Alice Takes Back Wonderland Review: Alice

Book: Alice Takes Back Wonderland
Author: David D. Hammons
Series: Standalone
POV: 1st person by Alice, past tense
Setting: various fairy tale worlds
Genre: YA fairytale

Source: Netgallery
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Pages: 309
Release: September 28th 2015

Goodreads After ten years of being told she can't tell the difference between real life and a fairy tale, Alice finally stops believing in Wonderland. So when the White Rabbit shows up at her house, Alice thinks she's going crazy. Only when the White Rabbit kicks her down the rabbit hole does Alice realize that the magical land she visited as a child is real. But all is not well in Wonderland. The Ace of Spades has taken over Wonderland and is systematically dismantling all that makes it wonderful. Plain is replacing wondrous, logical is replacing magical, and reason is destroying madness. Alice decides she must help the Mad Hatter and all those fighting to keep Wonderland wonderful.  But how can she face such danger when she is just a girl? Alice must journey across the stars to unite an army. She discovers that fairy tales are real in the magical world beyond the rabbit hole. But they are not the fairy tales she knows.  Fairy tales have dangers and adventures of their own, and Alice must overcome the trials of these old stories if she wants to unite the lands against Ace. With the help of Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White and heroes old and new, Alice may have the strength to take back Wonderland.

An interesting spin on a well-known fairy tale.

This story is about Alice, who ventured into Wonderland and did all the events she's famous for doing. However, after coming out of Wonderland, she can't Wonderland out of her head, and is put on medication for being unable to tell reality from fantasy. Years later, the White Rabbit appears and steals Alice's medicine, causing her to give chase. Their destination? Wonderland itself. Except the Ace of Spades has completely taken over, and is slowly stripping all creatures of their wonder, turning them into logical and unimaginative beings in an attempt to create a world ruled by logic rather than madness.

What I enjoyed was the plot, particularly the interweaving of fairy tale worlds and the double identities many characters had. For example, Captain Hook is also Geppetto, Pinocchio's father. Or the dragon from Sleeping Beauty also happens to be the Jabberworky from the Alice in Wonderland tale, slain only by the vorpal sword. I really liked the double identities, both because it left me constantly guessing at the characters' second identity and because it made the plot completely unpredictable. Just when you think you know what will become of someone, that prediction is thrown out the window with the revelation of a new identity. I found the interweaving of fairy tales very creative, and enjoyed it very much.

As much as I enjoyed the plot, the characters were the downfall of my enjoyment. I disliked many characters, finding the majority of them too silly or unrealistic for my liking. I couldn't comprehend Alice's thought process at all, and the number of times she uses "How is a raven like a writing desk?" in her normal speech was extremely repetitive and irritating. Other characters I tolerated, but I didn't quite find their explanations for their actions and lifestyles very believable or justifiable. I felt like secondary characters needed a bit more character development.

The mixing of modern weapons into fairy tales was very odd, and I couldn't wrap my head around it. Alice has a shotgun, the Lost Boys have machine-guns, and Snow White carries a .45 caliber pistol. There's a lot of gun violence in this book, which I didn't think fit very well with the fairy tale environment. I would have preferred more magic, and less focus on technology.

Overall, as much as I liked the plot and the world, I couldn't relate to Alice, nor did I find the other characters very engaging. I'd give it 2.5 stars, but I'll give it 3 for it's uniqueness.