Reviews

Type of read: Commuter Read.

What made me pick it up: One of the prompts for the Tennessee R.E.A.D.S. challenge for October is to read a book with an orange cover. Full disclosure, this was the second book with an orange cover that I was waiting for in my library loan list. The fact that the description here on Goodreads references The Shining was really all I needed to add to my TBR.

Overall rating: First, I just have to say...there are all these big words in the book, the characters have such unique names, and Stage decided to use "tree people" instead of arborist?! I don't know why this bothered me so much but I think it spoke more to just the general ridiculousness of the book than avoiding the use of a proper term for a profession that works with trees.

'Wonderland' felt like the beginning of House Hunters, 'I'm a retired ballerina and my husband is a struggling artist, we're looking for a new start somewhere completely different and we haven't thought about the implications for our actions but want to spend a shitton of money on something we'll ultimately complain about and wish we never did.' 'Oh yeah, and our budget is tens of thousands of dollars...' as they'll remind you throughout the episode. *smh*

I don't know why 'Wonderland' rubbed me the wrong way so much. Maybe it was because I had a preconceived notion of what it should be based on the description? Maybe I wanted it to be much better than it was? It just didn't do it for me. I'm all for amorphous beings and mystic hauntings, but damn, this felt like a bad night with too many wine coolers that could have been resolved by just sitting down, eating some chips, and drinking a Pedialyte.

Overall, I didn't hate 'Wonderland,' there were definitely some good parts, but at the end of the day, it needed something to make it more real. Yes, I get that we're talking about a horror story where a main character is a tree, but come on, if the author can't make it feel real, how is the reader supposed to feel like it's real? I guess the fact that I had any sort of reaction, and still finished the book, does say something about the storyline and how it was written.

Reader's Note: I enjoyed 'Wonderland' as an audiobook and struggled with the sound. Xe Sands is an absolutely phenomenal narrator; however, their pitch is so low that I struggled to manage the audio volume as there were often portions of the book that were just too low for me to hear clearly.

ibookowl's review

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2.0

I was really bored and unsatisfied with this book. It said it was supposedly a horror book and I wasn’t scared once, although it did have just a few super small creepy moments. In the end it disappointed me, probably should have a different genre.

I pushed through to finish it because it was entertaining enough and I was more than halfway through, thought it would get better past the 200 page mark at least but it didn’t. If I’d known how it was gonna end and how not scary or thrilling it was for me, I would have dnfed it.

This Book was definitely not for me.

taylorkinsey's review

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2.0

In short, don’t waste your time or money or borrowing credit from your library. Not scary. Not interesting. Bland and poorly written.

smmccarthy13's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

twicomb's review

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3.0

3.5 stars, rounded down since the writing overall was unnecessarily wordy and story sometimes got buried. The concept is original and enjoyable, with tinges of Rosemary’s Baby. There were some unfinished story threads, but they were minor. My main issue (other than padded writing in places, eg conversations or scenes that could have been half or even a third the length) was difficulty in suspending my disbelief at how the main character falls into her role in the second half of the book. Wouldn’t a mother try harder? Nevertheless, definitely enjoyable. A great spooky read.

4 stars for the audio book narrated by Xe Sands. One of the better audio book narrations I’ve heard in a while. (I read the book and also sampled the narration as I often do, curious about how narrators adapt written words.)

How I rate books:
1: awful, terribly written, and/or inexcusable story issues
2: dull, unenjoyable, and/or poorly written
3: decent, possibly a good “airplane read” but I won’t be recommending it, an average book experience
4: quite good, engaging, and/or well-written
5: top-notch, fascinating story/content, wonderful writing
I do not rate books I haven’t finished.

idroplungs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

A good slow burn of a book. Starting as all good horror stories do with a picture of a relatable, happy family (with their own problems) that you'd almost want for yourself only for things to slowly (and sometimes quickly) turn that happiness inside out.
Some of the foreshadowing was a bit heavy handed, but other times it was just subtle enough to be misleading and pull off a twist or two.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, but maybe that's a good thing.
All in all, it's worth the read if you enjoy a good thriller that's less gory and more story.

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