'From the greatest names in fantasy and horror comes an anthology of stories inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Join Alice as she is thrown into the whirlwind of Wonderland
'Within these pages you'll find myriad approaches to Alice, from horror to historical, taking us from the nightmarish reaches of the imagination to tales that will shock, surprise and tug on the heart-strings. So, it's time now to go down the rabbit hole, or through the looking-glass or… But no, wait. By picking up this book and starting to read it you're already there, can't you see?'
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There are books that have inspired generations. Whether through the original writing, film adaptations, video games, short stories, or parodies in other works, it's almost impossible to not have experienced some of that world that Lewis Carroll created. So many of his ideas have inspired other creators, and it's easy to understand why once you read the original books.
Wonderland from Titan Books collects together nineteen pieces of work that take inspiration from Carroll's work. Writers that include M.R. Carey, Jonathan Green, Angela Slatter, Rio Youers, and Genevieve Cogman, to name a few, use the original books to craft tales that span multiple genres, including horror, western, and sci-fi.
This is what makes Wonderland such a joy to read. The stories within span so many genre's and settings that it's almost impossible to find at least one that will leave you entertained.
There Were No Birds To Fly by M.R. Carey is an incredibly creepy horror tale, set in a world where nightmare creatures stalk the streets, searching for those that they are somehow connected to. Each creature takes on the form of their persons worst fear, and will keep following them until they can get close enough to kill them. The story follows a group of survivors, trying to make their way to a new hiding place, and sees them slowly picked off one by one by the awful entities. Just over twenty pages long, the story might be short, but Carey manages to craft a very realised apocalypse within these short pages, and you'll find yourself dragged deep into the horror.
The White Queen's Pawn by Genevieve Cogman also has a horror bent to it, but doesn't really throw the terror in your face the way Carey's story does. Instead she turns the story of Alice into that of an aged assassin, one who has some kind of mysterious connection to forces beyond our comprehension. The tale feels like an epilogue to her story, or a prologue to Lucy's story, and will definitely leave you wanting to read more.
Jonathan Green's story, The Hunting of the Jabberwock, has a historical, almost fantasy feel to it, and tells readers a story about the young adventurer Nobody, who travels to a small town to compete in the festival to hunt down and kill the vicious Jabberwock creature. Smoke 'em if You Got 'em by Angela Slatter changes Alice into a grizzled bounty hunter, working her way through the wild west looking for Mr Rabbit, who has been leaving a trail of bodies across the country.
Some of the stories feel much more like the original source material, and tell tales that have much more to do with mental health and raise questions about whether Wonderland actually exists, or if people are subject to madness.
It's hard to sum up a book that contains so many stories, with such different genres and feels such as Wonderland, it can be hard to go into detail without giving away too much of what happens in the tales, and you often feel like you can't possibly cover them all. What I can say, however, is that whether you've read the original books or not, or have any kind of familiarity with the stories, Wonderland offers such a range and wealth of talent that even if you don't enjoy every story offered here, you will find something to love within its pages.
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