Book Review — Alice

 

Title:  Alice
Author:  Christina Henry
Genre:  Retelling
Pages:  Oversize paperback, 291
ISBN:  978-0-425-26679-3
Opening Lines:  "If she moved her head all the way up against the wall and tilted it to the left she could just see the edge of the moon through the bars.  Just a sliver, almost close enough to eat."

Rating

"In a warren of the crumbling buildings and desperate people called the Old City stands a hospital with cinder-block walls that 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. She tumbles 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."

~ Jacket copy

Do you ever wonder what happened to Alice after her strange adventures in Wonderland?  Did her family believes her wild tales of "Eat Me, Drink Me"?  Were they enraptured by the concept of a talking rabbit who is always late "for a very important date"?  Maybe they merely pawned it off as the strange murmurings of a mid-afternoon nap.  Or maybe—just maybe—they feared Alice might be truly and utterly mad.  And, rather than allowing their mad daughter to upset their social status, Alice's family had her committed to a life of living hell—an asylum for the insane.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead

The idea of Alice being considered insane and an orphan, is not a new idea.  Any true fans of Alice will remember American McGee's video games and her quest to remember her forgotten past.  Maybe Wonderland is true . . . Or maybe it is the brain's way of protecting Alice from an extremely traumatic past.

Christina Henry does not deviate from this idea.  Alice is another take on the insane girl trying to come to terms with horrific events and recover memories lost as a result of the trauma.  However, unlike American McGee, Alice is not living in an orphanage and working with a psychiatrist trying to access her deeply buried memories.  Rather, after returning from her "adventures," Alice is shipped off to an asylum to be locked away for 10 years.  

The book is a combination fantasy and reality.  Using the backdrop of a Victorian inner city London, it addresses the reality of crime bosses, turf rivalries, and human trafficking . . . With a splash of magic for good measure.  

Despite my undying love for retellings and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, this book fell flat.  The concept of Alice being locked away after coming back from Wonderland is still an intriguing idea, and I absolutely love it.  And Henry forcing Alice to work through the Old City to slowly recovering her lost memory also worked well.  Unfortunately, she lost me about two-thirds of the way through the novel.  

I can get behind the idea of the Rabbit (as well as the other bosses) being human traffickers of one variety or the other.  I can also get behind Alice's friend selling her to a human trafficker.  And even the Jabberwocky is a neat idea.  However, it was all too much.  Henry needed to settle for one or the other and not try to tackle both.  Further, while readers know Alice will eventually confront the Rabbit, it took too long and ended too abruptly.  She does not stand before the Rabbit until the second part of the second to last chapter, and the confrontation takes approximately 2-3 pages.  And that doesn't even address everything surrounding the Jabberwocky.

For all the promise and the build-up, the book was anticlimactic and a disappointment.  I wanted to love it and the concept of Alice being the victim of seedy human traffickers; however, Henry tried to do too much.