I love Alice in Wonderland retellings and this one felt much closer in aesthetic to the original! I liked getting to read from the Queen of Hearts perspective as she was much more interesting than Alice. That ending took me by surprise, maybe not completely in a good way. 3.5/ 5 stars! I enjoyed reading the book but the ending wasn’t my jam and Alice was too passive. Still worth the read if you love Wonderland stories!

Full disclosure, I've never read the Alice books and I've only seen the cartoon movie, so I'm really not sure why I requested Ever Alice from #netgalley but I'm glad I did. The book is sort of the sequel to the Alice in Wonderland story we all know; Alice is 15 in Ever Alice, and we meet her in a mental institution. The rest of the book details Alice's adventures in Wonderland, round two or three or however many rounds she's been there previously. I appreciated the way this book took a darker approach to Alice in Wonderland but also preserved the sort of topsy-turvy spirit the series is known for. The idea of Alice being crazy rather than going to Wonderland is an interesting one, and the book introduces the possibility that all of her Wonderland adventures were the manifestations of mental illness, rather than actual trips. I've read some reviews that criticized this book for having flat characters, and, while I agree Alice and the queen were super flat characters, I also think that's kind of true to their previous representations. I've never seen Alice as a complex character; to me, she was always a vehicle through which a story was told. If Ramsay attempted to make the characters more than they'd previously been, I'm not sure it would have worked. I've also seen some critiques about this book's lack of world building, and that really wasn't an issue for me. We all know Wonderland. World building, to me, would've impeded on the book's plot and would, in some ways, have felt repetitive. The book read like a movie sequel; nothing too complicated, nothing too in-depth, it allowed me to replay and continue the original Disney cartoon in my mind and for me, that worked.

While this book did take me a little bit to get into and at times lagged in plot line, I did end up enjoying it. I especially liked that the author kept true to Wonderland and the language of it as well as the characters. The twist at the end was very intriguing as well and surprised me!

Dramatic and quirky, Ever Alice is an intriguing retelling of Alice in Wonderland that suffers somewhat at the hands of its slow build. I was expecting there to be a lot of action in this story, but the plot really only picked up during the last 100 pages. I loved the inclusion of iconic Wonderland characters as well as some new ones, and Ramsay did an excellent job at writing an older Alice without straying too much from her original character. Overall, I think that fans of Alice in Wonderland will be excited to see this novel.

Ever Alice is an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland retelling that takes on a modern twist.

I am a huge Alice in Wonderland fan (it's my favorite classic) and as such I ADORE retellings. Unfortunately this fell flat and I had to DNF at 25% despite multiple attempts to read the book at different times (it's been sitting in my shelf for over 3 mouths) and during that time this is as far as I could get.

Don't get me wrong, the plot itself sounds like it has a lot of potential. Alice has been put into a medical ward because her adventures in wonderland were thought to be symptoms of madness by her family and doctors. She starts to question reality until she ends up back in wonderland and drawn into a plot to finish the Queen of Hearts.

My main gripe is that the story feels like a literal retelling of the original Alice and doesn't feel different enough to actually be enjoyable. I don't feel like you get any additional information about the world or characters that make you want to read more. It just feels like a modern take on the tale turned sequel.

This may appeal to some especially if they haven't read both original Alice books but for me it just felt tired (keep in mind I only got to 25%)

The only reason I persevered to 25% was due to all the good reviews. I thought I must be missing something and I seem to be the exception not the majority so it may just be I'm overly picky because of my Alice obsession.

Overall if this book sounds like something you'd enjoy and you're interested in a sequel to Alice in Wonderland then still give this a try. If you're a big Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass fan already maybe give this one a miss.

Thanks to Netgalley, for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I have always been a fan of Alice in Wonderland, and I found this to be an extremely good sequel, following up on Alice and on Wonderland after she returns home. The initial setup certainly makes sense - her family decides that she has mental problems since she keeps talking about Wonderland and her adventures there. The White Rabbit shows up just in time to rescue her from some sort of surgical procedure (a lobotomy, perhaps?) and take her back to Wonderland.

The various characters in Wonderland have developed since we were originally there, and now are players in the politics of the court of the Queen of Hearts. I thought that their developed characters were definitely appropriate - it made sense that this was how they would develop. The geopolitics of Wonderland, with the various king (queen)doms also made for an interesting plot, as well as the variety of human and animal characters.

I enjoyed the plot, and I also liked the shifting perspectives between Alice and the Queen of Hearts. I think it rounded out the story, more so than if it had all been told from Alice's perspective.

There are definitely some twists, which I will not discuss since they would be spoilers. It's enough to say that things are not always what they seem!

[book:Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass|24213] is one of my all-time favorite books, and I've read quite a few retellings. The synopsis for <i>Ever Alice</i> instantly intrigued me, as did a few other reviews referring to this as a "sequel" of sorts.

This is definitely an attempt at a sequel... Here we follow Alice at age 15, who is trapped in an insane asylum (not exactly a fresh take) and eventually finds her way back to Wonderland and into the Queen of Hearts' inner circle. There, she must navigate the madness of the Queen's court, full of a myriad of characters with their own hidden agendas. Who can she trust?

Does this capture the same whimsy that Lewis Carroll achieved? Not exactly. Parts of this had flashes about what I love about Carroll's books - the backwards grammar, the nonsensical rules and unexplained world-building. But it just tries too hard to be whimsical without striking the right tone. It's hard to explain in words. But more often than not this Wonderland felt more like a nightmare hellscape than a place I'd ever want to visit.

Part of the issue was having half of the book from the POV of Rosamund, aka the Queen of Hearts. I understood what she was all about after two chapters, and then it became extremely repetitive. The joy of Carroll's books was seeing all this madness from the extremely logical Alice's POV. However, seeing through the eyes of a shallow madwoman is only fun for so long before it becomes tiresome. Parts of Rosamund's backstory did seem interesting, but the book only tells brief snippets of it. A flashback or two would have endeared me much more to her, I think. Instead, I kept begging for Alice to just kill her, already.

Alice herself was kind of an enigma - in one moment she's the Alice I remember, in the other she's a lovestruck idiot who can't seem to make up her mind on anything. Part of that may be intentional, but it was pretty frustrating.

This also has a "twist" ending but, uh, I saw it coming a mile off.

I enjoyed this retelling of the classic Alice in Wonderland. Being able to get inside both the villian and the heroin's mind was a great departure from the original. Finally, we're able to glimpse the manic, paranoid behavior of the Queen of Harts was my favorite part.

After returning from Wonderland, Alice can't stop telling stories of her adventures. Unfortunately, not only does no one believe her, they think she's mad. She's put into an asylum with appalling conditions and a nurse that hates her. Desperate to be freed, Alice agrees to try an experimental procedure in another hospital. Once there, however, she changes her mind and escapes from the hospital with the White Rabbit, who whisks her back to Wonderland for one reason: to help the Aboveground kill the Queen of Hearts. Can Alice win the trust of the mad queen in order to get close enough to accomplish their mission? Or will a traitor in their midst endanger Alice's life?

I really did not like this book at all. I want to be positive and point out something that was good, but nothing comes to me. The writing style was flat and choppy. None of the characters felt real or lifelike in any way. The author tried to be whimsical and nonsensical, but all the little things just fell flat or annoyed me. I was put off by the descriptions of the rotten food the Wonderland inhabitants ate. I wasn't sympathetic to the queen, who was being haunted by her murdered husbands. Alice didn't seem to have much agency; she just sort of did what she was told or stumbled into situations by chance. This was just such an unpleasant book to read.</p>

t's been awhile since I've read <strong><em>Alice in Wonderland</em></strong>, so maybe if you love that book, this book is for you. But if you are looking for a well-plotted adventure with a good prose and interesting characters, this is not that book.</p>

I've read a few Wonderland retellings but I've struggled to find one I've really enjoyed. Most go too far down one of two routes: Alice becomes a bold, heroic sword-wielding warrior instead of a slightly silly girl, or everything becomes just far too 'quirky' and nonsensical, feeling like the author just crammed random words and images together and called it done.

So with I picked up Ever Alice, I was hopeful but unsure. I was really, really happy with the balance H. J. Ramsay pulled off. It's slightly less 'whimsical' than the original book, but in a way that makes sense for a slightly older Alice (and which I personally prefered).

I really liked that the author chose to split the POVs between Alice and Rosamund, the Queen of Hearts. It made the queen more nuanced. It didn't try to make her the misunderstood hero but it gave you an insight into her actions and made her more understandable. Ramsay used the other existing characters well, introducing them as slightly different from the original but still recognisable, while adding in a few new characters to round things out. 

The story moved quickly and felt fast-paced. Personally, I really liked the dark, open-to-interpretation ending but I have a feeling it won't be for everyone.

Ever Alice is wonderful continuation of the original Wonderland stories by Lewis Carroll. Ramsay does a great job of making you feel like you are back in the Wonderland we all grew up loving. There were twists that I didn't see coming and that ending was perfect! I'll be happy to add Ever Alice to my collection once it is released.

Thanks to Netgalley, Red Rogue Press and H.J. Ramsay for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

IS WONDERLAND REAL OR ALICE'S MADNESS?

Actual rating: 2.5⭐️

I love a good retelling and <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> is a personal favourite of mine. And while there were certain aspects of this book that kept me entertained, it didn't live up to my expectations.

"If I'm me, I can't really be anything else I'm not."
- Thomas, Prince of Hearts

WHAT I LIKED

Up-side down feeling: One of the things that makes the original book so amazing is the quirkiness, the strangeness of Wonderland. The Wonderland of this book was definitely a quirky place, where things were unimportant, not important, where tea was served with butter and where tournaments are fought with swordfish. I liked that.

The ending: Without revealing too much I will just say that the ending was dark and perfect.

WHAT I DISLIKED

Marilyn Monroe: I am actually quite a Marilyn Monroe fan, I find her fascinating and inspirational. But she (or a glaring imitation of her) has no place in Wonderland. The actress Marilyn Montague gets up and sings a sultry version of 'Unhappy birthday' for the prince... Come on, right on the nose! And so not Wonderland-ish!

Alice: Is there a word for MC's who don't play any active part in their own stories? If there is, then that's what Alice is. She doesn't do anything actively until the last 20 pages...

Monotonous: Usually a story is comprised of highs and lows, of active parts and slow parts. This is all slow, all one note and completely monotonous.

Wonderland: Yes, I earlier wrote that I liked the upside down feeling of Wonderland. But there is another aspect of the original Wonderland that was completely missing from this book - the Wonderland, where anything can and will happen, no matter how little sense it makes. In Wonderland, a turtle and a gryphon can sing songs, hatters and hares have tea parties and white rabbits wear pocket watches. But in this version of Wonderland hardly anything happened, and certainly nothing unexpected or wonderous...

Alice's insistence on talking about Wonderland leaves her committed to an asylum in this sequel to the classic story. The White Rabbit helps her escape, in exchange for her help toppling the despotic Queen of Hearts. Unsure where to turn or who to trust, Alice must learn to navigate Wonderland ...or lose her head trying...


This is a really difficult review to write. The book starts very slowly; there's a lot of the Queen being crazy, which, in my opinion, didn't add much to the story and slowed it down a lot. Around the middle, when a new character appears, things sped up and I was really invested in what was going on, I didn't want to stop reading. And then the ending completely blew it all in the worst possible way. It felt like a betrayal of everything Alice had gone through up to that point.

I hope this does well, and I hope people really enjoy it. But I won't be rereading.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Red Rogue Press for this free e-galley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own

I wanted to read this novel because I am a big fan of retellings. I loved that the story opens into a few years into the future from where we left off in Alice in Wonderland.

H.J Ramsay introduces a few new characters this time, which I really enjoyed! Well done!

This was a DNF at 15%. I couldn't get into the story and it's a shame. Alice in the asylum was giving me vibes of Dorothy from the movie Return to Oz when her family also thought she was crazy with her "outlandish" adventure stories. I wish the story had gripped me more to continue reading.

Alice's stories of Wonderland have landed her in an asylum. Now 15 years old, she longs to be free - even if that means submitting herself to experimentation. But just as she's supposed to undergo her procedure, the White Rabbit comes to bring her back to Wonderland. It's not all fun and games this time, though. Now she's off to kill the Queen of Hearts.

I thought this was an interesting premise. I'm sure most people have watched or at least heard of the Tim Burton films that explore Alice at a much older age, getting involved in the messy politics of Wonderland. This novel is told in the alternating POVs of Alice and the Queen of Hearts. The Queen seems to be slowly losing her mind, having beheaded both her lover and her husband for ... well, whatever reasons compels someone to behead others so freely. I did like her paranoia and insanity a lot. I also liked how the novel tried to stay true to the bizarre customs of Wonderland.

That said, I wish there had been more to the story. I didn't really get to know the characters; I don't think I truly understand Alice or the Queen of Hearts in terms of characterization or motivation. I feel like more work could have been done in that regard. I was also never sure if Alice was truly seeing what she thought, or if everything was a delusion. That could have been deliberate, but it felt a bit too weak. There were also certain words or phrases, such "bejeezus" that just immediately took me out of the story because they didn't seem right to use.

I'm clearly in the minority here, but I didn't feel compelled or engaged enough in the story to finish it. Perhaps this will appeal to fans of the original story or Burtons' adaptations, but it sadly wasn't for me.

Thank you to netgalley.co.uk for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I am aware of the constant Alice in Wonderland retellings. I have a couple sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, and I know there's probably so many I would not read them all. Although this is a retelling, it would appear to me that this book is somewhat of a sequel as the reader seems to visit Alice when she's older than she is during the events of Alice in Wonderland.

The idea of Alice landing in an asylum is probably not a unique idea, but I think the author does a great job of keeping Carroll's original spark throughout the novel. At times I felt like I did while I read the original novel. I loved remembering the characters I loved from watching the Disney animated movie countless times as a child. Overall, I loved going back to these characters and I really enjoyed this novel.
I strongly recommend this novel to any fan of the original Alice in Wonderland.

Thanks to Netgalley and Red Rogue Press for a digital galley in exchange for an honest review.

Is it possible for a reimagining to kick the ass of the original novel?

Hell yes!

Even after a good nights sleep, I am still quite jazzed about H. J. Ramsay's take on Lewis Carroll's Alice and all the Wonderland characters. When our story opens, it is now a few years into the future and Alice's talked abotu ventures in Wonderland have landed her in an asylum. Convinced that their daughter has gone mad, Alice's parents are hoping that a much talked about doctor in Switzerland can bring their beloved younger daughter back from her delusions.

Meanwhile in Wonderland, Rosamund, the Queen of Hearts, continues her daily beheadings, but her evolving paranoia makes her wonder if there isn't a bigger plot against her. A fact that has her capture and imprison Constance, the Queen of Spades. Sir Ralph, aka White Rabbit, believes that Wonderland's only hope is Alice and he sets out to bring her back to Wonderland. White Rabbit's proposed mission? Alice must kill the Queen of Hearts!

As H. J. Ramsay brings us back to Wonderland, along with a host of new characters, we meet again the cunning Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Doormouse and confront the terrifying Jabberwocky. At times, I laughed and I cried as I read this compelling tale. As I reached the final page, I felt saddened to leave behind the mad, mad, world of Wonderland.

Well done, H. J. Ramsay! I imagine that Lewis Carroll might just be lifting his looking glass at you today!

Goodreads Review 16/ 06/19
Publication Date. 01/08/19

This takes place after Alice in Wonderland. Alice's family has her committed for her talk of Wonderland. Alice escapes and finds herself back in Wonderland in the Queen of Hearts court. She has to take out the Queen, but things go topsy turvy. I really enjoyed this rendition. I did get a bit confused about who was who. The author tweaked the characters a bit, but after a bit of reading, I figured it out and was able to get back into the story. I enjoyed the dark concepts, and felt myself sympathizing with Alice throughout the story. 

If you enjoy Alice in Wonderland, this would definitely be up your alley!

Advance reading copy provided by NetGalley and Red Rogue Press for review purposes.

I decided to pick this book up because of the AMAZING cover. But, never judge a book from its cover, they say.
This book is not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, just, not for me.
I found myself having a hard time to finish this book and to relate with the characters.