Tink and Wendy

For almost 40 years, blonde, immortal, human child–size fairy Tinker Bell has lived in Upstate New York, her wings destroyed. Numbing herself with alcohol, Tink spends her days at the Darling estate dreaming of Neverland and tending to the graves of Peter Pan and Wendy Darling. When Wendy’s teenage granddaughter Hope unexpectedly appears, Tink gradually reveals the magical, tragic history of her and Peter’s time with the Darlings, starting with their initial foray from Neverland and continuing with Peter’s forbidden fascination with the human world—and Wendy in particular. As the dual-timeline story unfolds, present-day Tink and Hope must work through their individual issues as past Tink tries to get Peter to return to Neverland, and finds herself juggling her love for the eternal boy with an attraction toward Wendy, even though she knows the doomed love triangle can’t end well. Interspersing entries from a magical history of Neverland, Jacobson (The Troublemakers) offers a haunting, dreamlike reinterpretation of Peter Pan with a queer, contemporary cast that reads as white, retaining some of the original story’s whimsy while rooting the emotional components in grief, trauma, and recovery. Ages 15–up. (Oct.)