After Alice

Well, that was extremely disappointing.
I had to read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass for a class recently, so I figured it was the perfect time to finally read this book I had bought a while ago on a whim. I've loved Alice in Wonderland since I was very little, it has always been one of my all-time favorites. So, of course, I was excited to see that Gregory Maguire had done what he did for the Wizard of Oz with Alice in Wonderland. But this was nothing at all like Wicked and was not good. This was trying so hard to capture the quirky weirdness of Alice in Wonderland, and it failed spectacularly. While the idea of developing the story of a character Alice briefly named as a friend from home was definitely a cool one, it did not live up to its potential. It was so boring to see a rational and logical girl like Ada come into Wonderland and make sense of the world she saw. I felt that it was completely missing the point and the tone of Alice in Wonderland and I honestly expected so much more from someone like Gregory Maguire. Also, it felt like nothing happened at all. The plot was pretty much nonexistent and flat, and nothing changed at all. I spent the entirety of the novel waiting and waiting for it to pick up and become interesting, but it never did. However, I did appreciate certain passages throughout, as Maguire is usually a decent writer and I highlighted a few lines here and there that were really thought-provoking and interesting. But otherwise, this book was not what it should have or could have been, and I'm really disappointed in it.