Title: Unbirthday
Author: Liz Braswell
Published: 2020
Genre: Middle Grade/Retelling

Returning to the place of nonsense from her childhood, Alice finds herself on a mission to stop the Queen of Hearts’ tyrannical rule and to find her place in both worlds. But will she able to do so . . . before the End of Time?
Source: GoodReads.com

Writing a bad review is one of the worst parts of being a book blogger. I never want to offend the author or other readers, but not everybody will enjoy the same story. I went to this book with an open mind while excepting much. I read, and reviewed a different book in the “Twisted Tales” series, so I sort of new what to except. Going into this book, I knew it was going to be a fresh take on the Wonderland story, and hope it would instantly capture me. Unfortunately, nothing about this story worked. The writing style was geared towards a much younger audience, which being a middle grade is to be suspected. But there are some pretty spectacular middle-grade books that work for all ages.

The biggest issue I had with the story was that it was slow. I don’t mean slow for the first half of the book, and then it picks up. It was slow and boring throughout the entire book. I kept getting distracted, and tuning out while reading. I had to go back and reread pages multiple times. Truthfully, I wanted to DNF the book, but I felt like I had to see it through to the end. I’m not mad that I stuck with it, but I did want more from it.

I didn’t get the connection between Alice’s real-life and wonderland life. Speaking of Alice, she acted just as bratty and sure of herself as she did in the original story. But being 18 years old, you would think she’d grown up. It seemed that even the Wonderland characters didn’t enjoy her company. The plot of Alice having to save Wonderland from the Queen of Hearts could have been interesting if the villain was an actual part of the story. During Alice’s journey through Wonderland, the Queen didn’t appear until the final few chapters. She didn’t even say much or acknowledge Alice’s presence.

I wanted a whimsical re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland, and that wasn’t the case. The book didn’t hold up to Lewis Carroll original work, nor the classic Disney animated film. Honestly, Tim Burton did a better job retelling the story. One final thing to note this book is nearly 500 pages long—too long for most books, especially middle-grade reads.

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Until The Next Chapter,
Bunny