Book Review: Alice (The Chronicles of Alice #1) by Christina Henry

Title: Alice
Author: Christina Henry
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: August 4, 2015
Pages: 291
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Fantasy (Dark)

               

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.

Intense. Dark. Twisted. Disturbing. Oft times downright gruesomely unsettling.

Exactly how I like my Alice in Wonderland retellings.

This is so NOT the Alice you remember from your childhood, nor is it like any other Alice retelling you have ever read before. This book is NOT for the squeamish or faint of heart.

Alice by Christina Henry is an utterly perverse tale of a young woman haunted by past atrocities and horrors so heinous, that her brain has refused to allow her to remember them. Until, that is, she escapes the insane asylum with a man who, if provoked, may literally axe murder her.

Alice and her "mad" companion must unravel Alice's past in order to destroy the Jabberwok, who has escaped his cell beneath the very asylum Alice has escaped from. Along their way they must cross paths with Cheshire, Caterpillar, Walrus, and Rabbit.

Who is friend?
Who is foe?
Can anyone be trusted?

Drink Me. Eat Me.

What will Alice do?