By Frank Beddor
The Myth: Alice was an ordinary girl who stepped through the
looking glass and entered a fairy-tale world invented by Lewis Carroll in his
famous storybook. The Truth: Wonderland is real. Alyss Heart is the heir to the
throne, until her murderous aunt Redd steals the crown and kills Alyss?
Parents. To escape Redd, Alyss and her bodyguard, Hatter Madigan, must flee to
our world through the Pool of Tears. But in the pool Alyss and Hatter are separated.
Lost and alone in Victorian London, Alyss is befriended by an aspiring author
to whom she tells the violent, heartbreaking story of her young life. Yet he
gets the story all wrong. Hatter Madigan knows the truth only too well, and he
is searching every corner of our world to find the lost princess and return her
to Wonderland so she may battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of
Hearts.
Before we begin, I have a confession: I hate Alice in
Wonderland. It has a few quotable quotes in the story, but I’ve always disliked
it, starting with the Disney version that gave me the willies as a kid. One
word. Cheshire Cat. Just sayin’. Then I read the book a few years ago and all I
could think was “what?” I do, however, like some of the re-tellings I’ve seen
or read. Sci-Fi’s “Alice” was a fun take on the story (though very psychedelic
on the drug thing). So, when I saw this I thought, hmm. I liked a lot of the
choices that were made with the story. The revolution and violent nature of
this book intrigued me, with the playing cards and the chess pieces fighting. I
didn’t really understand the power of imagination thing that Alyss and the
Queen had going on though. It was a little too up in the air for me (though
that was probably the intention) I like rules to magic so I know where I stand
as a reader. By far the coolest character was Hatter Madigan, bodyguard
supreme. I wish he’d had a bigger role.
Overall it was interesting, but fell flat for me toward the end.
Expectation was built up and then fell. I didn’t even have the urge to read the
next book, so probably won’t finish this series.
I give it a 3 out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment