Author: Christina Henry
Publisher: Ace (August 4, 2015)
Length: 304 Pages
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tales
For Fans Of:
Highly recommended for fans of dark fantasy and fairy tale retellings, like Hook’s Tale or, one of my recent favorites, The Bear and The Nightingale.
My Review:
“There is more to you than you know. Remember that.”
I was prepared for this to be dark….but I didn’t realize quite HOW dark it would be. No shiny fairy tales here, friends. Not even close. I adored the world Christina Henry built here so much that I’ve already ordered Red Queen, the next installment of Alice’s story. (I also ordered The Mermaid, just because – and I have Lostboy already on my shelves at home…I’m basically a Henry super-fan now.)
“She must start believing in impossible things, for impossible things kept appearing before her eyes.”
Alice has been institutionalized for 10 years, after returning from her ‘trip down the rabbit hole’ physically and emotionally scarred, a different young woman than the one who initially disappeared from her family. In the asylum, Alice meets and befriends Hatcher, an alleged mass murderer, who is much more than he seems. These two will be forced to fight to survive the homicidal Rabbit, who never forgot Alice and who desperately wants her back.
“Life is not much like stories, Alice thought. Still, her life had a giant talking rabbit in it, and she didn’t think that was very common.”
Rating:
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
This book swept me away. The characters were amazing, both the goodies and the baddies, but the baddies were especially vicious and creepy. This is like the sinister, Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland on steroids. Spine-chilling. Disturbing. Completely immersive.