Child of Nod (The Balance #1)

A Darker and Edgier Alice

Here's what strikes me as an important thing to know about this entertaining book. It is very twisty, but you always understand what's going on. You start out in the dark. Then you get just enough exposition to take another step. And then another step. Every digression loops right back to the main thread. Every flashback or apparent detour just serves to move you a little bit further along, or to make some important connection. Alice always has some sort of companion who makes just enough of a cryptic comment or observation to keep you on track. That means that as you read you have plenty of opportunity to marvel at the sights and subtle jokes and connections, but never at the risk of losing the main narrative thread. It's refreshing to find a fairy tale reimagining that is both full of rich, twisty bits and yet still clearly plotted and crisply told.

This is not one of those reimaginings that takes a classic and just reworks it to change the setting or add something the author felt was missing, (violence, sex, a political or gender statement, zombies). Rather, it seemed to be that the author here took the idea of Alice, stripped out the funsy whimsy, and then added lots of new ingredients to mix up a much different sort of stew.

So, instead of falling down a rabbit hole our Alice is shot and pushed in front of an oncoming subway car by a villainous character working at the direction of an even more villainous character. Off we go to meet Acheron, cross the Styx, and head out on our quest. But here's the thing. Just a bit in we meet Cain, (who wasn't in the Wonderland books I read), avoid the Great Hunt, (ditto), search for the children of Hamelin, (ditto), chat with the Fates, (ditto), and meet a fair number of undead sorts who feel more like zombies than Wonderland folks. Heck, even "Nod" is from a different comic strip.

That's all O.K., though, because this book is strong on its own and doesn't need to be a parody, a knock-off, or a reimagining. Alice's quest is interesting, mysterious, legitimate, and vaguely mythic. Alice is a no-nonsense, self-reliant, not easily rattled heroine who is more than up to the task of taking over her own narrative, which makes her tale worth following.

This is all enhanced by the author's restraint. There's a lot of atmosphere, but it's sketched in with a combination of broad strokes and little details. We aren't burdened with some laborious world building. Characters are cryptic and none of their connections to Alice or to other stories are underlined or italicized. (If you don't notice when Alice arrives in the childless town of Hamelin, well, no one is going to beat the point home to you.) Alice is also a bit deadpan and understated, so we don't get a lot of drama or angst or emoting. She just has some sort of existential problem here and she's going to soldier on through it, and she's starting to get a little fed up.

For what it's worth, this book has a surprising amount of gore and horror, but also a light touch with dialogue and some very amusing and wry supporting characters. Every now and then Alice screams and laughs in the same paragraph. Talk about "balance".

So, this was a fun read that was much more rewarding, and much more deeply crafted, than I expected, and it struck me as a fine and happy find.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

A dark and disturbing vision of the afterlife, that takes me back to the fairy tale favourites of my childhood, this book grabs the reader from the off and the relentless pace never stops until we get to the surprisingly satisfying conclusion..
Taking inspiration from numerous mythologies as well as from the fairy tale genre, the author creates a bizarre and off kilter world for us as readers and takes us on an epic quest along with his heroine Alice, and her various companions, while building a wonderful tension.. At times the action was so fast paced that it was a little difficult to follow what was going on, especially in the earlier parts of the book, but as the story unfolded and more of the world it takes place in is revealed, several story threads are very effectively drawn together.

This book is an intriguing retelling of Alice in Wonderland, with gore, zombies and so much more. This is one of the most imaginative books i have read anf i found the plot extremely engaging and thoroughly enjoyable

I want to mention I was first attracted to the cover of this novel. It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. Sure enough, upon reading the description...I was not disappointed.

This book is a very creative and unique retelling of Alice's Wonderland. I loved the idea of the story and world itself, but for some reason, I could not get fully into it. I failed to connect with the character Alice. I followed her on her journey to the Red Queen, but I couldn't seem to bond with her or feel what she experienced. I think this may be caused by the fast pace the story began with. There was no background story, the action just began. As a reader, I had no time to connect with characters.

I really enjoyed that the reader is given small bits of information as the story progresses. You are given flashbacks or new details that shed light on the plot, but never deter you from the main narrative. Many different stories are melded into on int his dark, fantasy retelling. weaving many intricate pieces together is difficult, but this story did it well.

The world building was amazing. The beings discussed were depicted with immense detail, very vivid in my mind. Though I do not mind the gore, some might. This book is very gruesome at times.

A twisted version of Alice in wonderland that involves zombies

"Once upon a time, there was a girl who was dead."

That opening line had me hooked immediately on this book and is pretty much what made me know that I wanted to read it.

Child of Nod turned out to be completely unexpected from what I thought this book might be. This book is pitched as darker take on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in which Alice ends up in Nod, a corrupted fairy tale land on the other side of death. I knew that this would be a darker story, which is what drew me to it initially, but I had no idea just how dark and gory it would be or what exactly it would be like. This is hard book to even describe and rate because it just felt so different from most books. It's definitely one that I plan on revisiting

Going into this book, I wasn't really sure what age-range it was being marketed towards, but I assumed it was possibly young adult, although the cover could have been anything from middle grade to adult. I have to say that this is definitely not written for kids and leans heavily toward the adult side, which was perfectly fine with me (I'm always ready for more Alice retellings at any age range). It's definitely dark and also rather creepy, so if that's not your thing then this book might not be for you.

This is a very atmospheric book that focuses a lot on descriptions, images, and emotions. There's not a large amount of action, but the narrative itself is still surprisingly gripping. That being said, there is still plenty of plot development and this book was never boring. Child of Nod a slow-paced book that seems to focus more on development of the characters themselves than it does on large events.

Alice herself was a particularly intriguing character. The weird thing about this Alice is that about halfway through I realized that we, the readers, never really get any backstory about her life because she can't remember her past. It's not often that I read books from the perspective of someone who we don't really know much about, and I was also surprised that it didn't really bother me at all. I enjoyed getting to know Alice based on her present circumstances and how she reacted to things as they happened to her. Alice is sweet, but there's much more to her than that; she's exceptionally curious and eager to find out exactly what she's doing in Nod.

There are a couple of other characters that this narrative focuses on that were extremely interesting figures to follow. I did find myself slightly confused at times when trying to remember the identities of various characters and occasionally forgot who was who. This might not have been a problem if I had been able to easily check back to figure out who was who, but since it was on my Kindle I couldn't do that easily so I just kept reading until I got the hang of things. I still really enjoyed reading about the backstories on these characters, and it's within these backstories where some of the darker and more horror-esque moments occurred most often.

Child of Nod is a book that I still need to think about and consider the thees and what this book was meant to be about. I also think that this is one of those books that I would prefer reading as a physical book because I kept wanting to go back and check thing or just reread certain parts, in addition to the fact that I personally find atmospheric and description-heavy books are just easier for me to read. Regardless, Child of Nod will definitely make you think and it is one that I do recommend.

Overall, I've given Child of Nod four stars!

"Once upon a time, there was a girl who was dead."
A dark Alice in Wonderland retelling, you definitely need to be the right sort of headspace to read this weird book. I liked that there are other bits of fairy tales and mythologies in there as well. DEFINITELY not for kids, as there are some rather gory and very dark bits.