Alice (The Chronicles of Alice)

First of all, I want to say that I finished this book in less than two days and I am not a fast reader. It is a haunting, dark, macabre new take on Alice in Wonderland. I will not be giving any spoilers, just things from the back of the book and general topics. Alice has spent years in a psych ward, given drugs to keep her calm, and she can't remember what happened to her in the Old City. After a fire, she and her cell neighbor escape into the Old City where there nightmare of an adventure begins. Some things borrowed and twisted darkly from the original characters, others her own bleak world, the author creates a story I will not forget - and may see in my nightmares quite honestly. I was immediately taken by the characters, they are so relatable despite being very much fantasy characters. The author does an amazing job creating a world we can see as clearly as if we were watching a movie. I immediately ordered the other 2 Chronicles of Alice books.I will say this because I would have liked the heads up myself: it is a sexual abuse survivor's trigger-wonderland. While I am glad I read the book and immediately ordered not only the other 2 Alice books but others books the author wrote (proving I loved her work), it was a difficult read. Again, no spoilers, but sexual abuse, rape, and slavery are common topics that come up in this book, sometimes very suddenly. Unlike some books I have read where I thought to myself "you could have left that part out and the book would have been fine," this book needed those topics. It's strange to say that as a survivor but it really did "add" to the twisted horrors of the story and would not have been the same without it. The topics are used to show how evil certain characters are, for characters to bond over shared trauma, and to show the evils of man in a world with fewer rules. I have gone through years of exposure therapy for very unique Alice-like horrors so I saw this book as just another lesson in many ways and the roller-coaster of emotions as part of the book itself; Alice in Wonderland is always a story that blurs the lines between what is real and what isn't, this version just blurred the lines a bit more for me while reading it. HOWEVER, if you personally are not in the right state of mind to handle these topics yet, I would avoid the book. There are 2 parts in particular, no spoilers, that I don't think I will forget any time soon and made me feel physically ill - as it was intended to in order to show the true evil of those two characters. I did have a nightmare-like dream about one the day after reading it. Anyone who believes me to be strange for sharing a PTSD trigger warning has obviously not read this book.To close, I highly recommend this book. For each fellow Alice out there, ride out the rabbit hole and come out stronger on the other side.

Warnings: Gore, Murder, Prostitution, Cannibalism, Rape, Drug Abuse, Sanitarium / Asylum, Slavery.Fairy-Tales retelling are popularized genre in fiction. I think It became far more wide known thanks to the television series, Once Upon a Time (Which is one of my favorite series, what can I say? I'm a sucker for it) and in the early 2000s and 2010s it boomed with so many new iterations of your beloved fairy-tales in a new and exciting new takes. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll are nothing new with this type of genre. It is probably the most known one with so many retelling works like, The Looking Glass War by Frank Beddor, Heartless by Marissa Meyer, Splintered by A.G. Howard, Automated Alice by Jeff Noon, After Alice by Gregory Maguire, Alice in the Country of Hearts Manga series and the most notable work in video games, American Mcgee's Alice. So what could possibly be refreshing in this tale? What can author do with the Alice LORE and keep their readers intrigued by it? Thus comes Christina Henry and oh boy, what did she created.If you go chasing your freedom your fate will only follow you there, and force you back.Alice is locked up in the asylum for her own sake they said. She's not well, they said. Her parents won't visit her because her mind isn't safe. And then she gets out to this strange apocalyptic world. Through her eyes we get to venture in a extremely unique world divided with colorful gangsters making the lives of the citizens awful. She not only have to deal with her memories not making sense, a mysterious monster after her, trying to chase this rabbit that damaged her and her partner, Hatcher who's a murderer and not entirely sane. You could tell that this story has a lot to unpack and you certainly feel the magic of Alice in wonderland in this dark re-imagining. It is gritty, downright scary and sometimes I just wanted to stop but couldn't because how could I? It's like a medical drug. You know it's good but overtaking it from the recommended dose will do unrecoverable damage.Could the world really be this terrible? Every step AliceChristina writing is both poetic and macabre the way she details Alice's view of the world and the people she meet along her journey with Hatcher. She doesn't shy to make you uncomfortable and emotional with how much Alice on her plate. So much and yet she never stop going forward and developing with Hatcher's who past is in fragments and under the influence of dark forces making him a liability. I wasn't sure what the story was heading towards, the pacing was all over the place and you felt so disoriented as Alice, perhaps intentionally due to the fact that this is a retelling of a story all inside a child's mind. Christina makes you feel hopeful in this god forsaken world. I certainly wouldn't want to live in it.There was comfort in ignorance, in thinking the world a certain way and not knowing any different.It's undeniable by now why this book is so popularized and for a good reason. It is a crime thrilling story that you can't put down and you have to devour the pages until you reach the conclusion despite how nasty it getting. I can't entirely talk about Alice because due to how heavily engaging it is, its better going into this story blind. The story is lavishing and unforgivably dark with intriguing morally gray main character, a interesting world setting, magic system and thought provoking lore and a little bit of a hope that the sequel will be just as good as the first book, because I am all here for Christina Henry and her retelling books. She seems to know how to do them and I hope you'd enjoy them too :)

Finished the book and wow it was so ever good. I was a bit hesitant at first due to some of the reviews stating rape and sexual violence but my god it was no where near bad. The descriptions were like a hand creeping up in the inside of her legs. Not over detailed and not triggers like you would think.Can’t wait to read the second book in the chronicles. The red queen.

Not trying to be a hater, but this is like a dark children's book with a very basic story and writing style. I was expecting something very different, but maybe it was just a bad fit.

Nice cover, I prefer hardcovers but I realy wanten to read this so I settled for the paperback. A very interesting version of alice, just read a bit and this is one I just want to know what happens next so I don't want to stop reading

I have quite an obsession with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, which is why I had to buy it. I have no regret at all! The story is very dark themed, with a lot of infuriating situations. English is not my first language but I had no problem understanding it. The writing is not "high literature" but it was still pleasant to read. I found the characters rich and well written ; none of them were cliche.I highly recommend it :)P.S : avis aux francophones, ce roman a été facile à lire et à comprendre, même s'il est en anglais.It might be a slight SPOILER : I did not expect it to be fantasy, to be honest. Reading the synopsis, I thought it would be a dark investigation/revenge story.

Ha llegado en perfectas condiciones. Leí muy buenas críticas. Estoy deseando leerlo.