Down the Rabbit Hole by Julia Crane (2016)
-NetGalley Review-
YA Fiction | Fantasy
Blurb:
“Down the Rabbit hole is a twisted tale of two sisters bound by blood and separated by magick.
Alice is not the lovable girl the stories depict. A lifetime of pain and illusion has left her disturbed. Unpredictable. Dangerous.
For years, she’s watched her twin sister – a girl born into light and destined for power – with great envy. According to the prophecy, only one of them will rule. Only one of them will survive.
What will Alice sacrifice? The sister she hates, the man she loves, or the innocent lives caught in her twisted web of magick?”
–Goodreads
pooled ink Review:
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy to review!
Loosely inspired by Lewis Carroll’s famous stories about Alice and Wonderland, Crane takes some well-known characters and gives them her own unique twist. Completely taking all we thought we know about Alice, Wonderland, the Mad Hatter, and the rest of the cast, Crane turns everything upside-down and inside-out. Unfortunately it didn’t quite work for me.
I admit I’m not a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland like many of my friends are, but even so I thought Crane began with an interesting idea that simply didn’t quite work out. The cover caught my eye and the blurb had me rather interested but the story that unfolded before me was not one that managed to impress me in the slightest. Well, it did contain a lot of imagination and creativity so I credit Crane on that, but it just…
The story felt rushed, for one thing. It kept circling and circling around a prophecy that only Alice seemed overly concerned with solving even after Lacie arrived. I just felt like Alice kept spinning and spinning like a top until suddenly with only a handful of pages left in the book she had a light bulb moment and came up with this completely dramatic convoluted impossible idea. It just seemed like an impossible stretch and I didn’t buy it.
Truly I feel that this book has an interesting foundation if only it had taken the time to let us become more attached to the characters, their lives, their feelings, and their world. 230 pages and I felt as if I only skimmed the surface as the story rushed to get from point A to point Z. The romances were almost instantaneous and weren’t given any time to show depth. I would have liked to experience more of Alice’s upbringing and how everyone perceived her. The prophecy felt both urgent and utterly ignored. We barely left the castle grounds, whether the Red Queen’s or the White Queen’s. I just feel like there is this whole world full of fascinating characters to explore but instead we were given only a glimpse of a small corner and a load of information was shoved into it in a very short amount of time.
Down the Rabbit Hole began with an intriguing idea but proved to be a light read that rather failed to captivate me. This story was definitely filled with imagination and unique twists on a well known tale but, fun though it was to read, I can’t help but wish for something more.
Cheers.
Purchase here: Down the Rabbit Hole
Meet Julia Crane!
Julia crane is the author of the Keegan’s Chronicles, IFICS. She has a bachelors degree in criminal justice. Julia has believed in magical creatures since the day her grandmother first told her an Irish tale. Growing up her mother greatly encouraged reading and using your imagination.
-Goodreads
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