Title: Alice (The Chronicles of Alice #1).
Author: Christina Henry.
Format: E-book.
Publisher: Titan Books Ltd.
Page count: 283.
Release day: August 4th 2015
Genre: Adult, horror.
Rating: 2.5 stars.
What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)
In a warren of crumbling buildings and desperate people called the Old City, there stands a hospital with cinderblock walls which echo with the screams of the poor souls inside. In the hospital, there is a woman. Her hair, once blonde, hangs in tangles down her back. She doesn’t remember why she’s in such a terrible place-just a tea party long ago, and long ears, and blood… Then, one night, a fire at the hospital gives the woman a chance to escape, tumbling out of the hole that imprisoned her, leaving her free to uncover the truth about what happened to her all those years ago. Only something else has escaped with her. Something dark. Something powerful. And to find the truth, she will have to track this beast to the very heart of the Old City, where the rabbit waits for his Alice.
Rating:
Characters: 3/10
Atmosphere: 4/10
Writing: 7/10
Plot: 5/10
Intrigue: 4/10
Logic: 4/10
Enjoyment: 3/10
Average: 4.29 (which means 2 stars, but changed it to 2.5!)
My thoughts:
I absolutely love The girl in red (review here!), so I knew I had to read more from Christina Henry. Unfortunately this one was just not it for me..
I feel like I just did not connect to the characters nor the plot. In this story we follow Alice and Hatcher as they escape from an asylum. Throughout the story we learn, together with Alice, what happened to her before she went into the asylum.
The thing is, I just did not care for either Alice and Hatcher.. I did not like them, but then I’m pretty sure they were not supposed to be likable. Since they both had such a hard and difficult past.
And then I also did not really care for the plot. There was quite some killing, which I have nothing against, and sometimes it was ‘necessary’ for the story. But most of the time it felt very pointless, just killing for the sake of killing and to make the story more gory..
There is a lot of mention of rape, either directly or between lines. And I just felt very uncomfortable with this.. (of course it has to be uncomfortable..) Just be aware of this if you’re thinking about picking this one up!
BUT I really did like the writing! And since I did love her newer work, I will pick up The lost boy and The mermaid by Christina Henry! Just not the sequel to this one haha!
Sorry this one didn’t work out, I hope your next read is better!
Thanks 🙂
I didn’t like this one either — so much that I couldn’t even put together a review, so you’re doing better than I am! I didn’t care for the plot or the characters, and slogged my way through. But I also really loved The Girl in Red, and I really, really loved The Mermaid, so I’m not giving up on this author!
Ooh good to hear that you did love The Mermaid, I want to try that one next from her!
Haha, I think I had the opposite experience – loved this one, but did not care for The Girl in Red. I can see how it would be really hard to get into a book if you didn’t care about the characters though, and I just finished a book like that so I know the feeling!
Hahah really? Always interesting to see readers different opinions!
And indeed not caring for the characters makes it a bit hard to enjoy the story!
I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews as far as this author and her fairy tale re-tellings go. Enough to make me not overly keen on trying her stuff.
Nothing worse than not caring for the plot or the characters in a book.
I did reslly love her newest work The Girl in Red!
But indeed all her works get a lot of mixed reviews! Makes it hard to judge if you will like it or not!