Reviews tagging 'Death'

Wonderland by Juno Dawson

12 reviews

kajoreads's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

The good:

• The premise and the setting were interesting.
• I enjoyed a lot of the commentary around transness.
• The Alice in Wonderland retelling aspect was kinda fun.

The bad:

• There were some weird jokes and descriptions that came across like microaggressions.
• The mental illness rep was questionable at best.
• I wish the MC’s internalized misogyny was addressed better.
• Overall, the book simply didn’t live up to my expectations. The synopsis had me hoping for an investigative mystery. This wasn’t that.
• The resolution was underwhelming.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual content, Transphobia, Vomit, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Biphobia, Deadnaming, Incest, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Blood

oystersauce's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicide, and Transphobia

Minor: Deadnaming, Death, and Incest

lucystolethesky's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Transphobia, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

justme12xx's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is literally like falling down a rabbit hole. If you want to be confused but all knowing at the same time I'd recommend this book. It's this amazing, confusing but all together wonderful story. The characters are diverse in race, sexuality and gender. Everything about this was amazing

I would personally recommend checking the content warnings before reading. I didn't and I was quite shocked when some scenes happened because of it. I also hadn't realized it literally says of the back "not suitable for younger readers" and I'm definitely a younger reader. But this book is just amazing please go and read it cause it just so wonderful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, and Transphobia

Minor: Deadnaming, Death, and Incest

alexa_bmn's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Deadnaming and Incest

hazel_t23's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Self harm, Suicide, and Transphobia

Minor: Death

Also includes a scene where a character commits arson.

anettainkeri's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Gun violence, Incest, and Vomit

that_bookworm_guy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

A clever modern day retelling of Alice in Wonderland featuring a trans main character, yes please!! 

Throughout the book, there are quotes from Alice in Wonderland woven throughout and characters that share similarities to the original characters. 

The story is interesting and strange, and honestly wild. But very enjoyable. 

It's dark, and it's messy and focuses a lot on mental health. But as a trans person, I could see a lot of similarities in mine and Alice's experiences. I love being able to see parts of myself in fictional characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Minor: Incest

beesbumblebooks's review

adventurous funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I read three of Juno Dawsons Novels, and they are all written in a very fast pace, especially Clean and, now, Wonderland. Even though I say fuck the upper class, I love it in Dawsons novels, because the upperclass is fucked there. Which it probably is in real life? I don't know.

Wonderland had a kind of adventurous-mystery-story vibe. I kept wondering how much of that kind really happens in the upper class or if it's exaggerated or dramatic. I really liked that it was dramatic, though. The end was a bit to classic: First a showdown, waking up in a hospital, then being all I-found-myself-and-have-it-sorted-out. Yeah, but it's fine. <spoolerover>

 

 Baby spoilers on personalities and vibe of story, also on the vibe of Dawson books: 

What I really like about Dawsons novel is that she made up a world for all of them - the places are the same throughout the novels and bop up like easter eggs, which is very exciting when you've read the other novels. After a while one sees even a continuity and how Juno Dawson begins to intertwine the stories, or at least elements, into other ones. It's great and makes me feel like I know shit.  

Other than that I immediatly loved the main character, Alice, because she's reflected, she's undramatic and just a good person without SHOWING HER MORALS WAH WAH WAH. All the characters are amazingly written. Most people have  a small part in Alice's story, like in Alice in Wonderland she seems to meet them in one chapter, than moving on. Still each interaction sticks and seems important, the characters being on point and fully developed without saying much. I guess that's what good writers do - putting personalities into persons. Dawson doesn't seem to judge, she just describes different persons like: Yep, that's people, and it's brilliant. 

I also want to add that all the sexual encounters are described with so much feeling, not needing to be explicit to transport  what's happening and how incredible it feels, what the expierience does with one's mind. I'm always excited when  book can capture something so intimate and unique so well. And also the description of being transgender and also struggling with mental illnes are so...yeah, undramatic, I'd say. They take part in everything, a thught here, and observation there, but interwoven in the story, showing it as it is, normal life, the experience of many people who just deal with it between all the other stuff that's happening. It sucks and then there are other things to be thought of. Or it's wonderful and then there comes real life shit. 

Yeah, good book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Alcoholism, Deadnaming, Death, Self harm, and Sexual assault

beccaand's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Woah. Really felt like I was in Alice's head when I was reading. So gritty and full of raw emotion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

Moderate: Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Minor: Sexual content