Scan barcode
A review by annettebooksofhopeanddreams
Wonderland by Juno Dawson
4.0
I had never heard of Juno Dawson before I saw a post about this book in the Book Box Club. And, if you've been following me for a while and read my reviews, you know that I love anything Wonderland related. I was therefore very curious to this book, but I got the impression it was part of a series and I needed to catch up with the other books first. Until I was told this very much worked as a standalone. So, I placed an order and started reading as soon as the book came in.
Dawson really did an amazing job translating all the Wonderland madness to the modern and contemporary world. This story is not a fantasy. It deals with amazingly heavy themes like the struggles of a transgender girl trying to find her place in the world, suicide, drug abuse, sexual harassment and rape and a few more themes I don't want to name because they would really spoil the book. And despite all the heavy themes, the book didn't FEEL too heavy. Because in between all the heaviness there was excitement too.
For a long time it seemed like this book, just like the original book, doesn't have much of a bigger plot. At first Alice is mainly trying to find Bunny and when that doesn't seem to work out that well and she's starting to feel more and more out of place it turns into Alice just wanting to go home. However, the finale is amazing. Everything WAS going somewhere and when all pieces of the puzzle click it's breathtaking and insanely interesting.
Especially because everything, even that exciting and action packed finale, is serving Alice's character growth. She starts the story unsure of who she is and wants to be. She's basically no one. During the story she's confronted with herself, with her doubts, with her fears, with her limits, with her weaknesses. However, everything, no matter how absurd and painful, eventually leads to an answer to maybe the most important question we can ever ask ourselves: "Who are you?"
I've just ordered Meat Market and I'm really curious to read that one. This story for sure was a great introduction to Dawson's work and now I want more.
Dawson really did an amazing job translating all the Wonderland madness to the modern and contemporary world. This story is not a fantasy. It deals with amazingly heavy themes like the struggles of a transgender girl trying to find her place in the world, suicide, drug abuse, sexual harassment and rape and a few more themes I don't want to name because they would really spoil the book. And despite all the heavy themes, the book didn't FEEL too heavy. Because in between all the heaviness there was excitement too.
For a long time it seemed like this book, just like the original book, doesn't have much of a bigger plot. At first Alice is mainly trying to find Bunny and when that doesn't seem to work out that well and she's starting to feel more and more out of place it turns into Alice just wanting to go home. However, the finale is amazing. Everything WAS going somewhere and when all pieces of the puzzle click it's breathtaking and insanely interesting.
Especially because everything, even that exciting and action packed finale, is serving Alice's character growth. She starts the story unsure of who she is and wants to be. She's basically no one. During the story she's confronted with herself, with her doubts, with her fears, with her limits, with her weaknesses. However, everything, no matter how absurd and painful, eventually leads to an answer to maybe the most important question we can ever ask ourselves: "Who are you?"
I've just ordered Meat Market and I'm really curious to read that one. This story for sure was a great introduction to Dawson's work and now I want more.