The Lost Girls: A Novel

by Laurie Fox

Now a major motion picture starring Louis Partridge and Vanessa Redgrave , The Lost Girls is the story of a now grown-up Wendy and her ties to Peter Pan, in a novelized retelling of the original fairy tale.

Imagine a world in which the sole purpose of the women in the Darling family has been to entertain Peter Pan and his lost tribe. That is, until the contemporary Wendy Darling decides that she does not want to succumb to the same fate of the three generations before her. And she does not want to bear a daughter whose destiny is to follow Peter Pan to a suspect fantasyland, become thoroughly smitten, and then go back to a life that is far less remarkable, waiting forever to return. In The Lost Girls , Wendy straddles the line separating the human desire for freedom and security, fantasy and reality in a truly unique take on a classic.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Retellings, Adult, Young Adult, Fairy Tales, Magic

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2003

About the author

Laurie Fox is the author of the autobiographical novel, My Sister from the Black Lagoon (Simon & Schuster; Publishers Weekly starred review; full-page New York Times Book Review), The Lost Girls (Simon & Schuster; featured in USA Today) and the "interactive" haiku poetry book, Sexy Hieroglyphics (Chronicle Books). In turn, she has published two chapbooks, Sweeping Beauty: Notes on Cinderella and I Love Walt (both from Illuminati), and her poetry has been included in several literary journals.

A graduate of UC Santa Cruz in Creative Writing and Theatre, Laurie has written and performed in many theatre and performance art works. A former bookseller of both new and antiquarian books, Laurie was a longtime creative writing teacher and freelance editor. She is presently working on a new novel as well as completing the book for a musical, anotherwhere (a sample of the songs can be heard on MySpace).

A native of Los Angeles, Laurie currently resides in Berkeley, CA, in author Philip K. Dick's teenaged home. And yes, she does dream of electric sheep!

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Everyone who has an idea about writing a sequel to Peter Pan, listen up:

STOP IT.

Right now.

Put down the pen, and step away from the notebook.

You can't. Know why? Peter Pan was an unlikeable character, and I can say that b/c I love JM Barrie's original work.

But you, yes you, can't improve on it. All you can do is drag it down.
This book is no exception. Apparently, Wendy's granddaughter is an unlikable character as well. And rather than rejoice in the Neverland she's found, she whines, LORD does she whine. She has a daughter, she whines about that. Her mother is missing, she whines about that. Peter Pan is a jerk (duh. Am I the only person who gets the whole boy who won't grow up thing? Of course he's a jerk. think about why you stopped dating the guy who wouldn't grow up. See? Complete jerk.) and she whines.
Skip this one. Read something by Dave Barry instead. Laughter is better for you than listening to someone whine for 1000 pages.

[Jiji · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book reminded me of the 10 hour long road trips I used to take with my grandmother from Washington to Montana. Every few hours would be a beautiful park, hamlet, or town, but really all the in-between was just yellow grass.

[Ashley Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 'The Lost Girls' tells the story of five generations of Darling women: Wendy (the original), Jane, Margaret, Wendy and Berry.
Every Darling woman is burdened by the famous story and eventually gets to meet the alluring Peter. All women fall in love with the boy, which leads to feeling of neglect and frustration as they inevitably... grow up.

I've always loved Peter Pan and the story of Neverland. I was excited to read a tale with more realistic views on the Lost Boys, Wendy Darling and the blessing (or curse) of never growing up.

[maddie grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

“As you look at Wendy, you may see her hair becoming white, and her figure little again, for all this happened long ago. Jane is now a common grown-up, with a daughter called Margaret; and every spring cleaning time, except when he forgets, Peter comes for Margaret and takes her to the Neverland, where she tells him stories about himself, to which he listens eagerly. When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter, who is to be Peter's mother in turn; and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.”

Thus ends J.M. Barrie’s novel Peter Pan. It’s an ending that rings of adventure, of the hope that Neverland’s story will be passed down for generations.

But what if the children do not remain, as Barrie puts it, gay and innocent and heartless? What if the generational blessing is really a curse? What if it only takes one Darling girl to destroy the image of that perfect boy, the one who claims flight can be achieved by thinking happy thoughts?

To be entirely honest, I read this book a month ago, and I don’t remember much about the plot. Which is mostly intentional; I tried to mentally erase the defamation The Lost Girls committed against my favorite fairytale. I’m not opposed to an antagonistic Peter (case in point: OUAT), but Peter Pan doesn’t make much of an appearance in this story. Rather, the focus is on the Darling women, and how each of them cope with the mark he left on their lives.

Other than that, I don’t recall the specifics, besides (minor spoilers ahead!) a creepy Captain Hook, some guy who fiddled with sound effects, and an instance where one girl failed to think happy thoughts and flew for a few seconds before crashing to the ground and breaking half her bones. Or something. By that point in the story I was willing to accept anything, no matter how ludicrous, yet that part still managed to startle me into laughing aloud.

Was this book what I expected? No. Was it an interesting read? Mostly. Did I buy the book only because Louis Partridge is on the cover? …Not saying. Bottom line is, Peter Pan might be a hero, or he might be a villain. But the cause of generational trauma and subsequent depression? That’s a take I’d rather not unpack. The original Peter Pan explores what it means to be a child, to never grow up, but The Lost Girls laughs at that message, beats it up, then tramples it into the dirt.

For a Peter Pan retelling, there's far too much depression and far too little Peter Pan.

[Sabrina Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

What doesn’t make sense to me is, how the book is supposed to be about the Darling women and their attraction to Peter Pan, but you never really get any reason/explanation as to WHY they are so attracted to him in the first place and why they can’t let go of him, ever.

The book lacks Peter Pan and Neverland. I guess, I expected to read more about their time with Peter in Neverland and not the aftermath and their emotions. It‘s really hard to understand, where their strong emotions come from, when you get so little insight into the interaction between them and Peter. It just doesn’t make any sense at times.

[Abby Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, so, not only does this thing EXIST, but we've all been deprived of good paper!"



The premise is BRILLANT, let me say straight off. I LOVE the idea of a book about Wendy and her line of daughters and granddaughters all having to deal with the fact that none of them can keep Peter Pan and yet they all fall in love with him.

The book itself is a mess. Not since Something Borrowed have I seen dialogue so PAINFUL I thought my brain cells were dying reading it. Now, I know next to NOTHING about this author, so she may be young, she may be old, beats me, but she writes like an old person TRYING to sound hip. In particular, Wendy the Second and Peter Pan sound like annoying morons. The one reason I would have forced myself to finish this would be to find out why the original Wendy's (did I mention the lost boys actually call her O.W.???) daughter, Jane, is missing, but the dialogue bothered me so much I slammed the book shut and said, "Ya know what? I DON'T CARE!"

Even the narrative feels clunky, as in the prose sucks too. I realize how much work goes into writing a book, being an author myself (working on getting published currently), and I'm not trying to be mean, but I personally found this HORRID.

If I could have liked even just ONE character... Perhaps it wouldn't have been SO VERY AWFUL? I don't know. Sigh.

And it's a shame because this had sooo much going for it story-wise. There was just SOOOOO much the author could have done to make it wonderful. But she didn't.

Don't recommend.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. I was really attracted to the premise.But the story was, frankly, very depressing. Very Freudian, very psychological, very dark.

I didn't enjoy the book. But it definitely made me think - yes Ms. Fox, guys can be immature d*bags (not all guys, however). Yes our parents sometimes don't (or can't) be the parents we need. Yes, family history influences our lives. I don't discount any of those conclusions. But you always have a choice to overcome your past, especially the mistakes that your ancestors made. You can break the cycle, anytime. Wendy Jr. didn't have to go with Peter - she made a choice to. I feel like her Nana Wendy and mother Margaret made her feel like she had no choice - that this is "just what Darling women do". The fallout from expectations imposed on all of Nana Wendy's descendants broke them in different ways. Berry's "failure" with Peter shatters her. There is more to life than a guy - even "the" guy. (There's always that one guy who makes a phenomenal impact on a woman, especially when she can't have him. I have mine, LORD do I have mine...) A guy who can't see a woman's value enough to "remember" her and attend to her needs as much as she attends to his IS NOT WORTH IT. That was a hard lesson for me to learn, and there are days when I admittedly still unlearn it and have to re-learn it. But it's true. And another lesson: any woman who can't value herself beyond the love of a man doesn't deserve the love of a "grown-up" man. She isn't "grown-up" herself until she does.

Anyway, clearly I got something out of this book haha. And that's how I justify the three star rating.

[Savannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it was too subtle for some readers? There were moments that shone with brilliance. You had to give it a careful read. Then it became not just about men and women but about mothers and daughters, and how "good" and "evil" and even genetic predisposition can be overruled. I felt like the book in a lot of ways was really about Berry and how she overrode Hook's "plans" as best as she could just by being who she truly was--and how her mother, supposedly genetically "good" turned out self-absorbed. I'll admit, I may be reading it wrong, but that's how it came across to me and its surrealist tone was addictive.

[Bryn Greenwood]

Not really sure what to say about this one. As an analogy for mothers pressuring their daughters to find a man it introduces some interesting cultural questions. Story-wise it’s a bit at odds with itself, veering between the fantastical & the mundane with considerable lapses in passion & details.

[Shazza Maddog · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is Ms. Fox's third novel and by the commentary on the back, I figured on something comedic and twistedly funny. Er...no. Well, if it was twistedly funny, I didn't find it.

The story revolves around Wendy Darling, the great-granddaughter of the original Wendy Darling - and Current-Wendy's relationships with her daughter, Berry, her husband, Freeman, her mother, Margaret, her great-grandmother, Nana-Wendy, her father, Daddy and of course, Peter Pan.

Okay, so Peter doesn't make too much of an appearance in the book which, to my eyes, is a pity (hey, I'm rather fond of Peter. What can I say?). The story reads as an interesting fantasy; that the Darling women (of which there is a new one born every generation - but only one) are continuously haunted/courted by Peter, who takes them to Neverland and that experience dictates their lives. Or at least, that's the way Current-Wendy feels about the matter.

Sadly, Current-Wendy has so many passive-aggressive tendencies, she reads like a shopping list of neurosis. Berry is pretty much the same way though I was willing to forgive her a little more - she's had her great-great-great Grandmother, her Grandmother and her Mother all leading her up to this central point in her life - when Peter comes to take her away for her stint in Neverland - but she's a "current kid" with all the current problems.

I think I really enjoyed Current-Wendy's childhood more than anything else in the story - there were a lot of asides to the original book (such as some of the neighbors' names and places she visited - aside from Neverland).

I'm afraid I was a little more than relieved to reach the end of the novel, which is a shame because the premise was so interesting.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasn't really a fan of this. I debated giving it 2 stars, but I think the writing was okay. It just wasn't for me. I guess I was expecting something a little different. Maybe even just more focus on the time in Neverland? And every so often, the author threw in a "big word" that took me out of the story. They felt out of place.

And I guess it was one of those books that felt more like telling than showing. I don't feel like I really got to know the characters and I don't understand why Pan was such an attraction to them and why their time in Neverland changed them so much (again, I wish there'd been more time there). I also don't totally understand Berry's resentment.

Just . . . it felt like nothing happened. Or maybe that it happened, but nothing changed. And one of those books that makes me go, "It would be so much more interesting if this or this or this happened."

ETA: HA. I just noticed I actually DID give it two stars. Well, I won't argue with my subconscious!

[Annie Twitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A raw, rough, and passionate view into the world of imagination and reality and where the lines cross and blur, The Lost Girls was a stunning work of art.

[Todd Crawshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was immediately intrigued and taken by the premise of The Lost Girls: A family legend of madness that strikes each generation of the Darling girls who, at a certain ripe age, are visited by an exacerbatingly-charming boy, Peter Pan, and are swept off to Neverland.

“You could say mine is a story with a hook. A hook to a boy who hardly exists anymore, except in glimpses of my husband, in piss-poor dreams of flying around rooms like a damn fairy, in the stranglehold the past has on the imagination.”

The psychological aspect of the novel fascinated me. The interplay between girls and boys, women and men, mother and daughter relationships, and the generational difference between the Darlings. Do girls/women fantasize and hope for too much? Do boys/men lose themselves to their adventures and never really grow up? Is the reverse true as well? Is “Flying to Neverland” a metaphor for Dreams, Imagination, Seduction, Sexual Pleasure, Illusions, Delusions, or a Wish-Upon-A-Star-World-That-Can-Never-Be? Maybe all of the above?

“It was this dark mischief, coupled with the fickle companionship of the Boys, that set the stage for my confusion in life, and precipitated a disorientation worse than the effects of any hallucinogen … It would be too easy to say that I was ravished. Rape is too strong a word, devalued not strong enough. For I believe the shadow had its way with me. I know it had some sort of horrid meat hook for an arm. They say it even named itself after its appendage. That this shadow was human … If I were a crime scene, I swear you’d find fingerprints on every inch of my skin – that’s all I can tell you. For The Neverland is one big projection, and I had very little to project at the time.”

It would appear from the cover design (which I like) and jacket blurb (“a re-enchantment that speaks to women of all ages”) that this book was marketed primarily to women. Since I embody the male gender side of life and can only speak from my man/child point of view – and as a writer of fiction who perpetually has one foot planted in reality and the other floating in fantasy – I could relate to all the characters. This novel has a lot of wonderful, spectacular writing. However, if anyone experiences bumpy sections in the story, these are far and few between. Enjoy this wild journey: “Over thorns, to the stars.”

[Veronica R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out in a magical and beautiful way. I could not put it down and flipped through the pages with enthralled and delighted ease. As it went on, particularly after narrating main character reveals Pan did not return for her in the following springs, the story spiraled into a dismal gray exploration of psyche. Like its characters, it never found happiness again to lift itself off and fly once more. I wanted more of Pan, the Lost Boys and the magic of Neverland. Instead, the remainder of the book was an immersion into the main character’s depression and the exhausting, disrespectful behavior of her horrid daughter. There’s so much more the author could have done with this beautiful premise. I thought for sure there would be a connection between Pan and her pilot father. There was no consequence for Hook’s horrendous assault. Why did Barry look so different from her parents? The plot with Jane was hurried and fell flat. I will say, I can’t wait for the movie, though, and hope it delivers more of the magic of the storyline!

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the concept, but was ultimately disappointed by this book. Wendy Darling, the great-grandaughter of the original Wendy, has her own adventures with Peter Pan, as have all the Darling women just before they reach puberty. Are they all suffering from the same delusion or do they really go off to Neverland? The chain is broken when Wendy's daughter Berry, named after of course J.M. Barrie, fails to fly. She hovers for a just a minute, but comes crashing down to earth. Barrie has her own mental issues, are these preventing her from flying, or is she the sanest of the bunch? Bringing the book down, is it's clunky dialogue and annoying characters. Fox tries to be clever and instead just comes off twee.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am disappointed by this book, the premise about generations of Darling women who all fly off to neverland and love Peter Pan for a brief moment, fell into a dark and manic sort of psychological study. I so wanted to have the story engage me but I had to force myself to go on, unable to simply abandon it! This 271 page book seemed like its pages were lead, I perseverd and got through it. This fanatsy had so much more potential!

[Koralleen Stavish · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were such great ideas in here, but the story was off-putting and the characters implausible. So no. I picked it up because I saw there is a future movie based on this book and I think it could be a great framework, still.

[Jonathan Beckner · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm fascinated by every decision that went into making this book that was then used to make a movie that is just as baffling, though the movie does skip the part where going to Neverland is compared to the Holocaust.

[Reborn]

If an alien observed humans for a few months, then wrote a novel, it would be this. If this book had a plot, it got lost in Neverland.

[Peaches · Rating 2 out of 5]

“We discovered that what young men offer is fleeting and slippery, and quite possibly the most glamorous adventure of all (x).

***Spoilers included***
Like many girls, the story of Peter Pan has followed me throughout my youth. I remember as a very young child being so confused by the Mary Martin version, enjoying the Disney version, absolutely loving Hook, then following the other attempts to imagine the story with limited success such as the highly unnecessary Pan and the 2003 version when Peter was decidedly a very unattractive casting. I’ve always been the “Wendy” to my guy friends’ and boyfriends’ Peter Pans and lost boys, and I even read the actual book, which I mainly remember because Peter is depicted as heartless (very accurate of children) and degrading of women (like how he completely forgot who Tinkerbell was).

As for this book, I had no clue it existed until I saw the atrocious movie version on Hulu. I was so horrified by it for several reasons (look up any of the reviews and they all sum up my own opinions), the worst of which is that Livia De Paolis was such a horrible actress and could not hide her Italian accent at all; however, the idea intrigued me and I assumed the book had to be better when, frankly, a lot of the reviewers of the film should somewhat owe De Paolis an apology. Although she was a horrible actress, the movie really is similar to the book, dialogue and all, aside from the poor special effects.

The plot centers around how generations of Darling women all disappear with Peter and then return, changed and perceived by society as unhinged until Wendy 2 (OG Wendy’s granddaughter) has a brazen, jerk of a daughter named Berry (who makes me very glad I have a so) who fails to fly away with Peter because she has no happy thoughts and it is implied it is due to generational trauma. The readers are left with the decision to believe that they all suffer from mental illness or that it actually happened.

The biggest aspect of this book that I hated is that Peter Pan is a foil for mother/daughter relationships and readers are mainly stuck with vague allusions to Hook “ravishing” girls, the lost boys whining, and Peter shunning advances. There are no adventures, just unrequited horniness from the Daring women and mostly present-day accounts of how Wendy 2 thinks her life is horrible. The most interesting part is how it is alluded to that Peter and Jane had a physical relationship, which is never explained fully. In the movie, De Paolis chose to have Wendy 2’s fantasy of hooking up with Peter attributed to Jane (and made it “real”), but in the book, it’s so vague it’s obnoxious and I wish it just wasn’t put in at all. There was also an interesting part where Peter brings a random new girl to the island and forces Wendy 2 to leave, but again, it’s not developed at all. The whole book is a murky commentary on what it is like to be a hetero female who wants to be the “one” with crushes on self-absorbed boys with some attempts at feminism thrown in with Hook sexually harassing women (and Hook had a grandson? Why isn’t that explained?!). The loose ideas were just so perplexing, like Peter suddenly somewhat aging? Was it punishment for being sexual with Jane? Who knows?! As someone who was once a hetero young girl, I wanted this to resonate with me so much, but it was too frustrating to do so even though I somewhat knew what Fox was trying (and failing) to do.

Fox’s diction was also annoying. Why refer to it as “The Neverland” and keep calling Peter “Pan” alternately? Then, the ridiculous dialogue of Berry, most notably, “Sayonara, Mu-Mu” (164), which De Paolis at least changed “Mu-Mu” to “Mama,” but was still ripped apart by critics as a horrible attempt to portray teenage jargon when it was, in fact, the idiocy of Fox.

Ultimately, it was a great idea, but executed so atrociously poorly. I liked Wendy 2 and Berry going to Disneyland to ride the Peter Pan ride ok and I think Fox depicted Peter strikingly well. In fact, he was the only interesting character aside from OG Wendy and Jane and he aligns with the original text, but he couldn’t get the rest of the book to soar. Wendy 2 was miserable and dull and I wish any other Darling woman had been the focus instead, even if Berry was insufferable as well.

[Morgan Goodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it to be a really profound and beautiful commentary on womanhood and generational trauma. However, it was a tough read. Don’t get me wrong I thought it was very interesting and even poetically written at times, but it made me feel horrible lol. Which in some ways is the point of the book, I guess. It may seem like a book about a bedtime story character but it deals with some really difficult topics and while I do not regret reading it and I totally appreciate its commitment to exploring and giving a unique and raw voice to those topics, I would not read it again because it was so raw.

That said, if you’re looking for something that takes a deep dive into some of the darker aspects of womanhood and the way our family’s trauma shapes our own trauma I thought it was a really interesting story.

[Jessica Pendleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure if the other reviewers were expecting action-packed explosions, a dazzlingly magical heroine with a larger-than-life companion, or a protagonist discovering some hidden power.

Fox’s portrayal of these women as they grapple with mental breakdowns, the struggle for self-acceptance, and the painful process of reconciling idealized love with lived experience presents a raw and unapologetic exploration of the human psyche. The novel deftly critiques the myth of Peter Pan, not as an external villain, but as an internalized ideal, one that casts long shadows over the emotional lives of these women. In doing so, Fox eloquently underscores the notion that the true journey of love is not one of perpetual youth, but of confronting one's demons and finding peace within the tumult of human imperfection.

[Jasmine M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like it more. It is a really cool concept but I felt like I was waiting for the shoe to drop the whole time, anticipating a big reveal. To get behind why Peter keeps doing this perhaps, why Jane is different for him, what is Margaret actually dealing with(has she been making things up as she got older), and more. Instead the ending lacked luster and I believe similar to Margaret’s tendency to never end her stories, that kind of happens here but instead an ending chapter was tacked on to make it appear to have been finished. Really did like the concept but just wanted more than it provided.

[William R.L. Wittich · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is certainly an interesting concept, but the execution makes me sick. I can understand that Fox wishes to get her point across about the curse that Pan has placed on the Darling girls throughout the story, although... the amount of child pornography, paedophilia, not to mention the indirect incest, makes this book the worst piece of media I have ever consumed. It's a walking red flag all over the place, and I wouldn't recommend it even if my life depended on it.

[rafia]

I've heard of the upcoming adaptation of this book and heard it's a DARKER take on peter pan?? YES. I've never actually read peter pan, just watched the movie endlessly in childhood BUT I'm hella excited for this !!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This delightful twist on the Peter Pan story was written by my college friend, and looking forward to seeing the movie version when it's released! https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1023464/...

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF. Held out, through all the whining, until this gem:
After giving me an almost erotic buss on the lips, he brushed the hair from my ear and whispered: “Wendy Amelia Darling Braver-man.”
“Yes, Daddy?” I said.

Barf.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

How does falling in love with Peter Pan at age 12 affect the rest of your life? Wendy Darling, her daughter, grand-daughter, and great-grand-daughter answer the question.

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting but very very inconclusive

[Mary Jo]

DNF