But, Henry actually manages to tell a story in 300 or so pages, something that Martin can’t do. Martin in that, Henry makes you feel truly concerned that either Alice or Hatcher are going to be struck down at any moment. The world that Hatcher and Alice inhabit feels like the real world in that, there are no guarantees of happily ever after for the main characters. She would rather use no magic at all than become some one unrecognizable.” She was only just learning who Alice was, what it was like to be her own self. She’d spent years under the influence of drugs that made her think she was insane. It was a frightening thought, one that made her suddenly reluctant to try any magic at all. Like the toll that magic takes on the people who wield it, something that Carroll never addresses: “Maybe power corrupts them,” Alice said.

Henry weaves enough of the classic tale into her story so that you know that it is a retelling, but still manages to introduce enough original elements in to make it feel entirely new. “I know about him… What about Alice? Did she have a happy ending?” “I don’t know,” Cheshire said.” Magic, danger, and monsters wait on the path ahead, but those things are nothing compared to what Alice and Hatcher bring with them in their own damaged and twisted minds.Ĭheshire, one of my favorite characters, gives a quick summary of the first book in the beginning of this one, in case you didn’t get a chance to read it: “Hatcher and Alice escaped from the hospital, and traveled through the Old City in search of their pasts and in search of a monster called the Jabberwocky who made the streets run with blood and corpses.” The girl shuddered. We’re reintroduced to Alice and Hatcher as they escape the City and make their way into the wilderness, on a hunt for Hatcher’s long lost daughter, Jenny. Though it lacked the grittiness and extreme horror of Alice, Red Queen is a fantastic second effort by Henry.

The second book in The Chronicles of Alice is scheduled to be published on July 12th.

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