A review by gjj274
Wonderland: An Anthology by Marie O'Regan, Paul Kane

3.0

I was kindly gifted a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for review.

Anthologies can be little bit hit or miss for me. Either I really enjoy most of the stories or the majority end up being a bit too lyrical and metaphorical for me and end up going over my head. This collection was a little bit of a both, I really enjoyed some stories but others I just didn't really gel with.

As you can probably tell from the title of this anthology it is a collection of stories inspired by Alice in Wonderland. There are a large variety of stories in here, some from fairly well known authors, that range from direct retellings or continuations of the original to stories with a tenuous link such as a characters name.

This started off really promising, I really enjoyed most of the stories in the first half. However, there were a few in the second half that I didn't really gel with which was a shame. Some of my favourite stories included...

There Were No Birds to Fly by M.R. Carey - I really enjoy M.R. Carey's writing style, its atmospheric and a little bit creepy and I liked that this story took its inspiration from a less familiar part of the story.

Dream Girl by Cavan Scott - This one I particularly enjoyed. I loved the sci-fi twist at the end.

Good Dog, Alice! - This one was just super fun.

What Makes a Monster by L.L McKinney - I've previously read A Blade so Black and actually quite enjoyed it and this story was based in the same world as that book. I enjoyed getting back into that world again.

Overall, if your an Alice in Wonderland fan though I would recommend this one as there are some really interesting takes on the tale.