This was an interesting take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which is climbing the charts to be one of my favorite retellings. In this story, the book exists, and Lewis Carroll escapes Wonderland when some dark magic killed half of the women, and turned half of the remaining half into men. Lewis was mad, and wrote the stories that skewed the truth of Wonderland with his insanity.
Allison witnesses her crush being shot in the face by a man with white rabbit ears, and she chases after him, falling down the rabbit hole into Underland, where she meets Tee and Dee, twin slaves that the King of Hearts has gifted her with.
The white rabbit and the king have smashed all of the drink me vials, so they set off on a long roundabout journey to find the king and the looking glass. They keep calling her The Alice and pissing her off by saying she’s the prophesied savior of Underland. It’s also infuriating how odd everything and everyone is here. She soon meets Rab, Lar, North, and Chesh who are all shifters, and the six men share with her that her line of women carry their magic inside them still.
They start to train her, but then one night something awful happens, leading to quiiiiite the cliffhanger. And as tempting as it is, I don’t know that I’ll continue the series. Allison is damaged and has trauma, but I didn’t love her character. I DID love Tee and Dee, though I could do without the rest. The premise is interesting enough I guess, and it was definitely fun and whimsical!