Beyond the world of mortal man lies a place called Wonderland. A place of visions both delightful and dark, where marvels ride the winds and evils claim the shadows.

This might be one of my favourite anthologies I have read in a long time. It helped that the stories in it were retellings or continuations or inspired by the world of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

I always enjoy reading new takes on this classic, especially as it is one of my favourite books. I really thought that this was a great collection of stories and I thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories, some more than others. There are 19 stories in this anthology and each one is unique and imaginative.

Not all of the stories within this anthology used the character Alice or a similar, nameless girl/woman that falls down the rabbit hole. Some did use other characters as the focus of the story, such as; the White Knight, the Walrus and the Carpenter. Many often referenced or included many of the other characters in Carroll’s two books. Many of the authors took great inspiration from Carroll’s use of literary nonsense and used it within their stories. Which I thought was a great homage to the original tales as it brought the whimsy and nonsense of those tales into other stories that brings alive and makes it feel like it’s part of the wonderland world.

The stories that I didn’t enjoy as much I found that I just couldn’t connect to the characters as well or that the story took too long for me to understand what was happening. Sometimes I found that some of them were kept too vague which worked for some but not others. Some of them did make me a little confused until towards the end of that story when all was revealed and it made more sense. I liked that they had a sense of mystery about them but sometimes it was just a bit confusing. Which is why I feel like I can’t give this book 5 stars. Because even though I enjoyed reading it overall I didn’t enjoy all of the stories in this anthology.

But I would highly recommend you buying and/or reading this book, especially if you love ‘Alice in Wonderland’ re-tellings and stories inspired by Alice in Wonderland. ( )