Reviews

The Wonderland Trials by Sara Ella

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karynenorton's review against another edition

5.0

The Wonderland Trials is a futuristic take on Wonderland being some sort of heightened level of consciousness through a magical gene, with Alice trying to survive the trials and find out what's happening to people who are disappearing because of this gene.

I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed the nonsensical throwbacks because it's not my favorite part of the classic, but it works so well in this setting. I'm exciting to read the second book, which comes out in September!

lahariel's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Loved the cover art and was super intrigued by the overall premise, but the story itself is very slow and there are chapters that I think could have either been pared down or cut out entirely to make room for something more interesting. Alice is so overly skeptical that it gets to be aggravatingly contradictory. The author sets her up to be somewhat of a fangirl of Wonderland and becoming a Wonder, only to constantly deride and dismiss Wonders (and the very nature of Wonderland) at nearly every turn. As a result, I'm not really sure what kind of a character Alice is supposed to be because her desires, followed by her responses / actions, are at complete odds throughout the entire book. Maybe that's the point and I'm just missing it, but either way I don't find it endearing enough to continue.