Alice by Christina Henry

Alice by Christina Henry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After a tragic incident in her young past, Alice has reluctantly called the asylum her home. Aside from the employees and Hatcher, the man living in the cell next to hers, she saw no one in all that time. When a fire begins in the asylum, Hatcher and Alice manage to make it out to their freedom. They aren’t the only prisoners to escape however, and catastrophe isn’t far behind them.

Alice by Christina Henry is a very dark take on the world of Wonderland, involving many things that may make readers uncomfortable; sexual assault, rape, human trafficking, slavery, prostitution, animal cruelty, cannibalism, serious mental health issues. You name it, this book has it. If none of this turns you off, you are in for a captivatingly clever read inspired by a world likely familiar to you.

The characters were definitely a driving force in this book, all cleverly adapted from Lewis Carroll’s own work and characters. Of course we have Alice who, like the original, is the character we follow on her adventures. Here she is much older than her original counterpart, which is honestly a relief given all she is forced to endure. She does retain some of her inspiration’s sense of wonder which gives us a unique glimpse into the brutal world she is a part of. And much like original Alice, she experiences her world by stumbling through it. This of course means that in some respects she is a passive character, which may irk some readers, but she does have some very strong moments, and I believe that given the nature of the story, it works well.

Our other main character, more grizzled and experienced in the world, is Hatcher. He is inspired by the Hatter of Mad Tea Party fame. Here however, he has never made hats, and is named for his favoured method of dispatching enemies. His view of the world is a unique blend of dazed and lucid, an eerie combination that works spectacularly for Alice’s guide and truest companion. He is much of what drives the plot along. And as he is a contradiction in many ways, he is also alarmingly brutal and disarmingly tender.

We of course see other familiar faces throughout the adventure, though they may look different. The Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar, the Walrus, the Jabberwocky, are all here in various inventive and clever roles. If you are very familiar with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, they make perfect sense.

The world is quite self contained, taking place in one, albeit large, half of the city. This also parallels Carroll’s Wonderland well. There isn’t much in wolrdbuilding outside of what the reader needs to make sense of this story.

The one negative thing I would say is that there were some anticlimactic moments. You spend most of the book having your expectations built up, but then some occurrences are a bit of a let down.

I would also like to mention that, as someone who has read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland innumerable times, I was even able to sense it’s inspiration in its writing style. Christina Henry did say at a signing that she doesn’t plot her books out, and this matches the method Lewis Carroll followed when telling his story to the Liddel children, making it up as he went along to keep them entertained.

Alice by Christina Henry was an exceptional read, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes dark, adult fantasy. You do not need to be intimately familiar with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to enjoy this, but it may add an extra layer of enjoyment.



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