Darling Girl
A Novel of Peter Pan
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A Book of The Month Club pick
In this beautiful dive into the world of J. M. Barrie’s classic, one woman must take on the infamous Peter Pan—who is not the innocent adventurer the fairy tales make him out to be—to save her daughter’s life. . . .
Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy—yes, that Wendy. That is, until she gets a call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for nearly a decade, has gone missing from the estate where she’s been long tucked away. And, worst of all, Holly knows who must be responsible: Peter Pan, who is not only very real, but very dangerous.
Holly is desperate to find Eden and protect her son, Jack, from a terrible web of family secrets before she loses both her children. And yet she has no one to turn to—her mother, Jane, is the only other person in the world who knows that Peter is more than a story, but she refuses to accept that he is not the hero she’s always imagined.
Darling Girl brings all the magic of the classic Peter Pan story to the present, while also exploring the dark underpinnings of fairy tales, grief, aging, sacrifice, motherhood, and just how far we will go to protect those we love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Michalski's well-constructed second novel (after Evenfall) extends the world of Peter Pan into a fascinating contemporary drama which dives deeply into themes of aging, generational trauma, and the things parents are willing to do for—or to—their children. Holly Darling, skincare entrepreneur and granddaughter of the famous Wendy (who was the informant to J.M. Barrie's novel), has two living children: Eden, whose been comatose for the last decade because of a rapid aging condition, and Jack, whose severe injuries, incurred during the accident that killed his father and twin, can be temporarily cured by secret injections of Eden's blood, which has miraculous healing properties. When Eden disappears from the house in Cornwall where Holly hid her, Holly suspects Eden's father, Peter Pan, is responsible, and that the whole Darling family could be in danger. Michalski offers creative reworkings of classic characters—a dangerously narcissistic Peter, an unhinged and abused Tinker Bell, and a relentless one-handed detective who may or may not be Captain Hook—but it's the real-world side of the drama between Holly, her mother, her children, and her business partner that takes center stage. This dark, magical tale is sure to win fans.
