Christina Henry: Alice (2015)
291 pages
English language
Published Feb. 26, 2015
"A mind-bending new novel inspired by the twisted and wondrous works of Lewis Carroll...In a warren of crumbling buildings and desperate people called the Old City, there stands a hospital with cinderblock walls which echo the screams of the poor souls inside. In the hospital, there is a woman. Her hair, once blond, hangs in tangles down her back. She doesn't remember why she's in such a terrible place. Just a tea party long ago, and long ears, and blood... Then, one night, a fire at the hospital gives the woman a chance to escape, tumbling out of the hole that imprisoned her, leaving her free to uncover the truth about what happened to her all those years ago. Only something else has escaped with her. Something dark. Something powerful. And to find the truth, she will have to track this beast to the very heart of the Old City, …
"A mind-bending new novel inspired by the twisted and wondrous works of Lewis Carroll...In a warren of crumbling buildings and desperate people called the Old City, there stands a hospital with cinderblock walls which echo the screams of the poor souls inside. In the hospital, there is a woman. Her hair, once blond, hangs in tangles down her back. She doesn't remember why she's in such a terrible place. Just a tea party long ago, and long ears, and blood... Then, one night, a fire at the hospital gives the woman a chance to escape, tumbling out of the hole that imprisoned her, leaving her free to uncover the truth about what happened to her all those years ago. Only something else has escaped with her. Something dark. Something powerful. And to find the truth, she will have to track this beast to the very heart of the Old City, where the rabbit waits for his Alice"--
I didn't enjoy this as much as Henry's other book, The Lost Boy, mostly because I'm one of the few people who never read Alice in Wonderland (or even saw the Disney movie which I assume is wildly inaccurate anyway).
As a reimagining of the classic Lewis Carroll story, I found it fairly interesting. The layers of anticipation that came with each character's naming was amusing, and watching Alice contend with unknown persons with well-known titles was actually rather fun.
Where the experience failed me was when I realized that without the "Alice Through the Looking Glass" trappings, the story itself wasn't as compelling. Had it not been billed as an Alice retelling, I might not have picked it up, let alone enjoyed it.
Alice is a fantastical tale that is a retelling of Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland. A lot of the elements from Alice in Wonderland are there, some of them subverted in such a way that the story is at times almost unrecognizable, but in a good way. It isn't really a horror novel although horrific things do happen. This story runs more along the lines of magical realism. There are also a lot of parallels to the "real world" in it. Women sold into slavery, rape, abuse, neglect, mental illness. So if that isn't your cup of tea... well, it's not a fun read, but it certainly is a good one.
