Alice and the Pillar's 8th installment in the series...
The Wonderland War has begun. The Inklings are chased by almost every country in the world. The Pillar's fate is unknown. Lewis and Fabiola are trying to help, and the whereabouts of the Six Keys is so close. Even closer than they think...
But the real question is about Alice. Is she ready for the answers she's been looking for? Is she ready to face her insanity?
Bestselling author of the Grimm Diaries and Insanity series. A traveller and collector of out-of-print books from all over the world, obsessed with the origins of folk tales and the mysterious storytellers who spread them. Many of his books made Amazon's Top 100 Customer Favorites in Kindle 2015 & Amazon's Top 100 kindle list. Cameron lives in Yerba Buena San Francisco California. When he isn't writing or collecting books, he is playing music or enjoys the silence.
The Insanity series is one of the longest book series I've ever read. And I did assume that this one would have been the last book. Alas, it is not. I did like the story and the flash backs, as it added some depth to the characters and explained a lot about the books. However, I couldn't help but think how different the story is from the first book (not in a bad way though). Alice has grown so much over the course of these books, although we still don't know who she is. A thing that still bothers me is the romance with Jack, as I find it a bit forced. So, overall, the book was okay. I always enjoy the way the author presents the story, with small chapters that travel from one character to another, giving us a round perspective. However, and this is the reason this book was rated with two and not with the original three that I was planing to rate it with, the book had some serious editing issues. I thought that it was my book only that was packed with grammatical errors, half written words, wrongly constructed sentences and even two chapters that appeared twice, but apparently there were other goodreads fellow readers that had the same problems. Which is a pitty as the rest of the books were fine up until now.
The Wonderland War has begun and The Inklings are being chased by almost every country in the world. The Pillar’s fate is unknown, but he’s presumed dead. Lewis and Fabiola are trying to help Alice and the March Hare find The Six Impossible Keys and figure out the most precious thing is. All the while, they have a spy in their midst, who can’t wait to report back to Black Chess. Will they figure everything out in time to save the world? Will Alice be able to handle getting the answers to all of her questions and remembering her secrets?
Mushrooms is the eighth book in Cameron Jace’s Insanity series. Wow! What a journey this installment was! It continues as Alice and the Inklings try to save the world from the war that the Wonderland Monsters want to wage and from Black Chess. Alice wasn’t the main focus in this one. Instead, we learned so much about the other characters, including their backstories and how they came to be like they are. It was action packed and continued Cameron’s knack for weaving in obscure facts about Lewis Carroll and from history. As always, you can really see how much work and research that go into his books. Our adventure with Alice and the others is almost over, and while I’m looking forward to seeing Alice get her answers, I’m simultaneously dreading have it all end.
I think it's the very first time I gave Cameron's book a 4 stars and not 5. I've ordered Mushrooms from amazon recently and I'm a bit disappointed of the paperback - page numbers are missing, there no table of contents, no "Other Books by Cameron Jace" section and section "About the Author" end with "He loves to hear from you: " and there are no emails, social accounts that appear in the kindle edition of the book which I also own. Also I was VERY distracted while reading, when chapter has "***" after paragraph and instead "***" in the paperback I had something like SPECIAL_IMAGE-images/blah-blah-blah.svg-REPLACE_ME. This thing was not only in one chapter and pissed me off. I own all of the 8 books and only Mushrooms has this typos and grammatical errors.
Despite all of this, I loved the Mushrooms. The last time I was two or even almost three years ago and it was fun and mad to come back in this insane world of Alice Wonder and Company. I missed Chesh and his antics. Chech the Pope was really drunk and cruel and it was unforgettable. I love this crazy character. What annoyed me a bit that Lewis and Fabiola knew what this precious thing is and didn't tell anybody and people keep asking and asking, and asking and when I (finally) found out what is it - well, it was wow. I didn't expected it to be so huge. The revelation was worth these waiting and annoying.
Oh, and Fabiola. I love this character more now. In this book you will know how she got her scars and WHY she got them. Spoiler: the Duchess is bitch. I hated her earlier, I hate it now even more. The same situation with Tom Truckle.
Looking Glass is going to be published on March (I believe) and that'll be the last book of the series. I'm a bit sad of it, but want to know how the story ends. Cam said that we will know why Alice killed her classmates in the bus (that was in the first book!!) and who's gonna win in Wonderland War. Can't wait to read it!
This is the first book in this series that I haven't given a 5 star. I honestly love the series and how many twists and turns there are. My only issue with this book is the huge amount of grammatical errors. Not just one or two but so many sprinkled all through the book. I had to re-read paragraphs several times because the wrong form of words or similar sounding words that have a totally different meaning were used. The past seven books did not have this issue. Grammatical issues aside, I loved the story. A lot of revelations were made. I loved the reveal of "the most precious thing". I have to agree with that being the most precious thing in the world. I almost laughed out loud when they found the keys. Talk about hiding things right in the open LOL! I was shocked about Carter Pillar. It is kind of obvious now that I have read all of the books so far. With so many reveals in this book, I can't help but wonder what is left for the final book in the series. I am both excited and sad for the final book to come out. It has been a wild and crazy ride so far. I will miss the madness of it all.
A good read but not my favourite of this series. The characters are still entertaining and their interactions fun but I felt this book was not as good as some of the previous books plot and pace wise.
I love, love, love this series however I was not overly impressed with this particular story. My ebook copy was so full of grammar errors there were times I had to stop reading it since it drove me nuts. I hope the conclusion is much better.
I really liked the premise of the story as always Cameron Jace weaves a good thread but it was let down by such awful editing and proof reading although not sure it was proof read at all! I don’t want to try to work out a sentence while reading in the moment so it was very jarring to keep coming across a spelling, grammar or just a whole sentence that made no sense I know it based on Alice in wonderland and that story is nonsensical but please, please someone make sure it reads right at least! That being said I am looking forward to the last one to see how it all ends as Cameron Jace is a clever writer and he deserves better editors.
Story got weirder and weirder as it progressed. Could handle that, but the atrocious and increasing grammar, spelling and continuity errors pretty much killed my interest to continue reading any more of his work. Readers shouldn't have to work to figure out what an author is writing, let alone what he is thinking.
This unfortunately is my least favorite book in a fabulous series. It is riddled with typos, grammatical errors, and missing words/homonyms which gives the impression that it was written stream of consciousness without re-reading for clarity.
The Wonderland Wars have begun, and pick up right where the previous book, Family, leaves off. What are the Six Keys, and what do they unlock? That is the mystery of this book that the Inklings aim to solve while the world around them has descended into chaos.
The pace of about 85% of this book was slow and a little repetitive. I found myself resonating with Constance, as if her childish impatience to the whole adventure of finding the mushrooms was written from my point of view. I think that the pacing is just a huge shock given the other books in the series, this was much more of a "slow burn," questions about "the most precious thing" being put off for later. The last 15% of the book was exciting and a page turner (especially the epilogue reveal!), which makes me wonder if the book would have been better served with a little trimming to reduce the monotony.
Even given this books faults, it is a great book in an even better series. It is the penultimate in the series, with the upcoming Looking Glass being the conclusion.
After the prologue, the book begins with the doubt and panic of our dear Alice Wonder. She fears the worst, as they are surrounded by manipulated, "sane" human beings. These people being lead by two familiar people who are not only a menace to Alice but also to Wonderland.
When all hope seems to be lost...hope, yet again, pulls through.
Until someone brings out the big guns.
Will Alice and her frabjous companions escape safely or will dark madness strike again?
~~~@~~~
Once they uncovered how to find the six keys, they are met with an otherworldly ally. She knew of their arrival and wished to help however she could. Alas, yet AGAIN, an old enemy takes charge of the situation and leads Alice to do one of the few things she is scared to...DRIVE A DAMN BUS.
Does it go well? Does Alice meet a fate worse than Death (mostly likely lol)? And WHO truly is The Pillar (which I have been asking myself with each fricken installment)?
~~~@~~~
This book is filled with more fleshed out information on the other characters while steering the madness ship towards the ending of the first series.
While my review may seem scattered like the Hatter, I tried my best not to reveal anything BIG because yet again, you will have way more questions than answers.
The eighth book in the Insanity series called “ Mushrooms “ was breathtaking . The ending left me speechless. Cameron Jace never disappoints with his novels. The novel picks up exactly where the last one left off , the entire book goes between each character and their story lines. You will learn more about the Pillar and who he is. As well as witnesses have Alice and the rest of the inklings find out what the most precious thing is. Overall the book was action packed and filled. With an incredible journey . Using the slang term tea ( secrets ) will be spilled throughout the book . The end is also the beginning and i cannot wait to read more.
The world is falling apart in violence. The Wonderland War seems to be on. Pillar may be dead, Lewis may be very sick, the March Hare may have the keys to fixing everything if he can just remember something important and there's a lot of people trying to kill Alice and the Inklings.
There are 6 keys to find and it seems everyone is after them. Only the March Hare knows where to find a clue to the keys which may be keys and may not be keys. Then Mr. Jay gets to hurt someone who is supposedly dead, the Cheshire gets to beat up someone and, to top it all, there's a pretty strong earthquake.
A lot of shooting, a lot of dying and a lot of mystery. The excitement is building.
This book started off slow for me and didn’t catch my attention immediately like the others did and there were some errors. HOWEVER, I am not complaining. CAM has done it again, ladies and gentlemen. By the end of the story, I was hooked yet again and I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the last and final book to this amazing series. It is a bittersweet moment that this series end but I do feel that it is much needed. I NEEED to find out how to save the children.
I really love Jace’s books! I just wish he had better editors it takes away from the story sometimes. However, the reason I enjoy his Alice series is because he does a lot of research into the story itself, Lewis Carroll, the periods in history the original story takes place in. The lexicology of certain words such as madness and nonsense. It’s a fun read as you navigate Alice and Co., and try to figure out all of the mysteries happening at once.
The story's dialogue and action came across as rushed. For me, it read extremely choppy.
Also, I bought the print edition in January 2019. While I was reading it, I noticed multiple editing errors. One being links with no images within the pages of Mushrooms.
They start off....
SPECIAL_IMAGE....
and end with
REPLACE_ME
Seeing the broken links, aka links with no images, is highly distracting. I sent the author a message regarding them.
I've been waiting a long time to read this novel. I had read books 1-7 in this series in pretty rapid succession. I felt like this book helped tie up some of what felt like incongruencies that I felt between the earlier novels and 7. Jace picks up pretty much right where he left off in book 7 as he starts book 8. Additional layers are added, with more explanations of why things are happening and who people are.
This book is not a stand-alone, but well worth it. It takes you a magnificent ride with many ups and downs. No one is who you think they are and their motives are such that even the bad guys mostly make you feel bad for them. I love this author. His retellings of your favorite fairy tales will make you rethink all you knew about them.
This book was great as far as the story goes. I love the series. It seemed a bit rushed though. There are a lot of grammatical errors and parts where he calls characters by the wrong name. If the story had not been so good, I probably would have stopped reading it. I still would recommend it.
There's hardly a page without an error! I was starting to think the words were clues to something but i finally decided that the entire book was dictated to a speech to text program and then never checked for accuracy. The story is great, by the way, and I can't wait to read "Looking Glass"!
I love how the series is coming full circle and the details of the plot are evolving to provide closure. The only downside was duplicated chapters which made me think I had accidentally jumped back on some of the pages, and a large amount of misspelled words. Still a great read.
I'm just so in love with this series. Please give it a try, I've never been bored with a single page or even put the book down. I read them within a few hours and the only negative is that I wish they were longer.
I have loved every book written by this man and I believe I have read everything he has written, the Insanity series is my favorite. I hope you go back to Wrighting the Grimm tales, soon.
The characters are so well written and the storyline is captivating. Cam is an excellent author and you should definitely read from the beginning of the series. I can't wait to start reading the next book!
Ich liebe diese Serie! Ich kam wieder schnell in die Story rein, fieberte mit den Charakteren mit (sowohl von der guten als auch von der schlechten Seite) und fand es sehr spannend bis zur letzten Seite. Kann es kaum erwarten, dass große Finale zu lesen.
Every Insanity story is a delight. Alice continues to progress, and the details in the story grow with each telling. Our poor author mist be mad by now too keeping track of all the twisted ends!