I have to confess, I've never read Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but the original Disney movie adaptation from 1951 is one of my all time favorites. I remember being sucked in by the magic and wonder of it all as a kid, and reading the first few pages of Sullivan's Alice: The Wanderland Chronicles, I was sucked in by the magic all over again. I was already overwhelmed with sweet nostalgia in the first few chapters as I began recognizing all the references and I'm sure it has been long enough since I've seen the movie that there were even several I missed. All in all, I felt like I was being given a second chance to see Alice a first time. 
 I've read several fairy tale retellings in the past year, and none of them held a candle to this book. The author managed to include so many elements of the original story, and yet make it entirely fresh and new and completely her own. She also breathed new life into the oversaturated zombie theme, and took an idea that I think many readers may be sick of, and made it compelling again. 
 The writing was excellent. Sullivan paints a world in which the reader easily feels as if they have fallen down the rabbit hole with Alice, but leaves just enough to the imagination to complete the scene for themselves. The action kicks off with a bang in the library and doesn't stop until the very end. The action scenes were well written and easy to follow, and I suppose my only critique would be that sometimes the fighting felt as if it came too naturally to Alice. I was under the impression that she and Dinah mostly ran from Momerath and didn't fight. So when she first begins slicing them up like a machete wielding ninja, I questioned it. I suspect there is an explanation given in (hopefully!) a sequel, but it was a minor issue. In general, I'm a big fan of machete wielding ninjas. 
 The characters were all wonderful little nods to their original counterparts. You know exactly who is supposed to be who when you read them, and they will each and every one put a smile on your face, from Chess, the boy who appears and disappears on a whim, to Dr. Waite R. Abbott scurrying around looking at his broken watch face crying: "I'm late! I'm late!". I was absolutely giddy when I was first introduced to Bug, the green beanie, purple jacket, orange cargo pants wearing, cigar puffing conspiracist. I also adored Alice in a way that I never really felt one particular way or the other about the original Alice. She's a take charge kind of heroine, who even through all the madness, never forgets her mission, which is to save her sister. 
 My only real criticism, and it is very minor, is that I felt that the action sometimes overshadowed the parts of the book I loved most. Sometimes the reader is propelled from one magical scene to another by the ever-hungry Momerath a little too quickly. There were parts of this madness I would have liked to have stayed and savored awhile, or have visited again. All in all I was given a sufficient tour of Wanderland, and I hope that because the title includes the word Chronicles, I can expect to see another Alice adventure from Sullivan sometime soon. 
 I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who ever enjoyed the original Alice in Wonderland as well as any fantasy and fairy tale lovers, or readers who enjoy action driven books. Thank you to Pen Name Publishers and Net-Galley for providing an ARC!!