I think that this book, “The Wonderland Trials”, is an interesting story with some flaws. Despite that, I still think that it is a good book. This review may contain spoilers depending on what you count as a spoiler so you have been warned. First of all I think that the book does a great job with world building and character development. The world is described in enough detail to fully understand the scope and layout. The book also features a gripping and compelling story that makes you want to know more. Another interesting feature of this novel is the connections to Alice in Wonderland which served as a basis for the world and characters. Despite this, the story falls short in some departments. The first couple chapters lack the wonder displayed throughout the rest of the book. In order to use the slower pacing found at the start the author sacrifices the pacing later in the book. What should be the main focus of the book, the wonderland trials that start more than halfway through the book. Another problem is near the end of the book. The pacing of the entire story screeches to a halt and the plot from then on feels like broken ideas jumbled together. As you read through the jumbled plot at the end of the book it shocks you when the book just ends. Although it appears like a sequel is in the works that information doesn't make you feel better as a reader. Despite all of its flaws I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the world and story of Alice in Wonderland along with anyone who likes good world building.
About This Book
All Alice Liddell wants is to escape her Normal life in Oxford and find the parents who abandoned her ten years ago. But she gets more than she bargained for when her older sister Charlotte is arrested for having the infamous Wonder Gene—the key to unlocking the curious Wonderland Reality.
Soon, Alice receives a rather cryptic invitation to play for Team Heart in this year’s annual—and often deadly—Wonderland Trials. Now she has less than twenty-four hours to find her way into Wonderland where nothing is impossible . . . or what it seems.
The stakes are raised when she discovers players go missing during the Trials each year. Will she and her team solve the clues and find the missing players? Or will betrayal and distrust win, leaving Alice alone in a world of her own? Follow the White Rabbit into this topsy-turvy fantasy where players become prey, a sip of the wrong tea might as well be poison, and a queen’s ways do not always lead one where they ought to go.
