The Chronicles of Alice
Fiction
Ace Books
August 4, 2015
Paperback
294
Alice has been in the mental hospital in Old Town for years. She doesn't remember why. All she can remember is a tea party long ago. Long ears and blood. Until one night she escapes, free to uncover the truth about what happened to her all those years ago. When Alice escapes, something escapes with her. And the truth she so desperately seeks is so much stranger than any madman's ranting. From the author of the Black Wings novels, the first in a dazzling and mind-bending new series, inspired by the twisted and wondrous works of Lewis Carroll.
WrensReads Review:
MY WORD, what a book! This is one of the best, darkest and most disturbing retellings I have ever read.
Honestly, this book is as magical and overwhelming as I hoped it would be.
Alice is in an Asylum (surprise, surprise) and her only friend is her wall-mate Hatcher (I’m taking liberty here and assuming this mad-with-an-axe man is based on the Mad Hatter).
FIRE! Dear heavens, the whole asylum is lit up in flames and they escape!
They aren’t the only thing that escapes though… something even the mad man with an axe fears..
The Jabberwock.
You’ll have to read more about that interesting character to learn more.
Anyway, both Alice and Hatcher have been drugged so much and often that they don’t really have memory of their lives before the asylum. Throughout the book they get pieces back, but nothing is completely clear to the two of them, which gets them in trouble.
The asylum is from the Old City: a place where basically horrible and broken people live. The New City, where Alice is actually from originally, is where all the nice and rich people live.
What luck for them to be in the Old City where thugs and horrible things rule the streets.
Like The Rabbit (blue-green eyes. long ears).
Like The Cheshire (so creepy).
Like The Caterpillar (literally the worst).
Like The Walrus (no, he is literally the worst).
Women are used for merely pleasure (of any kind: food, sex, torture… if you think of it, it’s there).
Alice and Hatcher have a mission: to trap the Jabberwock back into his cage.
BUT HOW IN THE GOODNESS WORLD IS THAT GONNA HAPPEN.
Seriously, I loved this book with everything inside me. I want to read it again without knowing what is going to happen. That means something. I cheat in books and read the endings and spoilers. So yes, that actually MEANS SOMETHING.
Read this book ONLY IF YOU ARE LIKE AN ADULT. Not if you are still in your teens because it can get a little graphic.
And also scary.
And also gory.
And also just absolutely horrible.
But if you are an adult and have a nice stomach that can handle that kind of thing, 100% recommend. Seriously, Christina you are a genius. I love retellings of stories and this one takes the cake.
Not your cake though, I don’t want to be a giant today.
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