So I stumbled onto C.M. Stunich’s “Allison's Adventures in Underland” late the other night, and I can honestly say it was much better than expected.
There are many MANY renditions of the original Lewis Carroll's “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. As a fan of the original story, I've read many of them myself, and I have to say this one got bumped to the top of the list.
The book follows Allison as she becomes The Alice when she falls down the rabbit hole into Wonderland or what was once wonderland now Underland.
This new Wonderland is not the odd mix of creepy and beautiful of the original. It’s broken, bloody and not for young readers. A great example of this is right at the beginning and the reason Allison falls down the hole. SPOILER, SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH IF NOT WANTING TO READ. In the original story, Alice falls down the hole chasing after the White Rabbit. In this version she’s still chasing the White Rabbit but only because he had just headshot her crush right in front of her. She’s literally covered in his blood for a nice chunk of the story!
“Wonderland.… Not anymore” - Tea(the new and much improved Tweedledum).
I have to say this is the first Alice in Wonderland rendition that I’ve read that actually acknowledges the original work. Allison uses her knowledge of the original story to her advantage as she navigates the stories reimagined characters and world.
Speaking of reimagining, all of your beloved characters are back in this dark reverse harem. And of course, they are all sexy beyond belief(it is a romance after all). But don’t worry! Allison actually questions why literally every male she meets is good looking. It's probably one of her greatest unspoken questions throughout the book. This is nice as most other romances never question so much sexy. For the benefit of not spoiling anything too big I’ll avoid telling you too much about our male cast members. (Honestly, I can't say much about them because it spoils so much of the story)
Allison is certainly the best Alice I have ever seen as she’s far from the airheaded blonde that most renditions would have you believe( I am not counting the awesome Alice from the newer live action movies). She intelligent and takes action when necessary, and while she does question the strange circumstances she’s under, she quickly learns not to freak out at every odd occurrence. This is actually a breath of fresh air and adds a needed comedy to the dark and bloody story, as she slowly becomes more and more unaffected if not a little jaded to the large cast of characters insane antics.
Insane they are, and I love it. Stunich’s story takes a nice deep bow to the original as her cast of characters follow along with the lyrical, nonsensical, and somewhat philosophical speech the original books had. It makes it even more enjoyable when Allison doesn't completely brush off the characters odd mannerisms.
In fact, this book probably has some of my all-time favorite lines of literature.
Not everything is perfect though as the story feels a bit like balancing too much in your arms all at one time. Now, this can be because I practically gobbled this book up since I couldn’t put it down. But a lot does happen in this…320 page book?! I honestly felt like it was in the lower two hundreds I read it so quickly.
But besides what is probably just my own error another problem is that the Romance feels a bit forced. Now, most romance in reverse harems can feel forced. Still enjoyable though. And at least in this particular book the main character acknowledges there her attraction to all of the main male characters is odd. While Allison does question several times that her attraction to men she just met is off, this doesn't stop you wondering why she begins to fall for some of these males.
If reverse harem is your thing or you just enjoy a good Alice in Wonderland rendition, I suggest picking up this book. The second book was scheduled to come out recently however the author fell Ill and had to push back the publish. As of this review’s release, the book is not out but rumored to be out soon along with the third book in the series. I can only hope they are as good as the first.
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