well as bringing moments of levity and wonder. The reader learns about the Lost Boys with a depth that makes you want to know them though not be them.

By the time Ancrum’s Tiger Lily replacement, Ominotago, is brought into the story, Darling has become a survive the night narrative. Peter has been revealed as dangerous, but Wendy is still processing the difference between the Peter she wants to believe in and the person he actually is.

Ominotago’s arrival tips the scales, further unraveling the fantasy because Ancrum subverts expectations. Wendy’s, and likely the readers, explaining away of Peter’s behavior ceases entirely as the truth becomes more and more apparent. There’s something wrong with Peter, and Wendy is in over her head.

Darling is the kind of retelling that takes you by surprise and doesn’t let you go. However, it’s not a fun and cutesy iteration of Peter Pan’s story. This is a tale of abuse and fraud, of someone preying on marginalized youth–queer, poor, homeless, abandoned youth–for their own gain.

Peter is not the hero, Wendy and the rest of the kids who have been led astray by him are. Without being didactic, Ancrum pours realism into Darling that completely destroys the romanticism behind the contemporary fantasy of a stranger pulling the protagonist into a wild adventure that will change their life for the better.

Darling is a reminder that not all pretty things bring pretty outcomes and that parents are protective for a reason. If you’re looking for a book that defies expectations, K. Ancrum’s Peter Pan retelling is the young adult novel for you.