Everybody loves Alice.. and Mad Hatter and the Chester Cat and all the wondrous madness! And I was ready to be immersed in this story where Alice escapes the asylum, has to kill the Queen and ends up in danger again because OFF WITH HER HEAD but instead I found myself enjoying the start of the story, the ending of the story and some bits and bobs from the middle. The elements of Wonderland are definitely there. Uncomfortable is comfortable, unimportant is important, disgusting sounding tea is delicious and so on… but with all of the adventure for Alice to have and the big, Mission-Impossible-like plot underlining the story, I still felt the pacing was a tad slow. I wasn’t glued to the book when I wished I was…
Of scandal and intrigue there is aplenty in the court! Oh, and how much scandal and intrigue. We have a Marilyn Montague (the Wonderland copy of Marilyn Monroe down to singing an ‘unbirthday’ song in the sultry, drawn out tones) who wants to get in to the Prince of Hearts pants. Literally. It seemed like. And, we have the unexpected pregnancies – like in a proper telenovela! And, we have the Queen of Hearts who is .. you know, Queen of Hearts. Off the rocker!
When it comes to love? The attempt to make something sizzle in between 2 characters did not feel realistic, it felt more like a tool to use in advancing the plot at convenient times. Then again, they’re all bloody mad at Wonderland and if unimportant is important then maybe love is unlove, you know?! I am questioning myself now.. and for that I take my hat off to the book
Alice herself is a solid character. The introduction of the asylum into this retelling is, in a sense, the logical thing to do to tie in with her first visit to Wonderland and how she ends up there again… But I have to say, with the twist of the asylum I also actually pity the character now. The Wonderland doesn’t seem all the wonderful and quirky no longer. The ending really left me reeling, and sad… Like, stunned silence sad. Hmm…
Ever Alice has a great, and I mean GREAT, fairy tale feeling. It has the vibe of the peculiarity that made us all love the original in the first place whilst also including the darker twists without which Wonderland wouldn’t be the same. No fairy tale would be the same without the darker undertones, come to think of it.
For me, the book was OK I am glad I read this- there was many a time it made me crack a smile, but ultimately, I found I wasn’t eager to return to the story. Maybe because it was too close to the original? Maybe. And maybe this is exactly what will appeal to the wider readership about this retelling!

I really wanted to love this book because I’m a sucker for Alice in Wonderland stories, but this didn’t do it for me. 2.5 stars.
It felt like Alice didn’t do anything; things happened to her but she had no autonomy. It’s hard to connect to a character that has no free will. Unless this was supposed to be a commentary on mental illness in the 1800s and how powerless the patients were. I spent most of the book wishing the main character wasn’t Alice. Rosamund, the Queen of Hearts was crazy but she had personality and agency.
The instalove between Alice and Thomas was annoying. As was Alice's jealousy of other girls looking at Thomas. Their relationship was nonexistent.
The ending made me vaguely angry. I say vaguely because I didn’t care enough to truly be invested in the story.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When Alice came back from Wonderland, her tales of White Rabbits, Mad Hatters, and insane queens landed her in an asylum. She's 15 years old now and keeps trying to explain to her parents and anyone else who will listen that her stories are TRUE and that she is not insane. But nobody will listen. The doctors want to try an experimental treatment on her, but instead she escapes, returning to Wonderland. But, Wonderland isn't much better than the real world....the queen is still quite insane. Alice didn't expect to be asked to kill her.

This is an interesting sequel to Alice in Wonderland. I liked it for the most part, except for the very end. I love Lewis Carroll's original so I happily read this re-imagining. The story is well-written and very interesting. I couldn't put it down! In the end, I just found it a bit too dark and depressing. Alice being treated like she is mentally ill was just a bit much for me.

Interesting story. Awesome new vision for a sequel. But it does touch on some dark and disturbing themes. Public execution. Mental illness. Extreme medical procedures.

I would definitely read more by this author. Ever Alice is her first book.

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Red Rogue Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

I want to thank netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. It wasn't exactly up my alley, but I appreciated the whimsy, and I feel like it stayed pretty close to the spirit of Wonderland (especially the most recent movie).

This story takes place a few years after the original Alice in Wonderland. After returning home, Alice cannot stop talking about Wonderland and is institutionalized. With the help of the White Rabbit, she escapes back to Wonderland and into a plot to depose the Queen of Hearts.

The use of language is purposefully pretty strange. Lots of meanings are backwards, etc. And the setting is also strange, and from what I remember fits right in to the original story. The Queen of Hearts is as bloodthirsty and crazy as always, and we get to see a diverse cast of characters.

My favorite part of the book was the end - and not because it was finished, but because it went a direction I didn't see coming.

2.5/5 stars based on what I was able to finish. I had a very difficult time with this book. I wanted so much to like it due to my love of Alice in Wonderland but somewhere along the way, it just fell short. In the end, I ended up DNFing it for the time being. There is so much potential here but the magic and wonder of, well, wonderland just wasn’t there for me. Maybe some day I’ll pick this back up & try again.

An ARC of this book was provided to me by Netgally In exchange for an honest review.

Alice’s parents have left her in an asylum after her stories of Wonderland have them quite sure she’s mad. She’ll do anything to go home, so when her doctor suggests taking Alice to another facility for an experimental treatment to help her, she agrees. Upon arriving at the ‘hospital’, Alice becomes suspicious and afraid of the procedure, and in her panic, escapes back to Wonderland with the White Rabbit. 🐇

There she discovers the rabbit is part of an ‘above-ground’ movement to get rid of the Queen of Hearts once and for all. With Alice tasked with killing her, before too many heads can roll, she needs to navigate the bizarre ways of Wonderland and decide who she can really trust, and that includes the handsome Prince of Hearts.

This is a book I’m finding a little hard to rate – it was interesting and it kept the same ‘completely mad’ feeling as the original Alice in Wonderland tale, but at the same time, it didn’t quite capture me as much as I thought it would. It was a fun read and I appreciated that it maintained the quirkiness we all know and love of Wonderland’s characters, but it felt like Ever Alice relied too heavily on our prior knowledge of the original Wonderland, and gave us very little world building. There also seemed to be so many characters, that we didn’t really get enough information about any of them. It felt a little like they mostly just flitted in and out of the story. I do have to say I absolutely loved the ending though!

I feel like, although I love the idea of Alice in Wonderland, and all its characters, maybe if I went back and read the original story today I’d not be quite as enamoured with the kookiness of it. That probably affected my views towards this particular book, so if you still adore the original Alice stories, you could fall in love with this one!

H.J. Ramsay’s <i>Ever Alice</i> follows as a sequel to Lewis Carol’s <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>. At the start of the book, we find Alice in an asylum, where she’s been locked away for being unable to let go of Wonderland by the age of 15. Meanwhile, Rosamund, the Queen of Hearts, is chasing traitors from her home and kingdom (chasing them directly to the executioners ax). When the chance to escape comes in the form of the White Rabbit, Alice takes it immediately, at the cost of having to help take out the Queen. I was provided <I>Ever Alice</I> in exchange for a fair and honest review by Red Rogue Press via NetGalley.
Ramsay’s Alice is both on the edge of womanhood and the edge of still being just a child. Overall, the story, aside from a bit of murder, is on the younger side of young adult accessible. With Alice thinking not even truly of a kiss, but of vaguely feeling warm when she thinks of her romantic interest. Alice herself is surprisingly simple as a character, her wants and needs and lack of growth are clear and direct. Instead it’s Rosamund who’s the real attention draw for readers. She’s strong, but fallible, and while she doesn’t grow, we see her bend and sway and the way things could have been if only.
<i>Ever Alice</i> is a complicated book. Ramsay took on the task of truly delving into Lewis Carol’s world and language styles to what is unfortunately difficult results. There’s a great deal of inconsistency in the uses of negatives and positives and while it slowly evens out by mid book, it’s still highly distracting and not quite so easy to muddle through as with Carol’s original. Ultimately, the language structure detracts from the story rather than adds to it.
Overall, ending inclusive – which I won’t spoil here – I have to say, <i>Ever Alice</I> was not one of my favorites this year. I could have done without this particular trip to wonderland. That said, I hope to see more from Ramsay and will give future books a read.

In a world of the "sequel"/remake genre Ever Alice is an interesting take on it. In Ever Alice, Alice is now 15 years old and living in an asylum as her family thinks that her friend the White Rabbit is a psychic hallucination. The White Rabbit comes one day to take Alice back to Wonderland in order to help save everything.

The premise is very interesting and enjoyable. There are two POV characters, Alice and the Queen of Hearts. While the story does not make you like the Queen having her as a point of view character does give you a more well rounded view. The end of the story comes with a twist (or not depending on the type of reader you are) that gives this "sequel" a little bit of something different.

If you like this genre of book definitely pick this one up.

I thought this was a very clever rendition of the classic tale, although I would have liked more of an 'explanation' in terms of her being in a mental asylum. 90% of the book was set in Wonderland, so it all felt real and the lack of diagnosis for Alice's mental health really made it hard to see this as anything other than a 'novella' of sorts for the original.

*I received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

4.5/5

This story follows Alice, who has been put in an insane asylum by her parents after she first returns from Wonderland. As she's about to get a procedure done on her that could potentially fry her brain, the white rabbit shows up and offers to take her back to Wonderland and save her from the Asylum if she agrees to kill the Queen of Hearts.

I really loved this story. The writing itself was very reminiscent of the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the characters also felt just like the originals.

The story itself was interesting, and it took many paths i didn't necessarily expect. I really enjoyed my time reading this book, and absolutely recommend if you are a fan of the original story.

This was an interesting spin on a much beloved book of my childhood. The different points of view were particularly illuminating.

This book reminded me just why I love Alice in Wonderland so much, it was wacky, confusing and just a joy to read. If you love Lewis Carroll's version I'm sure you'll love this as it does keep you wondering, even at the end, just what is real and what is actually happening. It's definitely one I'll be buying a full copy of as soon as I can.

I loved this take on Alice in Wonderland and feel that the author did the original story justice. The twisty plot and it being written in a way that pays homage to the original story was something truly special!

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have been so excited to start reading Ever Alice. When I first came across this book I knew I immediately wanted it because I love all Alice in Wonderland retellings. As a kid, Alice in Wonderland was one of my favorite movies. Then when I got older I loved what Tim Burton did with the story as well. So on to my feelings of this book, I liked it a lot, but there were times where I found myself skimming over things. Maybe because I already knew the gist of the story. Some characters took different rolls and that made me sad, but overall I enjoyed reading this book. 

We follow Alice, who because of her story of wonderland has been put in an insane asylum by her parents. She has insisted that her adventures of Wonderland were all true, but not a single soul believes her. After being in the asylum for a while now and not getting better her doctor decides to take her to another asylum to get an experimental surgery that should get rid of her madness. At first, Alice is all for it because she just wants to have a normal life and get back to her family, but after seeing more that can happen to her during this procedure she decides she no longer wants it. With perfect timing, the White Rabbit shows up and tells Alice she has to come with him. 

Once she is back in Wonderland, which makes her feel so much better because now she knows she isn’t crazy, the rabbit and his friends have a mission for Alice. That mission is to kill the Queen of Hearts. Alice is torn because she doesn’t want to kill anyone but she also wants to help her friends. She decided to go undercover for them and help them in any way that she can. Once she gets closer to the Queen and others in the palace things get harder for Alice and she realizes things are not as they seem. 

I think H. J. did an amazing job bringing these characters back to life. I enjoyed most of the changed she made, except for 2. This was a fun adventure to follow Alice on and there were so many lovable characters. One thing that I absolutely loved was the incorporation of the Jabberwocky poem by Lewis Carroll. It is one of my favorite poems. My kids have even memorized it! So every line or creature taken from it and put into the book was definitely a happy for me. 

I recommend this book for anyone who has a love for Alice in Wonderland and honestly everyone else! Go out and read it and let me know what your thoughts were!!!

Have you ever thought about what happened to Alice after she came back from Wonderland? Well, certainly H. J, Ramsey has. In her debut novel, she will introduce us to a 15-year-old Alice that still believes in the existence of Wonderland and who is kind of obsessed with the White Rabbit. Because of this, her parents sent her to an asylum so she can be treated on her “delusional” behaviour.

After reading this summary, I knew I had to read this book. However, I have to admit that at the beginning I had a difficult time trying to visualize a fifteen-year-old Alice. Most of the time I still pictured her as a little girl, I would have appreciated a little help from the author to be able to picture her as a teenager. I guess maybe a little more development on her personality would have been of great support. Nevertheless, I dare to say that Alice’s character grows throughout the story, I saw the change, all of it. The Alice we are shown in the end is not the same as the Alice that we are introduced to at the beginning. I am sure you will notice it, too.

If you have read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you know that word games are a must. But I never expected to find any of them in this book and I was very pleased when I discovered that the author had included this resource to in her work. My favourite was when the Prince of Hearts asks Alice about the man called Eng that has a land named after him, this was golden.

At first, I was not content with the addition of the prince because it was implied that Alice would develop some feelings for him even before properly knowing him, she just started to feel love after seeing the prince’s portrait. I thought that if it were a mere physical attraction then that would have been more real, but then we have to remember that during most of Alice’s teen years she has been secluded inside a mental institution, and because of this she was not given the opportunity to actually experience and acknowledge the changes that you are supposed to when being a teenager.

In this book the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter work as the Queen’s advisors, which was the first surprise for me, I would have never seen this coming. We will also be introduced to Tweedledee and Tweedledum’s daughters, a pair of identical girls that work as the Queen’s chambermaids, and I certainly had a blast after meeting the brother of Humpty Dumpty. I would not like to add some spoilers but I must tell you that there is an unbirthday celebration, a very good one indeed.

How did Alice leave the asylum and goes back to Wonderland? This one is an easy question, right? I am sure you can imagine a way to go back to this extraordinary place. Why was she needed there? Well, you will have to read the story to finally know it, but all I can say is that the Queen of Hearts is having some issues with her reign and the presence of Alice is required. Will she come back to England in the end? Now, this is a tough one, if you were in Alice’s place, would you come back to your awful reality?

Even though I had some rough time in the beginning after I was able to finally settle in this new perspective of Wonderland, I enjoyed my reading and I definitely liked the book. As I have previously stated, I think that if we had a more detailed description of Alice then the book would have been a lot better. But please, keep in mind that this fact does not have a massive impact on the developing of the story. If you fell for Alice’s adventures as I did, then I do encourage you to read this book. In the end, you will be very surprised, I can assure you that the final revelation will leave you shocked. At least it did to me.

This just didn’t do it for me. I get what it was trying to do - another retelling but it just lacked any real depth for me. I could see some enjoying it but perhaps just not for me.

I really wanted to like this book.. I love Alice in Wonderland and I enjoy retellings of fairy tales. But unfortunately I didn't feel engaged to any of the characters and the story was slow paced. This wasn't my book..

The beginning of this book greatly reminded me of the TV show Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. Alice, after returning from her first adventures and finding that no one believes her, refuses to admit that they were a fantasy. Her concerned parents send her to an insane asylum. When the White Rabbit shows up, claiming that they need Alice back in Wonderland, she is eager to return. The Red Queen has gone even madder than normal, and is beheading Wonderlandians left and right. Only Alice can stop her. Their plan: kill the Red Queen.

There were lots of things to like about this retelling, from the quirkiness and whimsy that comes with any Wonderland story, to the familiar characters we get to meet again, with a twist. The White Rabbit here is named Sir Ralph, and the Dodo's name is Charles. The plot also kept me intrigued throughout. A personal favorite aspect of the story was a re-imagined trial for Alice.

One thing I felt was lacking was the pacing of the story. It really plods along. Alice doesn't do much, and the story is fairly flat throughout. It was also quite a bit darker than the original Alice, which some people may enjoy, but really wasn't my cup of (unbirthday) tea. All in all, I felt it was worth a read for fans of Alice in Wonderland, but casual readers may want to try something a little easier to get into.

An entertaining followup to the Alice books. Definitely one Wonderlanders should add to their collections. It captures the madcap quirkiness of the characters but is missing some of the witty whimsical soul of Wonderland.

Hiya bookish people!
I read this book extremely close to the deadline, I must admit. Ever Alice is the book I always thought I wanted, a sequel to my beloved Alice in Wonderland, especially since Wonderland has always been a source of amazement for me. Ever Alice is the closest book to Alice in Wonderland that I have ever read.
This book was written so well! The characters, the world building, even the different and topsy-turvy sayings of the characters! I fell very in love with this book, and had to think through so many different scenarios in my head, because the characters never seem to do what they are supposed to! Sticking very close to the original story, H.J. Ramsay even remembered that Bess smelt of pepper!
I did have two complaints though. As I always do, I am just insatiable, unfortunately! I was very confused by the plot at most times. Although we were given a general understanding of Alice’s commitment to the Aboveground organisation, I felt that this was more Rosamund’s story (The Queen of Hearts herself). We seemed to have a lot of time with Rosamund, and although it is very obviously stated that she is mad, I felt that the appearances of Thomas and Pedro were rather irrelevant or poorly explained rather than to show the fact that “look! I can prove she is mad!” It felt that the author wasn’t confident in her ability to present the character as ‘mad’.
Secondly, (AND THIS IS PARAGRAPH IS FULL OF SPOILERS) the ending made absolutely no sense? Everyone in the Queendom had tried to kill the Queen, so that means that Alice isn’t going to be prosecuted? And Thomas, the ‘love interest who failed’ who was the Queen’s son, just apologized for accusing only her? And are they together now? Plus, we get a flash to Alice in the asylum post-surgery, so I am assuming we just read a book full of Alice’s delusions? I have so many problems with this ending. (BTW that’s the end of the SPOILERS)
To summarise, I was reunited with one of my childhood favourites, however was left severely wanting near the end. I recommend this if you are good with open endings, but if you aren’t - like me - I would say that this version of Alice just isn’t for you, my friend.