Bookish Blerd

This one gets all the stars!  This was so good.  I have read the Alice in wonderland book once and seen various versions of the movie.  I can honestly say the only one I like is the animated movie.  But this book took the story and kicked it in the butt!

This book is not for the faint of heart.  There is a lot of violence and some gore.  There is all manner of cruelty toward humans and animals and there is rape (although not graphically depicted).  This is one of the books where you root for the protagonists and the characters don't make stupid decisions that piss you off and make you happy when it inevitably comes back the bite them.

The story follows Alice, who is from the New City.  She ventured into the Old (forbidden) City with her best friend Dor.  When she returns she has been raped, her face is scarred, no one knows what happened to Dor, and Alice is somewhat mad (as a hatter).  She is put into an asylum and meets Hatcher through a mouse hole in the wall between them.  For years they keep one another company and help each other maintain a modicum of sanity.  When a fire breaks out, Hatcher and Alice escape and thus their adventure to stop the Jabberwocky begins.

This is just really great storytelling.  We meet the characters of the original book, the Rabbit, Cheshire, Tweedle Dee and Dumb...only they're all very twisted and dark versions of themselves.  The ending is actually satisfying, but also leaves the door open for the sequel, which I will be starting immediately because I need to know what happens next for Alice and Hatcher!  This is an excellent retelling, which may even convince me to give the source material another try.