Alice

" First off, wow. In the “Old City” sits a hospital, if that’s what you want to call it. Rather it’s like one of those olden “insane asylum” that you send any family member that’s “different”. Anyway, there sits this woman named Alice. Yes the Alice from the tea party. However she doesn’t know how she wound up in this hospital, all she remembers is a tea party, long white ears, and blood. One night in the hospital, it catches fire and she has the chance to finally get free. Now she is free to found out the truth of what happened the years before the hospital and what exactly made her mad enough to land her there. She wasn’t the only thing that escaped the flames, something else, something dark and powerful, escaped as well. Now she has to track the monster in the Old City where the Rabbit is waiting for her. This is the most unlikely retelling I have ever read. This is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland. In this reimagined version it is 10 years after she first met the Rabbit. She has been in an “insane asylum” and she knows that shes mad. Unlike the true Alice in Wonderland, there is really no Wonderland to access, just different places within the same “city”. There is the New City and Old City. The New City, proper, taken care of, rich. The Old City, riddled with crime, crime bosses, territories, and evil beyond means. The book has generally the same characters, however do not expect them to be good, caring, loving. Remember this is a dark retelling. The book has what you can assume is a Mad Hatter. There also exists Cheshire, Caterpillar, Rabbit, Walrus, and Carpenter. The heroes of the story are not always meant to be that way. The book does have sexual assault, sex trafficking, abuse, and honestly a lot of killing. It does have a lot of traumatizing events, do not go in thinking it will be as happy as the original Alice. The book does have magic riddled in and you never know where the book will take you. Alice and Hatcher have a lot of self development. I didn’t expect what I got from this book. It was really good in my opinion, but I loved it for the gasp moments and the fact that it was so different from the original! If you can get past the triggers, and love a book with darkness and pushing on the insane then this book is a wonderful short read."

"Reread. <br/><br/>Undoubtedly gave me the creepfest I was looking for during the Halloween season. This was far more sinister than I ever would imagine. I suggest looking for trigger warnings before starting. This has a very dark plot that doesn't have a bright side, no grass is greener, or lemons for lemonade....you get it. The world building could have been a more descriptive but the atmosphere was definitely top notch. Almost as if this was made to read in the dark hours of the night.<br/><br/>Alice and Hatch were unique characters, always on the run giving the story suspense around every corner. The two contrasting beautifully. Hatcher a gruff madman treated Alice so delicately and sweet it was beautiful to read in a book of darkness. Alice was once delicate and helpless came into realization rather quickly which was refreshing.<br/><br/>I was surprised how the author portrayed the original Alice in Wonderland cast, you never knew if they would be human or have animal attributes often due from magic or some other sinister reason. The plot was very unique. There was slow understanding with the characters as they got back their memories. <br/><br/>Christina Henry tended to overstate things. But then again it was somewhat written like a children's story with adult themes which makes it more unnerving. And I have to say I enjoyed that aspect more than I ever thought. My biggest problem was how quick and easily the end resolved. The plot and all the struggles were leading to duel problems and they both wrapped up one right after another with not much in-between."

"This is how fairytales are effective. Beautiful..dangerous..brilliant. "

"I really enjoyed this book it is a darker telling of the story Alice and wonderland and is very different from the origional I will say that there are definitely darker themes and it has some trigger warnings that some people may not be able to handle and it is definitely for an older audience I would say "

"*Actual rating ⭐⭐⭐.5."

"I usually don’t like horror books based off of stories I read in my childhood, but I really enjoyed this one. The reason I gave it 4 starts was due to the exciting buildup through the book, waiting for the ending to be epic but it didn’t really give as much as I expected. It was still a super good book and I recommend if you like horror stories!"

"CW - sexual violence, child abuse, psychological abuse "

"Ahhh I forgot about this book I read it back in elementary school (why did the school have this) and I remember loving it I'm gonna hunt down a copy i have to reread it."

"loved all the easter eggs throughout the book. "

"Couldn'T put it down... I loved the darkness!"