Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5
Publisher: Yen Press (Previously, though not my editions, TokyoPop)
Spoilers?: No/Very Minor
Volumes: Omnibus 3, 6 altogether
Goodreads Synopsis:
Kidnapped by a handsome
man with rabbit ears, Alice Liddell finds herself abandoned in an odd
place called Wonderland and thrust into a "game," the rules of which she
has yet to learn. Alice, ever the plucky tomboy, sets off to explore
and get the lay of this strange land, intent on finding her rude
kidnapper and giving him a piece of her mind (and her fist). But little
does she know that she's wandered right into the middle of a dangerous
power struggle involving just about all of Wonderland's attractive,
weapon-happy denizens. And the only way for Alice to return home is to
get acquainted with the lot of them?! How in the world will she manage
that and still manage to stay alive?!
Available on Amazon.
Review:
Firstly, I’m not
going to be comparing this series to the original Alice in Wonderland much. (1) Because I just don’t care about the
similarities all that much and I’m not really looking for any, or noticing
them, aside from maybe a very obvious same plot line or same character. And
(2), because they are very different. This story, from the beginning, took a
different route, took the story in a different direction. And I realize that
some people are very picky about that, and don’t like this series because of
things like that, but I was honestly pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed
this volume.
I found this story
interesting when I first heard about, and tried reading it once but I think I
just mostly wasn’t in the mood for it. I’d planned to pick it up at some point,
but I didn’t, and then Tokyopop went down, and I still didn’t. But then Yen
Press picked it up, and I found it for a really good price online and got it.
After reading the first book, I’m glad I did, because I really enjoyed it.
So the book starts
with Alice waking up from a dream that mentioned some kind of game, and, as
expected, she’s sleeping on the grass as her sister reads a book next to her.
Psychology is mentioned, and her sister tells her about the book she’s reading,
which is, of course, Alice in Wonderland.
And then her sister leaves to get some cards for them to play, and Alice
proceeds to fall asleep again. She wakes up when a clothed rabbit goes past,
but when she tries to fall back asleep, the rabbit comes back to wake her up,
claiming she is supposed to follow him, and then picking her up and bringing
her with him down the rabbit hole.
When they get
there, he kisses her in order to make her drink some kind of liquid that
enforces she play part in some game, and makes it so she has to finish before
going back home. She’s confused, and angry at the rabbit, and we later find out
that the glass the liquid came from will slowly refill the farther in the game
she gets, and once it’s completely filled up, she can go home.
She ends up staying
at the clock tower with Julius, the clock maker/fixer, who tells her about
Wonderland (the town is actually called the Country of Hearts, I believe,
but I’m going to be calling it
Wonderland). Apparently there’s some kind of feud going on between the three
different parts of the town, the Heart Castle, where the rabbit Peter White and
the Queen Vivaldi and Ace reside, the Amusement Park, where the Cheshire cat
Boris and (Mary) Gowland live, and the Hatter Mansion, where the hatter Blood
Dupre and Elliot March and the Bloody Twins (Dee and Dum) live. The clock
tower, where Julius lives and Alice is staying, is neutral land.
While in this
‘dream’, Alice also sleeps and dreams, and in her dreams, she meets Nightmare,
who tells her some things about the world and why she’s there and some things
about herself. Including that everyone in Wonderland is going to love her, and
that this world is of her making. This makes her wonder if they’re falling in
love with her because she wants them to, and is she really that self-centered?
From there, I really enjoy her little musings about the world.
This Wonderland is
very interesting. The time changes at random, turns daylight and dark at any
time, and, much like the cards in the original, all of the helpers at each
place have no face and are easily replaced. Everyone, really, is easily
replaced, and people are always getting killed. I won’t spoil too much more
about that, because there are these afterimages, and things get done with the
bodies and their ‘hearts’ that were a bit of a surprise and is causing a
controversy in their world, and I don’t want to spoil too much.
There are several
guys, all of whom are supposedly falling in love with Alice, and I’m interested
to see what happens with that, especially since some of them are fighting
already and Alice is causing some jealous feelings to erupt. At this point, I’m
not sure who I want her to be with, either. I’m thinking that the Hatter, Blood
Dupre, is the obvious choice, but I also quite like Ace, and there’s something
about the cheshire Boris that I like as well… I’m not sure where my feelings
about them all are going at this point, but I’m looking forward to finding out.
Also, I am happy to
say that I do like Alice. She’s just curious enough, and she’s also very kind
and is always trying to stop everyone from killing each other, and I like how
she thinks about everything. She’s wondering if all of it is her making, and
what that means about her, and she kind of wants no part in any of this, but
she’s obviously getting a bit attached and is going to end up too deep in all
of it. She’s also a bit feisty; she sticks up for what she believes in, and
when she doesn’t like something or someone (like the rabbit Peter) she lets
them know.
There are some dark
things brewing, between each area and some possible scandalizing things
happening behind closed doors. Also, some of the people in this world are
representing people from Alice’s real world, including her sister and her
sister’s boyfriend (who is also the guy that Alice likes), which is obviously
going to cause some drama. As is the fact that everyone is growing to love her but
she can only choose one, and only for the amount of time that she’s there.
Unless, of course, something neat happens to change that, which I hope does
happen. Oh, and at the beginning we’re introduced to some kind of game she’s
inadvertently become a part of, one of the rules including that when she
leaves, she has to take someone with her, I think?. I’m hoping to hear more
about that in the next book, since not much of what the game actually is was
explained.
I mentioned above
that I’m not going to compare much, and how this is so different from the
original, and it is. There are similarities in the characters, but they are
very different people, and they even look quite different. For instance, the
Cheshire and the march hare and the rabbit are human, but with cat/bunny ears.
The Cheshire cat is the most different in that respect, and his personality is
as well. He’s much more adorable, and doesn’t seem to know everything about
everyone quite as much.
I liked Alice in
Wonderland, and enjoy most forms that it’s told, and I’m enjoying this one a
lot, but I’m always very wary of the stories. Because, while I’m getting
wrapped up in the story and falling for the characters, I have to remember that
Alice wakes up at some point, and, in most versions, she doesn’t bring any of
the characters with her. So, whatever happens while in Wonderland, she has to
leave it all behind. I’m thinking that maybe the person she really falls for
she will get to be with when she wakes, but I’m still unsure and very wary.
I’m rather looking
forward to the next book, now.
Oh, as a sidenote:
the covers. I think the covers are very pretty, and the artwork is also very
nice; the artwork isn’t overly flowy or gorgeous, but it is very nice and
detailed and I like looking at it; the outfits are especially nice. And I think
how the covers are turned to the side is neat. But the fact that the covers are
turned to the side, and the back cover looks like it’s upside down to me, makes
me disoriented, and almost every time I pick it up, it’s upside down. I’m not
quite sure why this is, but it is disorienting and that’s bothers me, even
while I do like the idea; maybe it’s just me?
Also, I remember
mentioning in one of my other omnibus review that it looked like the
publisher(/editor/whoever) put little to no effort into making the two books
look like one, in that when the first book ended, it (I think?) said some
version of ‘to be continued’ and had copyright pages before moving into the
next book, and that bothered me a tiny bit. I was happy to see that this volume
was different from that. I could tell when one volume ended, but only because
the chapter ended slightly different from the others at the halfway point, but
there wasn’t too much of a difference or pause between chapters, and I liked
that, and there was also an index at the beginning of the book for the whole
two volumes, and I liked that. I mean, it’s not really that big of a deal, I
guess, but I like that fact that it shows the publisher made more of an effort
than just printing the two books in one binding.
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