Alice By Christina Henry is a brutally harsh grownup retelling of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland) and Through the Looking Glass. The novel does create it’s own twisted story with a lot of references and clever nods to characters from the wonderland world. I would say this novel is like Gregory Maguire’s Wicked, in how it tells a more adult version of a classic children’s literature meets Lev Grossman’s The Magicians series, with it’s use of magic, sex, and violence. The character’s in this book from the Wonderland books are Alice, The Mad Hatter, The White Rabbit, The Jabberwocky, The Walrus, The Carpenter, The Door Mouse, The Caterpillar, and The Cheshire Cat (some of the names and features are changed). I usually do trigger warnings for the recommendation section instead of my first thought but this novel is so in your face, massive trigger warning for rape and violence. I’ve read some graphic stuff but this was intense for me.

The Plot: Alice is in a mental institution, she was found with blood covering her body and talking about a cross between a man and a white rabbit that she followed. She’s locked in a padded cell all alone. She hears a voice that she thinks is in her head, but it calls her a “nit” a word she would not use, and the voice tells he to find the mouse hole. She looks in at her cell mate next door Hatcher, and man known for going mad and killing several with a hatchet. Hatcher and Alice start to make a connection, Hatcher lifts her sprits my talking about what they’re going to do when they get out, even if Alice never believes they’re going to get out. Hatcher has starts to scare Alice with his talks of the Jabberwocky that he can feel is in the basement of institution. Alice has a horrible dream of fire all around her and wakes up to that in her cell. Hatcher saves her as he burst in to her cell and make a break for it. They escape but so does the Jabberwocky. The rest of the place burns down with Alice and Hatcher the only people that know a monster is lose on the streets. The streets themselves aren’t safe as women are the biggest commodity, and gangs rule the streets The Carpenter and The Walrus are constantly at war for new territory, Cheshire has his piece in the center and The Rabbit and the Caterpillar own the rest. Hatcher and Alice find out there is a weapon that can stop the Jabberwocky but don’t know which member has it. Hatcher’s grandmother says that Cheshire owes her for a service a long time ago he might have it. The bodies have already started to mount up only Alice and Hatcher can stop the Jabberwocky.

What I Liked: The cleverness of the naming and connecting the original works to this new Alice. I liked the mystery of the magic and how it worked. I loved the flashbacks for both Alice and Hatcher. I loved the backstory for the Walrus and his connection to Hatcher. Cheshire I like the new developments and update of his character, he probably stays the closest the original books but still new and fresh. I like the way the cakes and the potions were still used for big and small. There’s a couple of good story twist in there that I did not see coming.

What I Disliked: The ending felt super rushed, I liked some of the development in character and plot but the climax that the book had been leading to was over in less than 7 pages. I did not like that the story was sometimes so stilted, it was the same structure sort of the original where you get introduced to a character that never comes back and only has impact on that one scene. I’m forgiving it because it was tat way in the original works but it could have been better.

Recommendations: This one is a hard one I loved a lot of things that Christina Henry did with the characters, but the overall story could’ve been better. I will recommend this one if you love retellings of classics. Please remember the trigger warning of rape and extreme violence for this book, if you’re sensitive in any way to these subjects then stay far away from this book. I rated this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. I really hope that the story telling is better in some of the other retelling books because I felt the character study was so good and I loved the fresh new look at some of the characters. I will definitely check out another Christina Henry book for characters alone. Lost Boy, The Mermaid, and the Girl in Red all sound so interesting.