Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I got this at a thrift store for $.50 and thought I would take a chance on it almost purely by the title and concept. I was thinking something like Alice Madness Returns or some kind of Alice in wonderland grime dark thing. I was kind of right. This feels more like a real angsty teenage fantasy that couldn't be sold on its own so the author put Alice in Wonderland character names here and there to make it more inciting. Imma call this the "Wicked" effect. That book also sucked, musical is great though.
It starts with Alice in a mental institution, which sounds intriguing but this is the last time we get any themes of madness so blow that dream out the window.
Alice is continuously followed by some dude named Hatcher....um ok? Alice never was followed by anyone and always took the trek alone, which already kind of ruins the whole Alice in Wonderland shtick. Hatcher has little-to-no personality and very little reason to be in the book at all outside of being a very bad romance option.
The world itself needs heavy rewriting since, while it is very grime-dark and goth, it is slathered a bit to thick. If everything is at an 11 then nothing is really threatening. Jesus the amount of eye rolling I did on how the villains sins had to be escalated because this place. "The Walrus" is probably the biggest eye roll I have done in a WHILE. Old City (great name), doesn't have any respite or normalcy so nothing is surprising or impactful. It also was very gender specific for some reason. All women are treated and written like cattle or livestock for some reason, even by the protagonists. You wonder how anyone exists at all in this world. How do people get born? How do they live? We aren't really given that info. All horrific scenes are also just breezed by. "oh and then that horrific thing happened...ANYWAY." sort of attitude. Very white kid in the suburbs had a fantasy type of writing. We aren't going to sit with that horrific thing? That was just for the ViBeSsSs? ok. Even "The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover" had better pacing with their horrific nonsense and made it have heft.
The book itself is kind of written like a videogame, which is honestly not a bad thing. I love that. We knew where we were going, we are introduced to the boss fights ahead of time, boss fight happens, we go on the the next arena. But even in videogames there are safe areas to save or chill or something to make the rest of the harder parts more impactful. Some down time with the characters to show who they are. Perhaps we could have gotten rid of a boss to open that a bit up.
The book is easy to read and a short book. The prose is simplistic but decent (I just read a Colleen Hoover book so honestly my expectations of good prose is pretty damn low at the moment). The only real reason I won't give this 3 stars is because I was expecting a mind blowing twist of some kind. Something to tie in Alice in Wonderland in a better context, or to make the whole insane asylum moment worth it. I noticed reality kept bending more and more the book went on, which I thought was clever if we wanted a Shutter Island type ending. Nope. There was no twist. Pretty much none at all. Nothing to grab me at the end. In fact it didn't end with a bang, but a real luke-warm whimper. An ending that felt like the feeling of having wet socks.
This book kind of reminded me of the indie movie "Malice in Wonderland" which is also about an Alice who goes into a dark world filled with gangsters named after Alice in Wonderland characters. It is kind of unfortunate because I was comparing this book to that movie and "Alice Madness Returns" and while I do think the latter is hard to live up to, Malice in Wonderland has faults and issues as well. The problem is, Malice in Wonderland was better at keeping the theme of Alice in Wonderland more intact. There wasn't a random "Hatcher" but rather Alice was taken around by "The white Rabbit" who was a taxi driver. The gang leaders were the Queen of Hearts and the Duchess, which makes more sense in context that they would be gang leaders...not the Walrus? Caterpillar? The purpose in the original book weren't antagonists, why would they be in this book?
Anyway. The most important differential between all three of these stories is that with Malice in Wonderland and Alice Madness Returns the location of a "Wonderland" is pretty apparent. This is a wondrous place Alice are a stranger to. This place may or may not actually exist. This book doesn't do that. This is a new place to Alice (kind of, she admits she has been living there for a while) but it does exist. She is aware of this location since she was a child. This is a place she knows more about than we do, so the discovery is kind of not there.
It starts with Alice in a mental institution, which sounds intriguing but this is the last time we get any themes of madness so blow that dream out the window.
Alice is continuously followed by some dude named Hatcher....um ok? Alice never was followed by anyone and always took the trek alone, which already kind of ruins the whole Alice in Wonderland shtick. Hatcher has little-to-no personality and very little reason to be in the book at all outside of being a very bad romance option.
The world itself needs heavy rewriting since, while it is very grime-dark and goth, it is slathered a bit to thick. If everything is at an 11 then nothing is really threatening. Jesus the amount of eye rolling I did on how the villains sins had to be escalated because this place. "The Walrus" is probably the biggest eye roll I have done in a WHILE. Old City (great name), doesn't have any respite or normalcy so nothing is surprising or impactful. It also was very gender specific for some reason. All women are treated and written like cattle or livestock for some reason, even by the protagonists. You wonder how anyone exists at all in this world. How do people get born? How do they live? We aren't really given that info. All horrific scenes are also just breezed by. "oh and then that horrific thing happened...ANYWAY." sort of attitude. Very white kid in the suburbs had a fantasy type of writing. We aren't going to sit with that horrific thing? That was just for the ViBeSsSs? ok. Even "The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover" had better pacing with their horrific nonsense and made it have heft.
The book itself is kind of written like a videogame, which is honestly not a bad thing. I love that. We knew where we were going, we are introduced to the boss fights ahead of time, boss fight happens, we go on the the next arena. But even in videogames there are safe areas to save or chill or something to make the rest of the harder parts more impactful. Some down time with the characters to show who they are. Perhaps we could have gotten rid of a boss to open that a bit up.
The book is easy to read and a short book. The prose is simplistic but decent (I just read a Colleen Hoover book so honestly my expectations of good prose is pretty damn low at the moment). The only real reason I won't give this 3 stars is because I was expecting a mind blowing twist of some kind. Something to tie in Alice in Wonderland in a better context, or to make the whole insane asylum moment worth it. I noticed reality kept bending more and more the book went on, which I thought was clever if we wanted a Shutter Island type ending. Nope. There was no twist. Pretty much none at all. Nothing to grab me at the end. In fact it didn't end with a bang, but a real luke-warm whimper. An ending that felt like the feeling of having wet socks.
This book kind of reminded me of the indie movie "Malice in Wonderland" which is also about an Alice who goes into a dark world filled with gangsters named after Alice in Wonderland characters. It is kind of unfortunate because I was comparing this book to that movie and "Alice Madness Returns" and while I do think the latter is hard to live up to, Malice in Wonderland has faults and issues as well. The problem is, Malice in Wonderland was better at keeping the theme of Alice in Wonderland more intact. There wasn't a random "Hatcher" but rather Alice was taken around by "The white Rabbit" who was a taxi driver. The gang leaders were the Queen of Hearts and the Duchess, which makes more sense in context that they would be gang leaders...not the Walrus? Caterpillar? The purpose in the original book weren't antagonists, why would they be in this book?
Anyway. The most important differential between all three of these stories is that with Malice in Wonderland and Alice Madness Returns the location of a "Wonderland" is pretty apparent. This is a wondrous place Alice are a stranger to. This place may or may not actually exist. This book doesn't do that. This is a new place to Alice (kind of, she admits she has been living there for a while) but it does exist. She is aware of this location since she was a child. This is a place she knows more about than we do, so the discovery is kind of not there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Edgeboy type book. Don't think anything is discussed with any depth or care.
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-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
Henry's retelling is a very grim and turbulent ride that deals with many difficult topics that might rub some people the wrong way. We're presented with a very dark world, which is depicted as exceptionally difficult to live in for women. Unfortunately, this is also where some of this novel's problems stem from, which, fortunately do not outweigh it's positive sides.
I personally felt very invested in the story from an early point on. The introduction to Alice and her current living situation, if you could call it that, serves as good starting point. Many details about her life before the asylum, her family and what exactly led to her being in this state of mind are left in the dark. While some of the details are (from an early point on) quite obvious due to accompanied flashbacks the protagonist has from time to time, others did come as a surprise. Alice herself has a much harder time figuring all of this out by herself, which is an effect of her suppressed memories and heavy medication up to a certain plot point. However, Alice isn't the only character dealing with memory loss.
Hatcher, who ends up being a sort of partner in crime, remembers barely any detail about his life before the asylum and was one of my favorite parts about this book. The chemistry between him and Alice is incredible, despite the writing style sometimes sabotaging itself when it comes to situations that should serve an opportunity to feel deeper felt emotions, if that makes any sense. I should probably add though, that the writing style felt quite like the original stories to me due to it's writing style.
I was quite weary of him and "his fits" in the beginning, but quickly warmed up to him. I especially enjoyed the revelation of his past life and how he develops throughout their journey.
Apart from that, many characters from the original stories play significant roles, although most of them take up negative if not straight up cruel roles that will absolutely twist the way in which you perceived them when you first learned about them. One of my favorites was definitely the Cheshire Cat, whom Henry was especially creative with (which is a good thing, by the way) - others I haven't really made up my mind on. Someone in particular is connected to said problems, not due to this character being part of the retelling, but the grim world view this character connects within themselves. This leads me to bringing forth this warning:
It's very clear that this world is not designed for women and very often we see them break their chains, especially towards the end. There are many mentions of rape, violence against women in general and mental illness which might serve as a potential trigger. If you are not comfortable reading about such topics or have any trauma regarding said topics, I do not recommend this book to you.
Therefore, one of my issues with this book was how very often when something bad happened to a female person, it somehow revolved around rape or threatening of such. In my personal opinion, it's okay to write about such injustice, but I do not condone it functioning as a permanent plot device. I guess I understand that there's a certain shock value to it and that this is the kind of city that the author wanted to design, but often it simply comes off as unnecessarily cruel and puts the women of the story into a victim (sometimes followed by revenge) position. I think many have already voiced their opinions on this already though, so continuing on.
Most of the time, the plot progressed quite quickly which keeps the reader invested. Despite the dark surroundings which Alice and Hatcher find themselves in, I felt I was losing myself inside of them. Of course, since Alice has never been there before and is just experiencing it for herself, and since Hatcher only remembers certain aspects as soon as he encounters a familiar situation, there is only a limited amount of explanation. However, I didn't really see that as a problem, because it puts you directly into Alice' position.
Last but not least, the ending didn't satisfy me as much as Henry's creativity and Alice' and Hatchers relationship did. It seemed rushed and a bit out of place when looking back on everything that led up to it and too easy, to put it lightly.
Despite it's weaknesses, I did fairly enjoy this retelling and might give it a reread sometime next year. The pacing was right, Henry's ideas were great, the chemistry was all I could wish for and Cheshire Cat added an extra half-star for me.
4/5
I personally felt very invested in the story from an early point on. The introduction to Alice and her current living situation, if you could call it that, serves as good starting point. Many details about her life before the asylum, her family and what exactly led to her being in this state of mind are left in the dark. While some of the details are (from an early point on) quite obvious due to accompanied flashbacks the protagonist has from time to time, others did come as a surprise. Alice herself has a much harder time figuring all of this out by herself, which is an effect of her suppressed memories and heavy medication up to a certain plot point. However, Alice isn't the only character dealing with memory loss.
Hatcher, who ends up being a sort of partner in crime, remembers barely any detail about his life before the asylum and was one of my favorite parts about this book. The chemistry between him and Alice is incredible, despite the writing style sometimes sabotaging itself when it comes to situations that should serve an opportunity to feel deeper felt emotions, if that makes any sense. I should probably add though, that the writing style felt quite like the original stories to me due to it's writing style.
Spoiler
However, Alice having to cut her hair, put on Hatcher's clothes and pretending to be a boy to the outside world was a very nice touch that I fairly enjoyed.I was quite weary of him and "his fits" in the beginning, but quickly warmed up to him. I especially enjoyed the revelation of his past life and how he develops throughout their journey.
Apart from that, many characters from the original stories play significant roles, although most of them take up negative if not straight up cruel roles that will absolutely twist the way in which you perceived them when you first learned about them. One of my favorites was definitely the Cheshire Cat, whom Henry was especially creative with (which is a good thing, by the way) - others I haven't really made up my mind on. Someone in particular is connected to said problems, not due to this character being part of the retelling, but the grim world view this character connects within themselves. This leads me to bringing forth this warning:
Spoiler
The White Rabbit pretty much embodies every dark detail that appears inside of this retelling.Therefore, one of my issues with this book was how very often when something bad happened to a female person, it somehow revolved around rape or threatening of such. In my personal opinion, it's okay to write about such injustice, but I do not condone it functioning as a permanent plot device. I guess I understand that there's a certain shock value to it and that this is the kind of city that the author wanted to design, but often it simply comes off as unnecessarily cruel and puts the women of the story into a victim (sometimes followed by revenge) position. I think many have already voiced their opinions on this already though, so continuing on.
Most of the time, the plot progressed quite quickly which keeps the reader invested. Despite the dark surroundings which Alice and Hatcher find themselves in, I felt I was losing myself inside of them. Of course, since Alice has never been there before and is just experiencing it for herself, and since Hatcher only remembers certain aspects as soon as he encounters a familiar situation, there is only a limited amount of explanation. However, I didn't really see that as a problem, because it puts you directly into Alice' position.
Last but not least, the ending didn't satisfy me as much as Henry's creativity and Alice' and Hatchers relationship did. It seemed rushed and a bit out of place when looking back on everything that led up to it and too easy, to put it lightly.
Spoiler
Unfortunately, this seems to be a common theme for Henry's retellings. Cough, looking at you "Lost Boy", cough.Despite it's weaknesses, I did fairly enjoy this retelling and might give it a reread sometime next year. The pacing was right, Henry's ideas were great, the chemistry was all I could wish for and Cheshire Cat added an extra half-star for me.
4/5
Did not read a single page as it has rape in it. Have better books to read. Only disgusting people like these kind of books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
dark
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When at work a few months a go, I walked past our staff bookshelf and saw this book. I read the back and instantly thought it sounded interesting. I am SO glad I picked it up.
I loved the concept of this story and the writing style made it an effortless read. I really enjoyed the character of Alice and how her 'essence' is brought out in each exchange and in her behaviours. I really did think the characters were written beautifully.
A dark read and absolutely worth it.
I loved the concept of this story and the writing style made it an effortless read. I really enjoyed the character of Alice and how her 'essence' is brought out in each exchange and in her behaviours. I really did think the characters were written beautifully.
A dark read and absolutely worth it.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes