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A review by lucyjunee
Return to Wonderland by Various
2.0
I am a huge Alice fan. The biggest. Anything Alice related and I will consume it. Obsessed. So, you can probably imagine how excited I was for this anthology of wonderland inspired stories, I was buzzing with it. Sadly, it turned out to be boring, dull, unoriginal and wholly lacking in creativity.
My thoughts on each story are as follows:
- “Acorns, Biscuits and treacle”: although I appreciate the focus on the least known characters from the original novella who aren’t featured in the Disney adaptations (Pig and the girls at the bottom of the treacle well) it was the only connection to wonderland. It was both dry and uninteresting and completely lacks any sort of whimsy or quirkiness, signatures to Carroll’s writing. Two stars.
- “The Queen of Hearts and the Unwritten Written Rule”: the prose here was absolutely hilarious, so original and fun, I laughed a lot. The premise of wonderland being transformed into a tourist attraction with its own tripadvisor page was just hysterical and I adored it immensely. However, every other word being capitalised really did my head in. It was unnecessary and distracting, serving no purpose to the story or characterisation. Three stars - but it would have been four if it was just typed normally.
- “The sensible Hatter”: Hatter goes sensible, which in itself destroys his character rather than adding to it. It was lovely to see a larger cast of wonderland creatures, even if most of them were out-of-character, but that seemed to be a running theme here. I did however enjoy the little nods to contextual elements of the book, such as the doctor being named Liddell and the name Lutwidge being suggested for the new and improved sensible Hatter. Two stars.
- “The missing book”: laughably bad. Painful to read. It had absolutely no reminiscence of wonderland in the slightest and it was horrifically boring to read. One star.
- “Roll of honour”: please, what was this? Horrendous. One stars.
- “The Tweedle Twins and the Case of the Colossal Crow”: I had no clue what was happening at any point during this which makes it the most Alice - esque story so far. Very good. Three stars.
- “Ina out of wonderland”: one of my favourite authors?! And of course she exceeds my expectations, as she does every time. So inventive, unique and creative, drawing on the context and history of the creator of Wonderland. Would happily read a full novel of this. Five stars.
- “Plum cakes at dawn”: was I starting to lose hope in any of these stories (other than Robin’s) actually being good? Definitely. And this story only destroyed what little faith I had left. It’s like they’ve never actually read any of Carroll’s work - the point of the original novella is whimsy and fun and madness and this story lacks all, it’s stupid but not in an enjoyable way. The characters are boring, which is just insulting to what Carroll made them to be. One star.
- “The knave of hearts”: this had an interesting concept - whether the knave of hearts was found guilty in the trial at the end of the book, since Carroll never gives closure on the matter. But unsurprisingly, it was terrible. One star.
- “How the chesire cat got his smile”: so how did he get it? some questions are better left unanswered and this is one of them. One star.
- “The caterpillar and the moth rumour”: we finally got to the end and will we end on a sour note? Sour. Very sour. One star.
Overall rating: two stars.
I’m so sorry, Carroll. What a disgrace to your memory.
My thoughts on each story are as follows:
- “Acorns, Biscuits and treacle”: although I appreciate the focus on the least known characters from the original novella who aren’t featured in the Disney adaptations (Pig and the girls at the bottom of the treacle well) it was the only connection to wonderland. It was both dry and uninteresting and completely lacks any sort of whimsy or quirkiness, signatures to Carroll’s writing. Two stars.
- “The Queen of Hearts and the Unwritten Written Rule”: the prose here was absolutely hilarious, so original and fun, I laughed a lot. The premise of wonderland being transformed into a tourist attraction with its own tripadvisor page was just hysterical and I adored it immensely. However, every other word being capitalised really did my head in. It was unnecessary and distracting, serving no purpose to the story or characterisation. Three stars - but it would have been four if it was just typed normally.
- “The sensible Hatter”: Hatter goes sensible, which in itself destroys his character rather than adding to it. It was lovely to see a larger cast of wonderland creatures, even if most of them were out-of-character, but that seemed to be a running theme here. I did however enjoy the little nods to contextual elements of the book, such as the doctor being named Liddell and the name Lutwidge being suggested for the new and improved sensible Hatter. Two stars.
- “The missing book”: laughably bad. Painful to read. It had absolutely no reminiscence of wonderland in the slightest and it was horrifically boring to read. One star.
- “Roll of honour”: please, what was this? Horrendous. One stars.
- “The Tweedle Twins and the Case of the Colossal Crow”: I had no clue what was happening at any point during this which makes it the most Alice - esque story so far. Very good. Three stars.
- “Ina out of wonderland”: one of my favourite authors?! And of course she exceeds my expectations, as she does every time. So inventive, unique and creative, drawing on the context and history of the creator of Wonderland. Would happily read a full novel of this. Five stars.
- “Plum cakes at dawn”: was I starting to lose hope in any of these stories (other than Robin’s) actually being good? Definitely. And this story only destroyed what little faith I had left. It’s like they’ve never actually read any of Carroll’s work - the point of the original novella is whimsy and fun and madness and this story lacks all, it’s stupid but not in an enjoyable way. The characters are boring, which is just insulting to what Carroll made them to be. One star.
- “The knave of hearts”: this had an interesting concept - whether the knave of hearts was found guilty in the trial at the end of the book, since Carroll never gives closure on the matter. But unsurprisingly, it was terrible. One star.
- “How the chesire cat got his smile”: so how did he get it? some questions are better left unanswered and this is one of them. One star.
- “The caterpillar and the moth rumour”: we finally got to the end and will we end on a sour note? Sour. Very sour. One star.
Overall rating: two stars.
I’m so sorry, Carroll. What a disgrace to your memory.