Monday, March 21, 2016

Wonderland (Intergalactic Fairy Tales #1) by Robert McKay | Review

Wonderland  (Intergalactic Fairy Tales #1) by Robert McKay
Publisher: McKay Manor Publishing
Publication Date: August 20, 2015
Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Retelling
Pages: 187
Source: Sent by Author for Review
Find on Goodreads




Goodreads Description

Teenage Alice didn’t mean to end up on Wonderland, but the living spaceship she commandeered had other plans, and he was very late.

Abandoned on an unfamiliar planet, Alice’s first day as a space pirate has fallen into madness. Caterpillars? Mad hatters? A Jabberwock? A queen known for chopping off heads? Alice must face all Wonderland can throw at her if she’s to take back possession of The White Rabbit and leave Wonderland in one piece.

My Thoughts


Wonderland is a new take on Alice in Wonderland and the first book in the Intergalactic Fairy Tales series. I've never actually read the original Alice in Wonderland (I've only ever watched different movie adaptations) so I wasn't really sure what to expect from this. When the author contacted me about review this book it sounded interesting so I decided to give it a chance.

To be honest, at first I found this really hard to get into and I wasn't sure if I would be able to finish it.  I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. One of the things I was worried about was Alice's age. Usually when I think of a teenager in a young adult novel, I think of someone that's almost an adult but Alice is on the low end of the spectrum, being only 13. I thought that would be a huge problem when it came to trying to connect with the main character but it actually was like that for the better. She's old enough to know what's going on but still young enough to enjoy the adventure in the whole situation and I really liked that.

The story started picking up for me when Alice got to Wonderland. There was such an interesting take on Wonderland in this book. Besides some of the scenes, I think this was my favorite part. Learning about and exploring Wonderland was such an adventure on it's own. So much happened but I feel like there was still so much we hadn't yet explored. 

I also enjoyed that the author was willing to take risks. This story gets really dark in places. There was a lot violence, at least a lot more than what I was expecting. Alice gets into a quite a few fight scenes and in every one of them she comes out on top. Maybe a bit unrealistic seeing as she really didn't have any previous experience fighting with a sword. However each of those fight scenes were engaging and exciting. The subject of prostitution was mentioned a couple times as well as abuse of all kinds within the "royal court" of Wonderland. Those are topics usually avoided in YA novels so it was refreshing to see darker topics brought up. 

Like I mentioned before I ended up enjoying this book more than I thought I would. If you are looking for a book with a great adventure, or even if you just want to read a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, I definitely think you should give this book a try.

*(side note) Sorry if my thoughts sound all over the place! I was having a really hard time putting my thoughts together.

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