I love Alice retellings. There are several happening in YA right now that are a bit meh for me, so I appreciated Christina Henry's adult take on the story. The darkness and characters remind me so much of American McGee's Alice and Alice the Madness Returns. Escaped from an asylum, Alice takes on the creatures from her nightmares. The plot even reads like a quest game with bosses. Love! While there are definitely fantastic and magical elements present, the villains are clothed as warring crime bosses in the Old City aka the bad part of town. Warning: there is lots and lots of violence against women, some told as flashbacks with others exposed as the plot progresses. Hard to read, for sure. Also lots of axe murder. All that said, I would love to play through this world in a video game. I hear there's a second book about the quest to find (view spoiler)[Hatcher's daughter (hide spoiler)], and I will definitely be on the lookout for its release next year.