Four Must-Read Books Based onĀ āAlice in Wonderlandā
I know I just finished my āArtists in Wonderlandā event, but Iām still in an Alice mood, and especially in regards to literature. So I decided to cover another topic in terms of Wonderland in writing: different books based on the āAliceā stories.
Of course, movies, video games, and TV shows have given us countless reinterpretations of the āAliceā stories and characters, but there have been just as many - and probably more - in writing. From stories based on the real-life events behind the scenes, to sequels, reimaginings, and prequels of the Carrollian classics, literature has provided an abundance of different takes on Wonderland. Whatās interesting is that - beyond childrenās picture books and such other things -Ā many of these reinterpretations take a darker and more adult stance with the story, creating unique lore and diving into the characters in a way Carrollās stories do not do. This is nothing new, of course, but literature can do this in a way that most screen-based versions either cannot or do not.
Now, there are numerous books based on Wonderland, like I said, and Iāve read my fair share. Today, however, I wanted to provide a short āmust readā list with four key books that I feel anyone interested in āAliceā should take a look at. Again, there are a LOT more than four. Some books I enjoy that I wonāt be mentioning here are The Splintered Trilogy, The Alice Chronicles, The Queen of Hearts Saga, Still She Haunts Me, After Alice, and Grin: The Unauthorized Biography of a Cheshire Cat. These are just to name a few that arenāt included here: all of them have their own unique merits and are worth looking up if you have time. These are just four books that I would classify as the cream of the crop.
I should add that I wonāt be including non-fiction books on the list, such as biographies, analytical or informational texts, etc. Iām specifically looking at works of fiction inspired by the stories. With that said, here are Four Must-Read Books for Alice in Wonderland Fans.
Iām starting this off with the most unique and arguably the most fascinating of the whole bunch. āAlice I Have Been,ā written by Melanie Benjamin, is NOT an āAlice in Wonderlandā story. It isnāt about the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, or any of the characters in the books. Instead, this is a piece of historical fiction that effectively tells the life story of Alice Hargreaves (nee Liddell), the young lady who inspired Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) to write the Wonderland books to begin with. The novel focuses on Aliceās relationship with Carroll, of course, but also just on her life in general, as she squares off her own desires and simple humanity with the fact that she is seen as someone she isnāt. In a way, the book is a lot like the movie āDreamchild,ā but while that film occasionally brings people into the fantasy of Wonderland and mostly focuses on Alice as an old woman, āAlice I Have Beenā sticks entirely to the real world, and traces her life pretty much from birth to death. Itās not a biography, as it IS written in the form of a novel, and does take some liberties here and there based on the writerās presumptions and the themes and ideas they want to play with. However, it does paint a very sincere and true-to-life portrait of the young woman, whose life story so many people never really paid attention to. If youāre more interested in reading about the actual Wonderland characters and world, then the other three books on this list are going to be more to your taste, but I felt I simply could not leave Melanie Benjaminās gorgeous story out of the running.
This book is part of a series by Liz Braswell, called āTwisted Tales.ā The series is published by Disney, and in each novel, a question is asked about a particular Disney movie. The novel then riffs on that question, usually by presenting a sort of AU or āWhat If?ā scenario, but sometimes by creating a new story, a prequel or sequel, to provide a new spin on the world and characters. The latter is the case with āUnbirthday.ā Admittedly, Unbirthdayās premise is not the most inspired: a grown-up Alice returns to Wonderland, and finds it has become a darker and more dangerous place than ever before. She thus joins forces with a group of freedom fighters to battle the Queen of Hearts and save Wonderland. This exact premise, in those two sentences, can sum up a LOT of different āAliceā works. And I mean A LOT: most of the more prominent darker reinterpretations of Wonderland follow that basic formula. This book isnāt the first, and it isnāt the last. So, what makes it special? One simple little thing: all other darker Wonderlands with this premise are essentially their own invention. They arenāt based on any specific pre-existing version of the stories, theyāre really their own thing, with their own special spin on the setting and characters. āUnbirthdayā is interesting because itās actually based on a very particular version of Wonderland, the Disney one. This makes the story unique, because we arenāt simply seeing newer, darker takes on the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, and other characters. Weāre seeing the Disney ones - the ones so many of us know best and are familiar with from childhood, beyond all the rest - being corrupted and twisted in various ways. Similarly, we arenāt simply seeing a grown-up Alice, weāre seeing the Disney Alice all grown up. Itās a bit like watching āSpider-Man: No Way Homeā versus āSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.ā Both are films with similar concepts at play, but they take very different approaches, and a big part of this is that one uses versions of the characters weāve seen before and have a pre-established connection with, while the other is totally original. The best part is that Braswellās writing is so meticulously handled, the characters really DO feel like those Disney versions, from the way they speak to the way they are described as generally behaving. If youāre a fan of dark Wonderlands, a fan of the Disney film, or both, check this one out.
This book by Marissa Meyer is a rare example of a prequel to the āAliceā stories. This is something that actually isnāt as common as you would think. Sequels to Wonderland and reimaginings of the story are pretty easy to come by, but prequels - stories that detail the world before Alice - are quite rare. I think this is mostly because, in the books, Wonderland is supposedly just a dream Alice had. And in many strict adaptations, itās left ambiguous, at best, how much of Wonderland was a dream and how much of it was real. So whatās the point in creating a backstory and lore to a world that doesnāt exist? Well, of course, these works base themselves on the idea it DOES exist, and while they are not common, they are out there. In my opinion, āHeartlessā is the single best Wonderland prequel Iāve ever come across. The story ostensibly tells the tale of how the Queen of Hearts - here named Catherine - became the fat, pompous, bad-tempered old tyrant we all know and love to hate. In other words, itās essentially āWickedā (the novel, not the play), but for the Queen of Hearts. And much like āWicked,ā it not only gives us the skinny on the main villainess, but also involves multiple other characters from the books, most notably the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Duchess, and the King of Hearts, although other characters show up here and there, too. The primary reason I think Meyerās book tops other prequels to the stories is simply this: with other prequels Iāve encountered, thereās always this sort of inconclusive feeling. Like, itās hard to imagine these characters becoming the ones in the Carroll stories. That ISNāT the case with āHeartlessā: not only is Catherineās petulant, furious, rage-filled personality perfectly understandable, giving a once comically cruel and violently nasty villain a sympathetic and complex persona, but other characters feel very natural in their progression from where they start off to where we next see them. Theyāre written in such a way that they really do feel like those Victorian caricatures of madness we all care about so much, while still existing in their own unique space. This, above all else, makes Heartless one of my favorite Wonderland-based books. Check it out if you ever wanted to know what life was like before Aliceās fall.
1. The Looking-Glass Wars.
Frank Beddorās āThe Looking-Glass Warsā Trilogy is, without a doubt, my favorite book based on the āAliceā stories. Itās another dark reimagining of Wonderland that, on the surface, has the same basic formula āUnbirthdayā and so many other stories have, but the way it interprets the world and the characters is totally its own, and wonderfully creative. The premise of āThe Looking-Glass Warsā is that the story we all know and love so well is a boldfaced lie: the tale begins when Alyss Heart - the Princess of Wonderland, rightful heir to the throne - has her parents killed and kingdom usurped by her evil Aunt Redd. With the aid of Hatter Madigan, her loyal bodyguard, Alyss escapes through the Pool of Tears to our worldā¦but because of some problems in-transit, Hatter is thrown all the way into France, while Alyss ends up in a slum in England. She is eventually taken in by the Liddell family, and meets Charles Dodgson, who writes a story inspired by the āwild fantasiesā she tells him about. This story, of course, becomes the āAlice in Wonderlandā we all know and love today. As time goes on, Alice forgets her old life and world entirelyā¦until sheās finally rediscovered by her people, and brought back (along with Hatter M.) to Wonderland, to join the resistance and take back the crown from her traitorous aunt. In essence, the first book is āThe Lion Kingā but with a Wonderland motifā¦but thatās only where the story starts, as the book would have two sequels, and not one, but TWO spin-off comic book series. I love the imagination and unique perspective Beddorās books have, and the way it reinterprets classic characters. Some of them - like Aunt Redd, Bibwit Harte, and Blue the Caterpillar - feel very much like the Wonderlandian characters we all know and love, just a bit darker than usual. Others - like The Cat, Hatter Madigan, and Dodge Anders (Aliceās love interest, based on the Dodo, of all characters) - are radically different from the ones we know and love, but thatās kind of the point. The way the books mesh fantasy and history, tradition and new ideas, and so on really is one-of-a-kind, and itās by far one of my favorite takes on āAliceā in general, and one that I wish more people knew about. I would love to see these books adapted to TV or cinema, or even to video games. Until that day, the stories stand on their own well enough. Admittedly, Iām not a huge fan of the comic book spinoffs I mentioned, but the original novels are truly fantastic. Read this trilogy as soon as you can.
