A review by ceallaighsbooks
After Alice by Gregory Maguire

funny lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“If separate species develop skills that help them survive, and if those attributes are favored which best benefit the individual and its native population, to what possible end might we suppose has arisen… that particular capacity of the human being known as the imagination?”

TITLE—After Alice
AUTHOR—Gregory Maguire
PUBLISHED—2015

GENRE—literary fiction; surrealism; retelling
SETTING—Oxford, England, in 1860-something
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—an Alice in Wonderland retelling/sequel-ish retelling; Victorian culture & society—particularly as it relates to children; dreams & dissociation; Oxford; slavery & abolition; the magic and absurdity of language and communication; the sanctuary and solace of the imagination

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
BONUS ELEMENT/S—I loved that Maguire was able to sort of conflate his trademark style with the style of Lewis Carroll and preserve the tone of the original while still writing something completely new.
PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“How very like a dream this all is, she finally said. Just like the song, merrily merrily, and so on. Like a boat on the Cherwell out for a summer picnic, and the Thames, and seeing what went past, and making up a tale that connected it all, while past it slid past it slid past. And life was just a dream.”

Oh wow I really loved this one. 🥰 Not even going to talk about the rating this piece of perfection has on GR. (🤨🤮)

I guess just read this if you love…/don’t read this if you hate…:
  • Alice In Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
  • Winding, dark, and almost sesquipedalian prose with lots of tangents
  • Disability rep
  • Retellings that preserve the style and mien of the original
  • Victorian literature/era
  • Laughing out loud while you read
  • Being challenged philosophically by what you’re reading
  • Dickensian, abolitionist, and queer coded themes
  • Celebrations of the worlds created by the imagination

I don’t even know why it took me this long to get to this book. This is now my favorite Gregory Maguire book to date and a new alltime forever-favorite.

“Her gait was still lopsided, but so was the world, so she kept on.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TW // various vignettes of slavery, g-word slur (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—
  • Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
  • Everything else by Gregory Maguire—especially A Wild Winter Swan 
  • Helen Oyeyemi 
  • Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan 
  • Freshwater, by Akwaeke Emezi 
  • Mules and Men, by Zora Neale Hurston
  • PopCo, by Scarlett Thomas
  • Alice, by Christina Henry—TBR
  • Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman—TBR
  • Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, by Hayden Herrera
  • Charles Dickens
  • T. H. White