Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Wonderland by Juno Dawson

9 reviews

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.

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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

thebookishnerd_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This was my first Juno Dawson book! And while I'll definitely check out more of her books, I was underwhelmed by Wonderland. It's very reminiscent of the TV show Euphoria - rich teens doing drugs, having sex, and getting away with criminal activity. So much of this book was our main character, Alice, doing drugs that it watered down the plot and I found myself skimming over her 'trips'. I love unlikeable characters and this book was full of them. Almost all of the characters are spoiled rich teens they kind of blended together, especially the 'flower girls' which I suppose was the point of them. I liked this book, I just wish there was more plot and less focus on the pointless edgy activity. There are a lot of trigger warnings for this book, so definitely check them out before reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Drug use, Mental illness, Violence, Vomit, and Sexual content

Moderate: Deadnaming, Suicide, Classism, and Alcohol

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Transphobia, and Abandonment

literarylily's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Dysphoria, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Deadnaming, Mental illness, Drug use, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Incest, Sexual assault, Cursing, Animal death, Murder, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Cultural appropriation

lucystolethesky's review against another edition

dark emotional tense 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Self harm, Deadnaming, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Outing, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Addiction, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Death, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Body shaming, Violence, Bullying, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Transphobia

alexa_bmn'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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Death, Sexual assault, and Drug use

Moderate: Incest and Deadnaming

morebedsidebooks's review against another edition

fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Transphobia, and Vomit

Minor: Deadnaming, Death of parent, Incest, Animal death, and Alcoholism

Also drugging and mentions of an overdose death occur in the book.

anettainkeri's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Gun violence, Incest, and Vomit

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Rape

that_bookworm_guy's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

A clever modern day retelling of Alice in Wonderland featuring a trans main character, yes please!! 

Throughout the book, there are quotes from Alice in Wonderland woven throughout and characters that share similarities to the original characters. 

The story is interesting and strange, and honestly wild. But very enjoyable. 

It's dark, and it's messy and focuses a lot on mental health. But as a trans person, I could see a lot of similarities in mine and Alice's experiences. I love being able to see parts of myself in fictional characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Hate crime, Vomit, Violence, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Self harm, and Mental illness

Minor: Incest