Darling

In this contemporary Peter Pan reimagining, Ancrum (The Weight of the Stars) reframes the fantasy as an after-hours adventure set in the shadows of Chicago. Wendy Darling, 17 and Black, chafes against her overprotective parents’ restrictions during her first week in the city where her mother was raised. When charismatic Peter Pan, who’s white, climbs through her broken window, she accepts his invitation to a party, sneaking out to join Peter and a group of disenfranchised teens, including “very short and very angry looking” Tinkerbelle, who’s bisexual and blonde. The route to the party is fraught with danger—the group evades police raids led by Detective Hook, and Wendy begins to realize that the night, and Peter, may conceal a dark agenda. Ancrum injects a healthy dose of intersectionality into the original’s structure: the group attends a drag performance at the Mermaid’s Lagoon nightclub, and the relationship between Tink and her girlfriend Ominotago, who is Ojibwe, is well wrought and tender. Upholding the spirit of adventure and the value of found family, Ancrum ramps up the tension through the increasingly discomforting night, creating a layered reworking. Ages 14–up. [em]Agent: Eric Smith, P.S. Literary. (June) [/em]