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khayners 's review for:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
It feels weird fitting my opinions on this book into a three star rating so time to write my first-ever review!
What I have to preface this with is that I read Alice in Wonderland in perhaps the most absurd format imaginable: in fifteen-to-twenty second chunks, 2-4 times a day, over the course of five months. This was because the entire book is printed on the walls of the elevator at my office and I read it exclusively there. It made for a disconnected, surreal reading experience. It meant the story lived under the surface of my thoughts for far longer than a children's book generally would when you read it as an adult and don't particularly like it. It made an already-nonsensical plotline a little bit harder to follow, but also helped smooth some of the weirder narrative jumps.
There were weeks when I really, really hated this book. There were weeks I found it hilarious and joyous. The end hit a lot harder than I think it would have otherwise because it was the payoff of a five-month buildup.
My overall take: I didn't love it, won't reread, but it was a really memorable Experience. My stranger take: somehow, this book worked better for me when I was thinking of it as a /horror novel/ rather than as a children's book. It gets at both uncanny valley and the way children's games/toys/songs are often repurposed into horror. There's a lot here that's really nightmare-sequence and quietly disturbing, and on days when I was able to approach that as a strength of the book rather than a flaw, I had a great time.
I think my experience was also shaped by the /other/ classic novel i am currently reading in an unusually-serialized format - yes, i am one of Those Dracula Daily people. Without making this review too tangential to the book I'm actually reviewing, I can't imagine I would have had the same experience without Dracula as a parallel and comparison. I certainly don't think I would have seen the horror in it in the same way.
Am I glad I read it the way I did? Absolutely. Did I have fun? No I did not. Would I recommend other people read it as an adult? Only if you have access to a certain elevator.
What I have to preface this with is that I read Alice in Wonderland in perhaps the most absurd format imaginable: in fifteen-to-twenty second chunks, 2-4 times a day, over the course of five months. This was because the entire book is printed on the walls of the elevator at my office and I read it exclusively there. It made for a disconnected, surreal reading experience. It meant the story lived under the surface of my thoughts for far longer than a children's book generally would when you read it as an adult and don't particularly like it. It made an already-nonsensical plotline a little bit harder to follow, but also helped smooth some of the weirder narrative jumps.
There were weeks when I really, really hated this book. There were weeks I found it hilarious and joyous. The end hit a lot harder than I think it would have otherwise because it was the payoff of a five-month buildup.
My overall take: I didn't love it, won't reread, but it was a really memorable Experience. My stranger take: somehow, this book worked better for me when I was thinking of it as a /horror novel/ rather than as a children's book. It gets at both uncanny valley and the way children's games/toys/songs are often repurposed into horror. There's a lot here that's really nightmare-sequence and quietly disturbing, and on days when I was able to approach that as a strength of the book rather than a flaw, I had a great time.
I think my experience was also shaped by the /other/ classic novel i am currently reading in an unusually-serialized format - yes, i am one of Those Dracula Daily people. Without making this review too tangential to the book I'm actually reviewing, I can't imagine I would have had the same experience without Dracula as a parallel and comparison. I certainly don't think I would have seen the horror in it in the same way.
Am I glad I read it the way I did? Absolutely. Did I have fun? No I did not. Would I recommend other people read it as an adult? Only if you have access to a certain elevator.