Member Reviews

As always my thanks to Red Rogue Press and NetGalley for an eARC of H.R. Ramsay’s ‘Ever Alice’ in exchange for an honest review.

In 1888 Alice Liddell, now aged fifteen, cannot forget her childhood experiences in Wonderland and continues to talk about them. Her family becomes worried about her mental health and have her admitted to an asylum. After her doctor decides that she isn’t responding to treatment, he takes her to Switzerland for an experimental operation. Yet she baulks at the last minute. The White Rabbit had been appearing to her and urging her to return with him to Wonderland in order to overthrow the Queen of Hearts. She had rejected his appeal. He appears once again and helps her escape at the last minute.

The premise of this sequel to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ sounded like something that I would enjoy. I read to about 30% and found that I wasn’t feeling particularly engaged. I then skimmed further before deciding that it wasn’t working for me. I did read the final chapters as I wanted to see how it resolved. I was disappointed. It might be due to it being aimed at a Teen/YA readership, though I have enjoyed a number of YA novels.

For me it lacked the whimsical, surrealist nature of the original. More of a problem was the language as it just sounded too modern rather than late Victorian. The narrative continually switched between the perspectives of Alice and of Rosamund, the Queen of Hearts and it just felt choppy.

Then there were the anachronisms, especially in Wonderland. The most distracting was the introduction of a Marilyn Monroe-inspired character, who proceeded to perform a version of ‘Happy Birthday’ a la Monroe’s singing for JFK dressed in a way that certainly was not in keeping with the period. I found it jarring.

I did note that the Swiss doctor who treated Alice, Dr. Gottlieb Burckhardt, did indeed pioneer psychosurgery in 1888. I felt that in some ways Alice’s perceived mental illness and the Queen of Hearts’ dangerous paranoia could have opened up some quite interesting avenues but this wasn’t really explored.

Clearly this was a project that meant a great deal to Ramsay and did work for many readers, but I just wasn’t one of them.

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I received a complimentary ARC copy of Ever Alice by H.J. Ramsay from NetGalley and Red Rogue Press

"…a wonderfully whimsical and fun story inspired by Alice and Wonderland …"

The author has created a brilliant and unique take on Lewis Carroll’s, Alice in Wonderland. A unique plotline, quirky characters and an interesting interpretation of the characters Carroll is famous for. Ramsay creates a humourous story about 15-year-old Alice whose parents are concerned with her rantings about her friend “the white rabbit”. Her parents fear that after a near-drowning, the trauma has caused her to lose her mind and as a result commit her to an insane asylum for treatment. Alice endures the asylum and after a while, when just on the verge of being released home, a nasty nurse exposes Alice by sharing her journal filled with rants about the white rabbit and a place called Wonderland. At a loss, the asylum staff decide to take her to see a doctor famous for curing individuals with a surgical procedure. After seeing other patients Alice realizes this procedure isn’t going to be as easy as she is told, luckily at the direst moment, her friend the “white rabbit” appears and whisks her away to Wonderland where her adventure begins.

Filled with humour, this is a wonderfully whimsical and fun story inspired by Alice in Wonderland and although a YA novel I would recommend to young and old alike.

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I enjoyed the new take on the story and the idea of showing what was happening to Alice after the years that she’s been back from Wonderland. Another thing, that I personally enjoy in books, was the way the chapters were written, with variation between Alice’s or The Queen’s side of the story. It kept a nice pace throughout the book. I also liked the ending, but I don’t wanna give any spoilers away!

However, I really struggled to keep on reading and had to persevere through sheer will power to finish it. The book didn’t make me excited to read it, I felt bored quite a lot of the time. The story itself took quite a long time to pick up speed and develop into something. At times, the story felt like it was really stretched out in order to fill up some pages. It felt fairly repetitive at times and slow going, even though there weren’t any hefty descriptions.

The story also didn’t make me root for any particular character. They were all quite one-dimensional and not very elaborate. Just a bit bland in general.

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*thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC for an honest review*

3 / 5 stars

The author took everything that I love about Alice in Wonderland and ramped it up to 11. Characters I really didn’t care about before, I cared for them now. They had depth and stood on their own, something I feel like the original missed out on. Felt adult, if that clarifies things. It wasn’t totally perfect, no book is, but I love the retellings phase that we’ve been going through lately and would think Lewis Carol would appreciate the love that people have been throwing his work.

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Sadly this book just didn't work for me. I haven't found an Alice book that I've enjoyed ever, but I was so hoping this one would be the one, sadly it just wasn't. The writing style just wasn't for me.

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My friend found this on NetGalley and knew it was something that would be up my alley. I love love, love fairytale retellings. While Alice in Wonderland isn’t my favorite fairytale I still wanted to read it. I have read Heartless the story of how the Queen of Hearts got her horrific reputation. This one is told from the perspective of Alice herself and the Queen of Hearts as well. I couldn’t wait to start it.

As I started this book I knew that it wouldn’t be like any sort of retelling that I was thinking it would be. Alice is considered crazy because of her wonderful tales and drawings of Wonderland. Her parents have sent her multiple doctors all claiming that they could fix her and everything will be back to normal. They finally decide to take her to the insane asylum that is promising to fix her and get her back to normal. The whole time I was reading this I was getting madder and madder at the parents for locking their 14-year-old daughter away in an insane asylum because she was different than other kids. So what that she wrote stories and drew pictures of things not of this world? She had an imagination that should be supported. I understand that it was the time frame the story took place but still. The story jumps chapter to chapter from Alice to The Queen of Hearts. At times that is super annoying because just as you get into a groove with the one storyline it chases.

The story is well written. The book is exciting. Has all the elements of the original Alice in Wonderland, The Cheshire Cat, The White Rabbit, even the Mad Hatter. Each of those characters has their own storyline. They have jousting events with licorice whips, they have sword fights with real swordfish. The author left me wondering where the book was going with how the story was being told but it left me gasping and shedding a few tears when she finally dropped the shoe so to speak with how she addressed Alice’s healthcare in the asylum. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of fairytale retelling, or even someone who wants a good fantasy based book. I will be keeping an eye out for more by this author in the future.

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I really really wanted to like this book. When I read the synopsis it sounded really good. I mean Alice in a insane asylum...how creepy is that? Honestly it just fell short for me. I didn't really have an idea what was going on for most of the book. Alice in Wonderland is such a quirky and just super weird book and the author tried to capture that but it kinda got annoying towards the end. It didn't really capture the original magic of the book. It was just frustrating. I did enjoy the ending. I think it captured that creepy feeling that I wanted. But overall the book was just ok for me.



*I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

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Ever Alice is a delightful twist on the classic Alice in Wonderland! This book has many of the characters we've all grown up with and loved, plus a few more to add magic to the story. I truly enjoyed the alternate view from the author, as I'm sure many people have often wondered what happens to Alice.

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I like a good retelling and Alice in Wonderland is always a good one because it can be bent in so many ways. I personally loved the strangeness of the world and how it actually made me feel like I was there and I could see everything, but in some parts, it became a bit monotonous and that is a bit of a down point for me.
Not bad overall

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I have to start by saying that the reason I got this book was because I am a huge fan of anything Alice in Wonderland. I eat it up. Because of that, anything fiddling around with my beloved story will be under intense scrutiny. Not that you can’t change things and have fun. Wonderland is almost always changing in the most absurd ways possible. That’s what’s awesome about it. But you have to do it right.

This book did it right. Yay!

This book picks up Alice’s story as a teenager, still working on wrapping her head around what happened in Wonderland. Her family doesn’t believe her and has been sending her to an asylum, which gets worse when she is going to have surgery in order to try and fix whatever is “wrong” with her. I hated that part, but it was in line with what people would have thought in that time period. It was definitely realistic.

A direct contrast with the chapters in Wonderland, which was great. I thought H.J. Ramsay had a perfect voice, coming very close to mimicking the absurdity of the original novel. Up is down, left is right, and no one questions the Queen of Hearts. The chapters alternate between Alice, who gets rescued from the asylum and brought back to Wonderland by the White Rabbit, and Rosemund, the Queen of Hearts who is trying to stop a plot to take her throne.

The story really plays up the question of whether this is real or whether it’s in Alice’s head until the very end, when you find out the truth. Many of the original characters are there, like the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and Bill the Lizard. There are also some new characters we get to meet, like Thomas (the Prince of Hearts) and Constance (the Queen of Spades). It makes the story familiar while still being very new and exciting. For me, it was a really good blend.

GoodReads rating: 4 stars. If you like Wonderland, you should really enjoy this.

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Ever Alice is a book that has left me entirely unsure how to feel about it. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of my favorite books so I am always excited to check out a new retelling or story inspired by it that’s set in Wonderland. Ever Alice hit a lot of those notes and completely satisfied me in some regards, but in other areas I felt disappointed and felt this book missed the mark.

Ever Alice is essentially a follow-up to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It takes place some years after Alice’s initial adventures in Carroll’s books when she is back home with her family and attempting to come to grips with what happened during that adventurous period. Unfortunately, Alice’s family finds her insistence that the stories about Wonderland are real worrisome and eventually send her off to an asylum, which of course does nothing to help her. From here, the story takes off and through unforeseen circumstances, Alice is able to return to Wonderland.

To start on a positive note, I thought Ramsay’s depiction of Wonderland was absolutely wonderful. I think she captured that incredibly unique sense of oddness and absurdity that makes of the world of Wonderland extremely well and managed to turn it into her own story. Everything in this world is upside-down and often centered around opposites--for example, someone’s bout of good fortune might be described as extremely ‘unlucky’ rather than what we would normally call lucky, and commenting that it’s a truly dreadful day actually means that it’s a beautiful day. Similarly, added details such as everyone loving tea that tastes of oily fish or rotten eggs (and topped off with butter!) and actual animals that talk and characters such as Marco Polo that are actual eggs a la Humpty Dumpty style made me excited to see--almost never do I see retellings where the White Rabbit is actually a rabbit, Cheshire is actually a cat, and so on and so forth. A lot of retellings that I read seem to maintain a certain amount oddity, but they never quite capture that sense of absurdity that Wonderland embodies.

The characters were also both promising and disappointing. Ever Alice switches between two POVs: Alice and that of the Queen of Hearts, Rosumand. Alice was very much the embodiment of a somewhat shy and naive girl who is thrust into situations she is unprepared and manages to make the most of them and find her way. She tries to do good even when she is being pitted to do the opposite, and her development and gradual understanding of her strength and purpose were well done and enjoyable to watch.

In contrast, however, was Rosamund’s character. At first it seemed as though the author was going to make the queen a one dimensional villain with transparent goals and a lack of any interest in her as a person. Then, a little ways into the novel there started to be some more aspects of her character shown and I started thinking that she might have some sort of storyline that would make her more engaging. She was always horrible, but she had some more intriguing qualities and small side thoughts that make me think there might be more to her than meets the eye. Unfortunately, Ramsay always seemed to bring Rosamund back to her one dimensional figure and not explore her development further. I wasn’t expecting a redemption arc to make me like her, but there was so much potential for her character that I feel wasn’t explored enough.

Where this book really lost my interest, however, was with the plot. There was so much wasted potential in this story, and I don’t mean that to sound nearly as harsh it sounds. I didn’t hate this book by any means and elements of the plot were well done, but on the whole it simply lacked a major source of intrigue and coherency. Compared to the world-building, the plot was completely lackluster. There seemed to be a lot of things constantly happening, but when I look back on it I can barely even think of what events specifically moved the plot forward.

The last thing I’d like to briefly mention is that I had a hard time even figuring out what Ramsay’s target audience was supposed to be. I first assumed this was an adult book, but once I started reading it I thought the writing style seemed young due to how Ramsay set up the story and some of the actions and dialogue of the characters. However, there were also certain events and themes that occurred that felt much more mature and not for younger audiences, so I can only conclude that is for young adult audiences.

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**Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review**

Ever Alice, takes place a few years after Alice makes her first trip to Wonderland. Back in England, she is admitted to an insane asylum for her inexplicable madness. Soon enough, Ralph, the White Rabbit, comes into her conscious to whisk her back into the rabbit hole to save Wonderland from the Red Queen.

The most unique aspect of the novel is how the writing fits with the original Wonderland story and the characters’ dialogues perfectly complement the mad and confusing nature of the world. The story line is simple enough; a revolutionist group brings Alice back to kill the Queen of Hearts. The murkiness is where the true allegiances are and who is good and bad.

The story isn’t very complicated nor are the characters. Rather the whole appeal of the book is the world building.

I enjoyed reading about Wonderland and seeing how Ramsay illustrates and develops the world. Here, she tries to stay close the original while adding a few flairs here and there to bring in more . The Kingdom of Clubs was more or less the rival kingdom to the Kingdom of Hearts, whereas the Kingdom of Spades has more of unknown origins, and the Kingdom of Diamonds is a mystery of its own. Also, I loved that the whole story takes place on a chess-like board (eg Hydrangea 20, Calla Lilly 8, etc), paying tribute to Alice Through the Looking Glass.

This is a nice interesting read that I think most Wonderland enthusiasts will enjoy. Ramsay stays true to the writing style and does and amazing job in creating an extension of the world.

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I was not interested enough to finish the book. Lacking plot and character development. Descriptive enough to get me past the first chapter, but not enough to complete.

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4.5 stars. Whimsical, fantastical, and true to the original while still being incredibly imaginative on its own.

Ever Alice by H.J. Ramsay is a whimsical and fantastical read. It holds true to the original Alice in Wonderland while still being incredibly imaginative on its own. As a true lover of everything Alice, I was skeptical at first...as retellings tend to be very polarizing. Sometimes they're wonderful and sometimes they're painful. I'm glad to report that in this case, it was an incredibly enjoyable read.

This is not a true retelling, as it pick ups the story from where Carroll's original tales left off. The narrative is necessarily dark, enhancing the darkness of the original and propelling it from a children's read to a young adult tome.

The characters also remain based on the original, though some have obtained new names and the structural organization of Wonderland is slightly altered. Additional supporting characters have been added that have places in other tales or nods to the real world. Alice herself is still somewhat childlike, but there is a bit more reality to this story than the originals. She is still a very imaginative girl, but there has been some growing up in the character.

This story is fun and clever and remains a clear nod to the original stories. It is a good imagining of the continuation and a good read for an Alice lover.

Ever Alice by H.J. Ramsay was an incredibly enjoyable read for me. I had an excellent time reading it and found myself thoroughly entertained. Because of this, it also read very quickly and easily. This one is one that could find itself a place on my permanent shelf and could likely earn itself a reread in the future.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I am not a person that likes to DNF books, but I am going to have to do this here. I am giving this book 2 stars because I really liked the idea of an Alice in Wonderland continuation where Alice ends up in a loony bin. However, the pacing of this book is horribly slow. It took me two weeks just to get 30% of the way through. I think it is admirable that the author seems to have mimicked the original Alice in Wonderland style so well, but it made it very difficult for me to read.

I think Alice in Wonderland superfans would most likely get a really big kick out of this book and race through it, but it totally stalled for me. I set it down to read and review some other books and while I do want to know what happens in the end, I don't want to slog my way through the rest of the book right now to find out. I may pick it up again in the future, but for now it's a non-finisher.

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I’m not a huge Alice in Wonderland buff, but I do love retellings and continuations of classic stories, and that is what originally drew me to this book. My interest was peaked to see what has happened to Alice, now age 15 after her adventures in Wonderland.

And boy, was I in for an emotional rollercoaster! I find stories that are not based my own relatable reality really draw you in and make you more invested, and this was definitely the case. The Wonderland speak made me work to read the story and keep up with the characters and also made it easier to relate to Alice’s discomfort and confusion. Being written by opposing first person accounts from both Alice and the Queen of Hearts point of view added another dimension to the story and the up and down emotions of the book.

I don’t want to give two much away, but this was a very relevant fan sequel for the Alice fandom. I highly recommend this book snd just want to say that the ending gave me a very emotional reaction and left me thinking out Ever Alice for a while afterwards.

Ever Alice by H.J. Ramsay is due to release August 1, 2019.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Red Rogue Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#EverAlice #NetGalley

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There’s a Wonderland exhibition going on right now, so obviously I’ve got to read something Alice-related while waiting for my friend to finish Alice in Wonderland so we can visit. Ever Alice sounded like it was right up my alley, so I was really excited to read it.

As you can expect, Alice’s tales of wonderland did not go over well. Perplexed, her parents sent her to doctor after doctor until she landed in an asylum. Desperate to get home in time for her sister’s wedding, Alice agrees to go for an experimental treatment (which sounds like a Lobotomy to me). At the last minute, the White Rabbit reappears and asks Alice to go back to Wonderland, where she must kill the Queen of Hearts.

At the same time, Rosamund, the Queen of Hearts, sees traitors everywhere. And with a bull out for her after she executed her husband for treason, she cannot afford to let anything slip.

My first impressions after reading this were: this is a really topsy-turvy world. I’m not sure if I was this confused after reading Alice in Wonderland because that was quite some time ago. It’s not just the world-building, with the way words mean the opposite of what they normally do and the absurd practices (the tea sounds disgusting), it’s also the way everything seemed disconnected. I knew of the plot to kill the Red Queen but like Alice, I was extremely confused by everything else.

I was also very confused by the love story. [MILD SPOILER ALERT] Alice and the prince fell in love almost immediately and it seemed pretty mutual despite him having previous paramours. But, it was such an insta-love story that I couldn’t buy it – in fact, I don’t think the book gave me any reason to buy their romance story, so it was one of the parts that I really didn’t enjoy.

In addition, I wasn’t a fan of the ending. It was pretty cool until they went back to the real world. I’m not going to give any specifics, but it felt like a cop-out for the explanation of Wonderland.

But what saved the book for me was Alice and Rosamund. Alice was probably the most normal person there and her reactions were exactly like mine. I thought that her internal struggle – on whether to kill the Red Queen – was very well-written and the book captured her confusion perfectly. And although Rosamund was the capricious, crazy Red Queen, I found that I had quite a soft-spot for her. It’s clear that she’s got some serious problems and I would have loved for her to be able to face herself. It didn’t happen, sadly, but I thought that she was an interesting character and I wanted to find out more about why she became that way.

Overall, I enjoyed this. Sadly, the ending and the insta-love spoiled quite a bit of my enjoyment, but if that doesn’t bother you and you want to go back to the unpredictable world of Wonderland, then I think you would enjoy this.

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Overall, I did enjoy the story. I liked the popping back and forth between Alice and the Queen of Hearts. It was jarring at times, but the headings at the beginning of each chapter told you who you were with. (Though the headings themselves could be difficult to read in some places.) Seeing the Queen slowly devolve further and further into madness was the highlight for me.

BUT the clincher, the world. Wonderland is absolutely stunning and we get to learn so much about it without it being an info-dump. Throughout the entirety of the book we learn little tidbits here and there and wow, I could take a whole other book to just explore the different kingdoms. Please let just drop me off at the Kingdom of Hearts and I’ll take the rest from there, because I want to see it all.

I enjoyed the story. The dual POV was done very well and the world setting is just fantastic. Alice was Alice, I found I actually preferred the Queen’s character to her for a majority of the story just because the Queen’s story, and her unique POV was so well written. Alice just wasn’t endearing until after another character’s death when she actually decides to do something and that was three quarters of the way through the book. The ending of the Wonderland story just wasn’t satisfying, but the bit of darkness afterwards was just right.

I would definitely recommend this as a solid, quick and good read for lovers of YA Fantasy.

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3.5⭐️

Ever Alice is a “what could have happened” Alice in Wonderland retelling. Alice has been placed in an asylum by her parents because she continues to believe in and talk about Wonderland. In Wonderland, the Queen has continued the madness of beheadings and paranoia. The white rabbit brings Alice back to Wonderland to try to help the rightful Queen take her place as ruler of Wonderland.

The characters were fun and Wonderland was as quirky as in the original tale. I think it is a great concept for a book. I am a big fan of retellings and sequels. I just kind of felt like the story dragged on a big and kind of fell flat for me. There is usually a build up, the main part of the story and conclusion...I just didn’t feel like the main storyline lived up to its potential. I did enjoy the book and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys Alice in Wonderland retellings or just retellings in general. I guess I just had really high expectations and this was just a bit shy of those expectations.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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I didn’t finish this book. I couldn’t get into it which was very disappointing for me as I love Alice retellings. I don’t know if it was the writing style, or the story itself I’m sure it has great potential but I couldn’t finish it.

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