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A review by leahsbooks
Ever Alice by H. J. Ramsay
1.0
TRIGGER WARNING: fatphobia
I’ve always loved Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When I came across this book, I jumped at the chance to read it. The premise sounded good, especially if you’ve ever wondered (like I have) about what happened to Alice after the end of the Wonderland story.
However, the story just never managed to follow up on the lofty aspirations. The chapters vary between the point of view of Alice and Rosamund, the Queen of Hearts, creating a jerky and disjointed style. The story is extremely slow-moving and more than a little boring. The characters were one-dimensional and bland. Alice just seems to be there, and functions as more of an observer in her own life than an active participant. She doesn’t really even do anything at all for the majority of the story, and only participates in any action towards the very end of the book. For some reason, random characters from history, children’s games, and other stories are thrown in, including Marco Polo, Colonel Mustard, Lady Godiva, Wendy Darling, and a very thinly disguised version of Marilyn Monroe.
The fun and whimsical atmosphere of the original Alice in Wonderland seems to have been lost in favor of inserting ever-increasing absurdity that really didn’t add anything to the story. The final nail in the coffin was the ever-escalating fatphobic comments that were made towards a character who was in the early stages of a pregnancy. It began with snide comments about her weight, and then rapidly escalated into a running commentary on her disgusting eating habits. There wasn’t a single scene in which this character was in that her weight or eating wasn’t mentioned.
After reading this, I realized that some books don’t need to be an ongoing series, and should just be left as they are.
I’ve always loved Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When I came across this book, I jumped at the chance to read it. The premise sounded good, especially if you’ve ever wondered (like I have) about what happened to Alice after the end of the Wonderland story.
However, the story just never managed to follow up on the lofty aspirations. The chapters vary between the point of view of Alice and Rosamund, the Queen of Hearts, creating a jerky and disjointed style. The story is extremely slow-moving and more than a little boring. The characters were one-dimensional and bland. Alice just seems to be there, and functions as more of an observer in her own life than an active participant. She doesn’t really even do anything at all for the majority of the story, and only participates in any action towards the very end of the book. For some reason, random characters from history, children’s games, and other stories are thrown in, including Marco Polo, Colonel Mustard, Lady Godiva, Wendy Darling, and a very thinly disguised version of Marilyn Monroe.
The fun and whimsical atmosphere of the original Alice in Wonderland seems to have been lost in favor of inserting ever-increasing absurdity that really didn’t add anything to the story. The final nail in the coffin was the ever-escalating fatphobic comments that were made towards a character who was in the early stages of a pregnancy. It began with snide comments about her weight, and then rapidly escalated into a running commentary on her disgusting eating habits. There wasn’t a single scene in which this character was in that her weight or eating wasn’t mentioned.
After reading this, I realized that some books don’t need to be an ongoing series, and should just be left as they are.