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kajoreads's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
The good:
–The premise and the setting were interesting.
–I enjoyed a lot of the commentary around transness.
–the Alice in Wonderland retelling aspect was fun.
The bad:
–There were some weird jokes and descriptions that came across like microaggressions.
–The mental illness rep was questionable.
–I wish the MC’s internalized misogyny was addressed better.
–Overall, the book simply didn’t live up to my expectations. The synopsis had me hoping for an investigative mystery. This wasn’t that.
–The resolution was underwhelming.
–The premise and the setting were interesting.
–I enjoyed a lot of the commentary around transness.
–the Alice in Wonderland retelling aspect was fun.
The bad:
–There were some weird jokes and descriptions that came across like microaggressions.
–The mental illness rep was questionable.
–I wish the MC’s internalized misogyny was addressed better.
–Overall, the book simply didn’t live up to my expectations. The synopsis had me hoping for an investigative mystery. This wasn’t that.
–The resolution was underwhelming.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Self harm, Suicide, and Mental illness
Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Abandonment, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Dysphoria, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Transphobia, Alcohol, and Death
Minor: Racism, Deadnaming, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Biphobia, Ableism, Violence, and Blood
_rowan_'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, and Suicidal thoughts
fiekesfiction's review
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
It is very hard for me to describe “wonderland” by Juno Dawson because it was not what I expected it to be.
“If my hair isn’t blue, how will anyone know I’m transgender?”
“Natural colours only,” she says for the millionth time.
I smile slightly “Ms Grafton, I think I left natural behind years ago, don’t you?”
The story follows Alice. After she had a one night stand with Bunny, the girl has disappeared and no one seems to care. When she tries to find out what happened to her, Alice ends up in a strange party for the elite.
Even though this is written in a funny way, the story has a lot of darker things going on. Especially in the beginning with Alice making sarcastic comments, the story felt a bit light and I thought it would just be a quick fun read. But soon I realised that was absolutely not the case.
She winks again and walks off with my phone. It feels a lot like she’s removed a vital organ. I’d rather she’d taken a kidney to be franks, I have two of those and can’t watch memes on either.
Juno Dawson is very good at adding topical themes to her story in a clever way.
The Alice in wonderland retelling is very well done. This story has the same surreal feeling of things not being quite right, as the original story does. The wonderland in this case is obviously the different lives extremely rich and privileged people live. The world is a bit different for them.
It’s really obvious which characters are based on the original Alice in wonderland characters, but it was actually fun to compare them. I did think this story doesn’t really have a ‘plot’, mainly Alice is just stumbling around not really knowing what she’s doing, but it makes sense with the way this story ends and I think it also adds to the feeling of “wonderland” since the original tale is also really not a lot more than Alice trying to understand a strange world. The themes were great, the writing was funny and the main character was flawed but well developed.
“Is our collective self-esteem so waferthin that we rely on compliments from strangers for sustenance?”
I would recommend this to anyone who wants a very different and diverse story with themes of feminism and class.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Rape
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