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A review by samfang
Unbirthday by Liz Braswell
Did not finish book. Stopped at 34%.
Alice in Wonderland is my favorite piece of literature, so I realize I’m harder on stories set in Carroll’s world than others may be, but as excited as I was to read this, I could bare it no longer. Braswell is either hit or miss with her writing, with some descriptions and dialogues feeling as though Carroll himself wrote them, while others are so terribly off the mark.
The final straw for me was when Alice and her group of Wonderland friends were referred to as “our traveling heroes”, of which shortly after a character was unnecessarily described as having an “anthropomorphic” expression and a few paragraphs later Alice continues her incessant and wanton disrespect for Wonderland’s inhabitants, telling the Hatter to “shut up.” I get that this is a different, darker Wonderland — but Braswell’s inability to capture the magic that made the original story so enthralling dooms Unbirthday too early on to bother continuing.
The final straw for me was when Alice and her group of Wonderland friends were referred to as “our traveling heroes”, of which shortly after a character was unnecessarily described as having an “anthropomorphic” expression and a few paragraphs later Alice continues her incessant and wanton disrespect for Wonderland’s inhabitants, telling the Hatter to “shut up.” I get that this is a different, darker Wonderland — but Braswell’s inability to capture the magic that made the original story so enthralling dooms Unbirthday too early on to bother continuing.