Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 Alice isn't your grandmother's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Hell, I don't even know if it's my version of it either. It's dark, disturbing, both a retelling and a continuation of the classic, and I'm issuing all the trigger warnings. The book is fraught with violence, including both physical and sexual violence against women. So if those things are difficult for you to read about, especially in relation to a much-loved story from your childhood, I would definitely caution you against reading this. 
 But if dark and disturbing is your jam, then have at it. 
 It's all very twisted and at first, I struggled with whether or not I enjoyed it. I was riveted to every word, but I found it jarring. I connected a lot with the story of Alice as a child. My mom still had her copies of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass from the seventies and, if I wasn't such a wimp, I'd get a full sleeve tattoo of illustrations from those books. 
 But I love a good story of revenge. And I enjoyed the way Christina Henry balanced magic and violence and turned me against these familiar characters and the ideas I held of them from the children's story. Some of the connections are obvious, like the recurring characters, but others are subtler. 
 The majority of the book is spent searching for a way to beat the Jabberwock and, as Alice regains her memories, attaining revenge against The Rabbit is added to her to-do list. After all, there's no way to avoid a confrontation between the two characters. I looked forward to their meeting, to having Alice destroy the man who destroyed her life. But what happens is far from satisfying, much like the climax of the book between Hatch, Alice, and the Jabberwock. Those last few pages where the final showdowns are supposed to happen deflated the rest of the story. They were anticlimactic and lacking in the previous momentum leading up to it. I wasn't satisfied by Alice's "revenge," if it could even be called that. 
 I'm even pretty sure I heard a sad trombone play in the back of my head. 
 - Amanda